For the gaming setup and the home office alike, the chair beneath you is every bit as important as the gear in front of you. Let’s face it: you probably spend as much time in that chair as any other chair in the house. For me, I am firmly planted in the chair at my desk for the majority of every day. The Canadian company Blacklyte Inc. has put forth their offering for your sitting pleasure, the Blacklyte Athena, and a pleasure it is.
The Blacklyte Athena gaming chair has a sturdy metal frame and is designed for the user to be able to sit in it for up to 24 hours in total comfort. As is the case with any chair that you are shipped, it needs to be assembled. The process was simple, with clear instructions and well-laid-out hardware. The assembly was completed in about 15 minutes. Each individual piece of the Blacklyte Athena is well-constructed and the material on the seat and backrest is velvety smooth. No part of the chair’s design feels superfluous.
The Blacklye Athena gaming chair comes with a memory foam head pillow and lumbar support. Both are incredibly comfortable, especially the lumbar support, which shapes the chair to fit your body. I do wish, however, that there was something to secure the lumbar pillow to the chair because every time I stand up, it falls over, and I inevitably sit on it. The head pillow, while comfortable, doesn’t come down low enough for this short king (5’7”) due to the shape of the chair where it attaches, so it doesn’t sit at the base of my neck where I want it to be for maximum comfort.
The flexibility of the Blacklyte Athena is great. Adjustments can be made at every point. The armrests can be adjusted to move forwards and backwards, up and down and at angles, both inward and outward. The Athena’s recline can lay you back up to 168 degrees, I guess so that you can grab a gamer nap? The multi-tilt system tilts the whole chair back smoothly, and the 4-stage hydraulics smoothly raise and lower the seat.
What’s most important about all of these adjustments, though, is the small increments at which you can change each feature, meaning that you can easily customize the chair to your own exact needs. The greatest joy of these adjustments is the ability to make them without that heart-attack-inducing first adjustment when you try to recline or tilt the chair. You know the feeling that I am talking about, the one where you go to push yourself back a little, and you fall all the way back. The transitions are so smooth that you are going only as far as you want to go, never further and never all of a sudden.
The Blacklyte Athena comes in three different colours: black, white and pink. The chair we received was white. Since this usually goes in someone’s room or office, there is no problem with a white chair. My chair sits at my desk near my dining room. I was worried about what this could mean as far as keeping the Athena pristine. After only a few days, my nightmares came to pass when my daughter, with salsa on her finger, touched the head pillow. The good news? It cleaned up with no issue and still looks as good as the day I got it. Crisis averted.
“The durability of the Blacklyte Athena has been wonderful. Again, with the bulk of my day in this chair for a couple of weeks, there is literally no wear and tear on the Athena.”
In addition to being easy to clean, the Blacklyte Athena’s Skinsense fabric is incredibly breathable. Even after hours in the chair, I have never experienced any hot spots on the seat, and my skin has remained cool and sweat-free. Even smoother than the fabric is the glide of the five wheels. It moves very well on any surface. It moves around on my carpet effortlessly, whether I am in it or moving it around. On a hard surface, though, it glides to the point where it feels like it is hovering. The wheels are all lockable if you are worried that it glides TOO WELL, though.
The durability of the Blacklyte Athena has been wonderful. Again, with the bulk of my day in this chair for a couple of weeks, there is literally no wear and tear on the Athena. The cushioning is still in great shape, and the armrests are padded in such a way that they are comfortable but aren’t puffed out too much to be something that can be worn down. The buttons and levers all over the chair are in fine form. The chair comes with a three-year warranty, but in my experience with chairs, both higher and lower end, this doesn’t feel like a chair that you’ll need to worry about failing you.
The Blacklyte Athena retails for $499 USD, which is under the typical price of similarly built chairs from some of the more popular brands, like Secretlabs. It looks every bit like many of the best-rated chairs on the market, but more importantly, it feels like it. The Athena has style and comfort, with the quality to back it up.
