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Ultimate gaming furniture playtest - Part 3
After a break of several months, MSXBOX-WORLD is proud to review another contender in our Ultimate Gaming Chair series of articles.
For those of you that may not remember we originally reviewed the The Fatboy and foam filled Lovesac back in August and September. Sumo Lounge, a maker of urban beanbag furniture heard about our Ultimate Gaming Chair series and sent us their Omni to review.
What I hope will help make this review abit more credible for you the reader, is that I have owned an Omni for over a year, purchased with my own cold hard cash. So while the new Omni was a welcome addition, I already had a verdict long before Sumo Lounge contacted us.
Let me start by saying Andrew, the owner of Sumo Lounge is abit of a marketing genius. If you go to the Sumo Lounge website you’ll find a page with literally hundreds of reviews of the Omni chair, free samples sent to bloggers and sites like MSBOX-WORLD. Almost every review piles high praise on the Omni beanbag chair.
There is a very good reason for this praise and it’s not because the chair was free. As the owner of an Omni who actually bought one I can tell you why the praise is universal. Put in the simplest of terms the chair is one of the most comfortable things you’ll ever sit in. And this my friends lies the genius of Andrew’s marketing of the Sumo Lounge brand … he already knows how comfortable the Sumo bean bag is, and therefore can confidently send out these samples knowing the chair is made of win.
I originally bought an Omni Sumo Beanbag chair after reading some of these reviews, many coming from blogs I trust and newspapers I read. It was my prime choice of gaming chair for almost a year.
The chair itself is made of a sturdy nylon material and comes in your choice of 10 different colours. The inside of the bag is filled with virgin (the very best quality) polystyrene beads. Polystyrene beads are what make beanbags as comfortable as they are … tiny little balls of space age type styrofoam balls which allow the bag to conform to every contour of your body. It’s a different type of comfort from a mattress or couch, it’s the comfort of having every inch of your body supported, and the entire chair contoured to you.
The Polystyrene beads are both the main strength and weakness of the Sumo Omni beanbag. While polystyrene beads give the Omni it’s distinctive “uber comfortable” feel, they also decompress over time. This means you will need to order extra filling (Sumo Lounge can ship extra fill) to top up your bag every eight months or so. One bag of fill should last you a year before you need anymore. The fill itself is easily put into the bag, and the opening is protected with both a sturdy zipper and army grade Velcro to ensure nothing spills out onto the floor. Having to buy extra fill might be a problem for some folks if it weren’t for the amazing comfort of the bag itself … a comfort you can’t get from any other type of chair. And the cost of the Sumo Omni is literally peanuts … 129 dollars US for North Americans and 79 pounds in the UK. Compared to the cost of a couch or even a loveseat, the Sumo Omni becomes a very economical seating solution even factoring in the cost of having to top up the bag occasionally.
It wouldn’t matter how inexpensive the bag costs though or how comfortable it is, if it wasn’t good for gaming on one’s 360. And let me tell you the Omni ranks right up there with the best gaming seating has to offer to humanity. You can pound the chair into many different positions, and sit in it for hours upon hours of pleasurable ache free 360 gaming. One of the great things about the Omni is that everyone is going to have a different “favorite” position they feel comfortable in … and the beanbag is versatile enough that you can experiment to find yours. You’ll see from the pictures I’ve included in this review that my wife and I preferred to squash the beanbags down into traditional like chairs with comfy back support.
One thing I’d highly recommend, if you do decide to get an Omni Beanbag, make sure you also grab an Ottoman to stretch your legs on. The Ottoman is also available on the Sumo Lounge website and really does “complete” the Omni beanbag experience.
Space may be an issue with the Omni and Ottoman, particularly if you have a small apartment, however if you’re willing to move things around you may be able to make it work. And if you have a gaming den space set up in the basement or a large room, the Sumo is perfect. Even in smaller rooms or apartments, the Omni Sumo is so light you can pick it up and toss it into a storage closet when not using it. It’s also handy having seating you can easily move from room to room when needed or for big parties. I guarantee you that the Omni will become a conversation piece as well.
On a final note, I think that it’s fair I address the inevitable comparisons that will come up when folks look at my Fatboy and Sumo Beanbag reviews side by side. As you will note they look damn near identical. There are, however, subtle differences.
The Fatboy is made of a slightly thicker nylon material and is about an inch longer than the Sumo Omni when laid out on the floor. I also found The Fatboy didn’t decompress as quickly as my Omni Sumo. All of this however was negated by the fact that the Fatboy costs almost double the cost of an Omni Sumo Beanbag. The Omni Sumo is far more affordable even when factoring in the cost of fill over a year … and let’s face it, that is money that could be better spent on 360 gaming. Hell, Sumo Lounge even covers the cost of the shipping!
The bottom line is that in terms of price, quality and value you really can’t get better than the Omni Sumo. For gamers on a tight budget, but looking for some cool looking, versatile, comfortable and most importantly affordable seating, the Omni is the way to go. There is no doubt that on the dollar to value scale, Sumo Lounge has hit the sweet spot of what customers are looking for.
I suggest you guys read the hundreds of reviews found on the Sumo Lounge website, and also take into account that my opinion is based on actually having bought an Omni and used one for over a year before I ever imagined I’d be reviewing one. I’ve had time to really test out the product on my own dime and I can tell you all that I consider it to have been a great investment.
You can check out the Sumo Omni at:
www.sumolounge.com - North America (ship to both US and Canada)
www.sumolounge-uk.com - United Kingdom
Posted By: Scott Strickland
Date: 2007-11-21
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