Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair review: comfortable, stylish and ready for action

If you're keen to treat yourself to one of the best gaming chairs around then the Duelhawk Ultra might well appear on your radar. Duelhawk are a relatively new, up and coming gaming chair maker and this is one of two models currently available from the company.

It certainly ticks a lot of boxes that you would want to tick when you're shopping for a gaming chair: cushioned lumbar and neck support, adjustable tilt and armrest positions, premium-quality materials, and so on (which we'll get into in more detail further down).

Our comprehensive Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair review should provide all you need to make a decision on whether or not this is the gaming chair for you – and be sure to also check out our best gaming monitor, best gaming keyboard, and best Xbox controller lists.

Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair: design and setup

We found the Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair to be well packed and it took us about half an hour to assemble all told – there are hex keys in the box so you don't need anything else, and Duelhawk is kind enough to put in a pair of thin gloves as well. The instructions are straightforward and clear, and we don't think you'll have any issues getting this set up, especially if you've assembled a gaming chair before.

You can get the Ultra model in three different finishes: jet black polyurethane leather, dark grey "nebula" fabric, and light grey "moonrock" fabric (which was the model we had in for review here). When it comes to gaming chair aesthetics, this is more of a personal, subjective preference, but we like what Duelhawk has done with the design here, and there are plenty of curves in all the right places.

While there's nothing particularly innovative about the design of the Duelhawk Ultra, perhaps that's for the best. You get both a head pillow and a lumbar cushion which you can use or not use as you like, and the main pieces of the chair slot together quite easily. Should you lose the instruction card that comes in the box, you can get a digital copy from the Duelhawk website.

Constructed from a steel frame, the chair gets up to a maximum height of 200 cm (78.7 inches), and can take a maximum weight of 120 kg (that's 265 pounds) according to its spec sheet. Armrest to armrest the chair has a maximum width of 70.1 cm (27.6 inches), while the wheelbase diameter comes in at 69.9 cm (27.5 inches). The chair has an overall approximate weight of 145 kg (so 320 lbs).

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Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair: features and comfort

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Overall, the Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair is a pleasure to occupy: comfortable and with plenty of support for every part of your body. We spent a good few hours sitting in the Ultra – not just gaming but also working, unfortunately – and found no problems with aches or strains at the end of prolonged periods at the desk. It feels solid and durable, and we'd trust it to stay reliable for many years to come.

We would like to see a bit more height adjustment to get further off the floor, but then this is a problem we have with chairs in general. With 93.98 mm (3.7 inches) of height adjustment, Duelhawk says the chair is suitable for those between 5 foot 3 and 6 foot 3 inches in height – we're towards the top end of that and we feel a bit close to the floor even when the chair is as high as it will go.

Nevertheless it's hard to find any major faults with this chair. All of the materials used feel like premium picks, and it's really straightforward to get the chair exactly how you need it. We'd especially like to mention the adjustable lumbar support on this chair, which lets you easily add extra support for your back via a dial on the side of the backrest, so you don't need a separate lumbar cushion.

Another interesting feature here is the tilt mechanism, which reclines from the front of the chair rather than the middle – in other words, you can have the back of the chair recline while still keeping your feet on the floor, which is preferable if you're in the middle of an intense gaming session.

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Duelhawk Ultra gaming chair review: price and verdict

Take a quick look at our guide to the best gaming chairs and you'll see that the asking price for the Duelhawk Ultra – £339 at the time of writing – is definitely on the competitive side. You'll find more expensive chairs and cheaper chairs out there, so this is in something of a sweet spot, and you can look up the latest deals online for this particular model via the widgets embedded in this page.

All in all we have been very impressed with what Duelhawk have put together: It's a chair that's comfortable and supportive for hours on end, it's very customisable, and it looks the part too, and you can't really ask for much more than that. If you're in the market for a new gaming chair at the moment then it's well worth checking out what Duelhawk has to offer.

The various adjustment mechanisms for tilting, lowering and raising, and armrest position don't feel quite as slick and smooth as they might be, but we're talking about very minor drawbacks to what is an excellent chair. There's also a slightly cheaper Hawk model available, which is smaller and uses softer foam, and uses a lumbar cushion rather than the integrated support.

One other point is that Duelhawk prides itself on its customer support: everyone who buys a chair gets a call (or an email) for feedback, and the young company is committed to continuing to improve its products. That's not something that you get with every gaming chair manufacturer out there, and it might be another factor in your overall decision when it comes to upgrade time.

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