Steelcase Karman High Back Review

Steelcase has been 1 of the biggest names successful luxury bureau seating for decades, and the institution precocious released an update to its fashionable mesh Karman exemplary that has gamers successful its sights. This caller exemplary features a high-back plan with immoderate genuinely eye-catching mesh weaves. It's well-made and premium-priced, starting astatine $1,030, but if you’re looking for tons of adjustments similar the Gesture, Leap, oregon Think, you mightiness beryllium near wanting more.

Steelcase Karman High Back – Design and Features

The Steelcase Karman High Back is simply a striking mesh machine chair. The Karman successful wide was already an eye-catcher, with its intricately woven fabrics, unsocial colour combinations, and salient contours, and the High Back takes those features and builds connected them. It’s 1 of the astir absorbing and, successful my opinion, best-looking mesh chairs you tin bargain close now.

While the archetypal was a modular mid-back bureau chair, the High Back adds a sculpted backrest and integrated headrest. When I was initially approached astir doing this review, the typical explained that the institution had gamers successful caput with this release. In a way, it's casual to spot why. It's surely a seat that you tin thin backmost successful with a controller and crippled comfortably. On the different hand, determination are capable colour options and the plan is minimalist capable that it could easy acceptable into an bureau setting. It's a good-looking plan that tin enactment good successful a assortment of environments.

Like each Steelcase seat I’ve reviewed truthful far, it offers impeccable physique prime and a good attraction to detail. Across the board, the Karman High Back feels good made and designed to last. It uses a metallic framework with a flawless decorativeness (color-matched to the colour strategy of the chair) and high-quality open-weave Intermix cloth mesh. The worldly is simultaneously soft, flexible, and intelligibly robust. It feels brushed to the touch, similar accepted cloth chairs, and not plasticky similar galore mesh ergo seats. Time volition person to tell, but upon adjacent inspection, it doesn't look similar it would beryllium prone to fraying similar a much accepted thread mightiness beryllium with specified an unfastened weave.

I person to admit that the caller precocious backmost plan initially had maine worried. Its salient contours near maine wondering if it would really lucifer my backmost oregon if I would find myself huddled successful the mediate without really being supported. Thankfully, the backrest is designed to let the mesh to flex and lucifer the nonstop contours of your back. That said, I would inactive urge picking up the optional adjustable lumbar accessory. While the mesh is capable to flex, the lumbar enactment provided that small spot of other enactment my little backmost needed for agelong hours astatine my desk.

This caller exemplary comes with an integrated neckrest. Note that it isn’t a headrest and doesn’t enactment arsenic one. It's tiny and thin, lone moves up and down, and positioning it nether the caput forces you guardant uncomfortably. Shifting it beneath the neck, however, allows the contoured precocious backmost to enactment the caput overmuch much naturally. That besides means that the existent headrest is wholly non-adjustable. I'm blessed to spot a cervix support, but if a headrest is simply a marque oregon interruption diagnostic for you, I would highly urge investigating the seat earlier picking 1 up for yourself.

While I personally recovered the seat comfortable, I was amazed by the deficiency of adjustments it offers successful examination to different starring options successful Steelcase's line. You tin set the backrest crossed 4 levels, but 2 of these options are locks (upright and constricted tilt). The different 2 connection much oregon little hostility erstwhile you recline. It’s the aforesaid LiveBack strategy I remarked connected successful my reappraisal of the Think (2025).

The different adjustments are constricted and basic. You tin determination the neckrest up and down, the armrests up, down, in, out, oregon tilt them to antithetic angles, and set the chair's height. If you prime up the optional adjustable lumbar accessory, you tin set that up and down too. There are nary knobs to set the lumbar unit oregon different good adjustments. It's conscionable 2 tabs that determination a plastic-backed cushion up and down down the mesh. Seat extent is besides locked.

Steelcase does connection different benefits, however. There's a dedicated cushion beneath the spot rest, bringing the champion of some worlds betwixt accepted and mesh chairs. The edges of the seat are besides soft, truthful you won’t request to interest astir it digging into your skin. Steelcase besides nails the cushions connected the armrests. They’re steadfast capable to consciousness made-to-last but brushed capable that you tin really thin connected them without giving yourself a sore elbow. The contouring of the seat is besides good done too, with a waterfall borderline connected the seat, and curves to usher you into a due seating posture.

The Karman whitethorn besides instrumentality the barroom arsenic Steelcase's best-looking chair. Unlike astir mesh options connected the market, you person the enactment of getting translucent oregon opaque fabric. The second does a bully occupation of masking the information that it's adjacent a mesh seat astatine each until you look closely. There are plentifulness of options to take from excessively truthful you tin find a colour strategy that matches your personality. All told, determination are a twelve antithetic schemes to take from, arsenic good arsenic 2 Intermix Shift options.

Intermix Shift is wherever things truly get absorbing for the aesthetics of the chair. It's named specified due to the fact that it weaves unneurotic 2 antithetic hues of mesh to make a gradient that shifts depending connected however you’re looking astatine it. As of this writing, determination are 2 options: red-blue, and green-gold. I was sent the reddish and bluish version, and the shifting, reactive gradient is downright beautiful.

Other customization options are much limited, though. Unlike the Think and Amia, you can't customize the colour of the basal oregon framework of the chair. Instead, that's dictated by your cloth color. You tin take betwixt 4D armrests, tallness adjustable armrests, oregon nary armrests astatine all, which, coincidentally, is wherever that basal terms of $1,030 comes in. You tin besides take betwixt wheels for carpet oregon hardwood floors with oregon without instrumentality hubs.

The cheapest mentation with armrests (height only) and the adjustable lumbar volition acceptable you backmost $1,269. The astir costly version, which includes opaque fabric, 4D armrests, the lumbar enactment add-on, and hubless wheels for hardwood floors tops retired astatine $1,584. With its comparatively constricted adjustments, this draws into question the worth of the chair. While there's nary mistaking its quality, if you truly privation your seat to beryllium 100% tailored to you, it simply whitethorn not beryllium the champion enactment (even if it is the champion looking one).

Steelcase Karman High Back – Performance

Over my years of investigating chairs, I've travel to admit that I mostly similar fabric. I've sat successful galore mesh chairs and recovered them to beryllium precise comfortable, but betwixt the two, I similar the consciousness of brushed cloth and supportive cushioning versus the breathable web of mesh seating. This is wholly subjective, of course, but I wanted to stock that information due to the fact that immoderate of my conclusions are going to beryllium based connected that idiosyncratic preference, truthful support your ain tastes successful mind.

The Intermix Shift cloth is excellent, and since it's a weave of antithetic colors, it stands to crushed that the different variations of Intermix would beryllium arsenic brushed and comfortable. There is thing plasticky astir this mesh. It feels precise bully to interaction and has a softness that I don't typically subordinate with this benignant of chair. At the aforesaid time, it maintains the benefits of being flexible and breathable, thing that the spot cushion, surprisingly, doesn’t truly hinder.

The plan of the spot allows it to beryllium importantly much comfy than different mesh chairs I've tested. One of its defining qualities is that it has a precise lightweight cushion straight nether the seat, allowing you to person a cushioned seating acquisition portion astir others simply consciousness taut nether your backside. It doesn't instrumentality up the full aboveground of the seat, truthful it doesn't rather emulate a much accepted foam seating experience, adjacent from Steelcase itself, but compared to emblematic mesh designs, it's a large improvement.

The backrest takes immoderate getting utilized to, but I did yet travel astir connected it. The archetypal mates of days were a learning acquisition arsenic I adapted to its contours. The precocious backmost is acold much curved than immoderate different seat I've tried. Once I was utilized to it, however, I came to bask it. You person to unbend and settee successful and get that neckrest positioned correctly for everything to travel together.

Head enactment is good acknowledgment to the adjustable neckrest, but I privation determination was immoderate adjustability successful its support. The neckrest does good positioning your caput truthful that the contoured backmost tin capable the relation of a headrest too, but it falls abbreviated of a genuinely adjustable headrest similar the 1 recovered connected the Gesture.

The armrests are amazingly little adjustable than connected the Think and Amia – determination seems to beryllium little width adjustment, and they don't look to determination rather arsenic smoothly either. They get the occupation done, and practically speaking, the differences successful scope aren’t that large. The brushed but durable padding connected the armrests is simply a overmuch much important quality, and Steelcase nails it. Even so, it's hard not to consciousness similar they are a measurement down from those different models. It was capable to accommodate gaming with a keyboard and rodent oregon a controller easily, however, and could beryllium positioned to enactment my arms implicit extended typing sessions too.

The deficiency of adjustments is disappointing. I would person overmuch preferred to spot a recline tensioner alternatively of the LiveBack strategy included here. LiveBack is based connected assemblage weight, according to the company, but successful practice, it truly conscionable provides you with debased oregon precocious absorption erstwhile leaning back. I personally recovered the higher absorption mounting to beryllium excessively large and the little absorption mounting to beryllium excessively loose. I yet settled connected the debased absorption enactment truthful the seat didn't consciousness similar it was warring me. But I wasn't capable to dial successful an nonstop mounting for my value and sitting habits.

The adjustable lumbar enactment besides seems woefully overpriced for what it is. You'll person to wage upwards of $50 to person it added to your chair. And portion it does work, it truly seems similar a cushioned cloth portion with integrative structural support. My cognition present is astir apt influenced by the chair's constricted adjustments wide since it’s functional and doesn’t look peculiarly anemic oregon prone to breakage. But this is an expensive chair and it’s unusual to spot it truthful bully successful immoderate areas and constricted successful others.

The wide content is that portion the Karman High Back is comfortable, well-made, and features respective unsocial plan elements, the biggest selling constituent of this seat is that it looks incredible. You are making immoderate wide trades successful signifier implicit functionality, and if that's what you worth successful a luxury seat, much powerfulness to you. Given what's disposable elsewhere successful Steelcase's line-up and the wider market, I privation determination was much present to truly marque it your own.