Boulies Master Max 2024 Gaming Chair Review

The Boulies Master Max 2024 gaming chair offers a plush and ergonomic experience that can be customised to fit and adapt to your seating preferences. With configurable lumbar support, 4D adjustable armrests, a class-4 gas lift, and a dynamic tilt function, the chair is built with comfort at the forefront of the design. We’ve tested the Boulies Master Max 2024 fully to assess if this budget gaming chair is a comfortable and affordable alternative or whether its low price point comes at the cost of some sacrificed features.

For quite some time, gaming chairs have been associated with the idea of luxury while coming with the significant caveat of being quite expensive. While many well-known brands, such as SecretLab, Razer, and Corsair, have continued to grow the gaming chair space with a range of comfortable and sophisticated designs, they remain unaffordable to the average gamer.

This is where Boulies comes in. Since 2015, Boulies has been on a journey to provide lavish gaming chairs that utilise high-quality materials while maintaining an affordable price point that caters to a wide range of gamers on a budget. With the Master Max 2024 being their most expensive option, we’re keen to see how this gaming chair holds up against veteran manufacturers in this space.

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Specifications

The Boulies Master Max 2024 gaming chair comes in three different types of upholstery material, which ultimately affects the chair’s feel and look. The Ultraflex PU is an affordable faux leather that uses plastic instead of animal hide. The Water Repellent Fabric 2.0 is a breathable material specifically treated to repel water and prevent absorption. The Water Repellent Fabric 2.0 is a unique offering from Boulies, while the Ultraflex PU and Nappa Leather are more traditional materials seen with gaming and office chairs from other brands.

We specifically picked the Water Repellent Fabric 2.0 for this review to test its hydrophobic properties. The PU leather has the same MSRP as the Water Repellant Fabric 2.0 at £399.99, while the Nappa Leather jumps up to £669.99. The Master Max is the more expensive variant of the two Master models due to its increased size. The features remain the same across both variants, but the dimensions of the Master Max are bigger to accommodate those with larger frames.

Boulies recommends this chair for gamers standing at 180cm – 200cm, which means anyone below 6′ will want to consider the standard Boulies Master, and anyone above 6’7 will need to take a look at other chairs. The Boulies Master Max has 15 degrees of tilt, both forwards and backwards, providing the ability to rock or lock the chair at a specific angle.

The base of the Boulies Master Max uses a relatively standard five-star design, housing five caster wheels, making it easy to move around in an office or home gaming environment. Boulies also offers a two-year limited warranty on their chairs, which is subject to exception if the chair is modified or purposefully damaged in any way. However, prospective buyers can pay for an extra year during the initial purchase, which is a nice touch if your chair is going to be subject to heavy usage.

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Boulies Master Max 2024 Design

At first glance, the Boulies Master Max 2024 gaming chair offers a highly sophisticated but minimalist design that blends in well with other office chairs. The slate blue variant is bright but not overkill, adding a touch of colour to what could be a relatively bland-looking chair.

The Master Max features a black strip down the middle of the chair and two additional black strips of fabric on the sides of the seat. I like the contrast, but a fully blue chair that embraces the gamer aesthetic would have been nicer.

The Master Max’s seat and backrest are contoured to accommodate different body shapes. The chair features a tailored, rounded edge throughout, eliminating sharp corners and promoting proper posture. I’m a big fan of the seat, which is considerably wider than the standard Boulies Master chair and other chairs we’ve reviewed, such as the Thermaltake ARGENT E700.

Two 4D armrests, with eight levels of adjustability, sit on the sides of the Boulies Master Max. The armrests are crafted from a high-grade aluminium alloy, ensuring stability and long-lasting support. The arm pods are made from soft rubber, which feels comfortable on the elbows and forearms.

The lever located at the right side of the Master Max adjusts the backrest angle from 90 degrees to a full-length recline. While I can’t imagine many gamers would want to sleep on this chair, the configurable backrest further contributes to the ergonomic design, allowing you to find an ideal and comfortable seating posture.

The reclined angle of the Boulies Master Max chair is quite extreme, but the extra level of adjustability is ideal for those looking to find the best sitting angle.

The Master Max also comes with a head pillow, which can be attached to the chair using elastic straps. While adding this pillow will appeal to some, I’m not a massive fan of it. The Master Max is comfortable without it and doesn’t need the additional padding, especially when playing around with the lumbar support.

Looking at the stand and base, the Master Max utilises a robust five-star aluminium base that feels extremely strong. It also comes with a class-4 gas lift, which is the best-rated class for stability and safety, ensuring the chair can lift and hold a reasonable amount of weight.

Boulies Master Max 2024 Assembly

The Master Max arrives in a well-packaged box explicitly arranged to maximise efficiency. The large components, such as the five-star base and tilt adjuster, are wrapped in a small layer of polystyrene, while any smaller, more fragile items have been carefully packaged with bubble wrap. The box itself is pretty small compared to other gaming chairs we’ve looked at, making it easier to carry around if necessary.

Regarding assembly, the Boulies Master Max 2024 is effectively divided into six main parts: the backrest, the seat, the tilt adjuster, the five-star base, and the armrests. Some additional smaller parts, such as the plastic side panels and plastic rings covering the gas lift, are also included. Overall, I feel there aren’t many parts to assemble that would overcomplicate the build for the average person.

The vast majority of the screws that need to be installed have already been screwed into the bottom of the chair, which reduces the amount of packaging required. Mounting the tilt adjuster to the bottom of the chair was very easy. An included hex tool is located in the packaging, which saves having to fiddle around in a toolbox to find the right thread size.

After getting the tilt adjuster, armrests and base assembled, the backrest needed to be screwed into the two metal plates situated on the side of the seat. This was the most challenging part of the installation process and would have been more straightforward with a second pair of hands. Once the screws were threaded on both sides, the seat needed to be placed onto the gas lift.

Getting the Master Max 2024 built took less than an hour. I feel the instructions could have been more precise and included more steps, or better yet, a QR code for a video would have been perfect. However, there aren’t many ways to build a chair, so once the first part of the assembly process was done, the rest of the steps were relatively intuitive.

Boulies Master Max 2024 Comfort

My initial concern with the Water Repellant Fabric 2.0 was that it would be uncomfortable. However, the Master Max 2024 is incredibly comfortable despite looking more rigid and less smooth than the leather upholstery options. The curved frame feels comfortable regardless of your sitting angle, and the adjustable backrest ensures good posture.

The wider seat design is a nice touch that I commend Boulies for. Gaming chairs are often geared towards those with slimmer frames, so sacrificing seating space is a commonly shared quality. However, with the Boulies Master Max 2024, I don’t feel boxed in or restricted by the shape.

All of the seat’s adjustable elements are easily accessible, so changing any of the chair settings is relatively easy. My only qualm about the adjustability is the force needed to pull the height lever. You have to pull the height lever quite hard to get the Master Max to go up or down, which is odd, considering the tilt lever doesn’t require as much pressure.

The lumbar support dials are useful, but finding the right level of support will require some tweaking. Both dials allow you to raise and lower the lumbar support for each side, which isn’t a standard feature with other cheaper chairs. The lumbar support made the Boulies Master Max more comfortable for prolonged sessions.

I swapped out my Herman Miller Aeron to test the Boulies Master Max, and I’m very impressed with how ergonomic this chair is despite its price. The level of customisability that the Master Max offers is effectively unrivalled compared to other gaming chairs at a similar price point.

One of the main qualities of this particular variant is that the upholstery uses a water-repellant fabric that is designed to prevent absorption, so any liquids should run right off the chair. To test this, we spilt water on the chair in a controlled fashion to see what would happen.

We were pretty impressed with the results; the hydrophobic treatment used on the upholstery does repel water. After spilling a small amount of water, the vast majority of the droplets scattered across the surface of the seat and weren’t absorbed. However, a couple of spots on the chair did absorb the water, which isn’t ideal. After a quick wipe, most of the spillage disappeared. While the water resistance on this chair isn’t perfect, it should prevent major absorption with small spills.

It is worth noting that despite our results, Boulies notes that the hydrophobic treatment will wear down over time, but the speed of this degradation depends on the overall usage of the chair.

Features We Like

4D Adjustable Armrests

The Boulies Master Max 2024 features two armrests with eight levels of adjustment, including height, angle, forward and backward position, and left and right position. The angle configuration of the armrests is particularly useful because I needed to change the armrest position when switching from typing to gaming.

The armrests are incredibly comfortable, too. Other gaming chairs tend to incorporate stiffer armrests that don’t feel great over prolonged usage, but the soft rubber design of the armrests on the Master Max ensures comfort over long periods of time.

XL PU Caster Wheels

The Boulies Master Max 2024’s caster wheels feature a PU strip down the centre, which makes them suitable for wooden floors. Furthermore, the wheels feel incredibly smooth; moving the Master Max around requires minimal effort, and it is great to see that some additional thought has been put into the design of the wheels.

Enlarged Seating Space

As we mentioned in the performance section, the Boulies Master Max 2024 has a wider seat area than the standard Master chair and other gaming chairs we’ve reviewed in the past. The increased width is highly accommodating for those with larger frames, and the extra space to shift and move around while remaining comfortable is a feature that other manufacturers should note.

Features We Don’t Like

Stiff Height Adjustment Lever

My only major issue with the Boulies Master Max 2024 is that the height adjustment lever takes a fair bit of force to move. Although I don’t imagine most people will constantly change the chair height, the fact that the lever takes some force to engage is somewhat frustrating.

Conclusion