Bo Moore
Steelcase is one of the most respected brands in the world of office furniture. Having been in business for 113 years, it’s safe to say that it knows a thing or two about making a quality office chair that can also excel for everyday use and gaming. The Think is one of the most popular chairs in the company’s lineup, offering a minimalist but refined appearance with plenty of customization options to make it your own. It also features several signature Steelcase features, like its LiveBack back support system. Starting at $1,008 and extending to $1,175, it’s a premium option and best suited for those who don’t mind losing some features in exchange for its elegant style.
Steelcase Think – Design and Features
The Steelcase Think is a mid-back office chair that is subtly but definably a cut above most other options you’d come across in an office. It’s subtle enough that you might not notice at first glance, but when you look close, there are lots of small details that highlight that there’s something more going on here. It’s not your average Staples computer chair.
There’s an elegance to its design. It’s the kind of thing that is easy to miss or quick to write off, but that actually makes a noticeable difference in its quality. The backrest, for example, has a natural contour to support your lower back and promote good posture. It’s not just the outward curvature, however. It also is scooped to guide you toward its center, as is the seat, which tapers off to a waterfall edge to promote proper circulation to your legs. In this way, it subtly guides you toward proper positioning, better posture, and better comfort over time.
The version I’m testing here is a simple black and gray and would fit right into any modern office. In fact, I was recently walking past the local realtor’s office, which happens to have a bay window that looks directly into their conference room. Around the desk were eight identical chairs to the one I configured myself. I think it looks great. Kind of a sleeper chair. One that you can initially ignore but then sit in for a while and quietly claim as your own from the conference room. Not that any of those upstanding realtors would do such a thing.
You don’t have to stick with such low-key colors, however. In true Steelcase fashion, you can customize about every part of its design to match your personal tastes. There are a total of 30 different colors spread across three fabrics for the upholstery. A handy online configurator allows you to see each one on a real time 3D model, so you’re not shopping blind. Fabric differences can be a bit harder to tell, but helpful tooltips break down the differences between each. You can also choose from three different frame colors (black, grey, and white). The wheelbase and armrests can also be customized from a selection of a half dozen more hues. Each change carries a higher or lower cost, but the range is between $1,008 and $1,175 from what I can tell, or you can save a little bit of money with a preconfigured version through Amazon, though you’re not buying directly from Steelcase when you shop there.
No matter which you choose, it’s important to know that you’re buying into the upper echelons of desk seating. The Think exists in a higher category than your average big box or gaming chair. Steelcase, with its long history in industry, has been a staple of office life around the country for decades. They’re made to be used, and heavily, all day, every day. Because of this, they offer impressive 12-year warranties and build quality that you can immediately tell is robust and made to last. Just as importantly, they’re designed to be ergonomic and supportive, warding off typical office place injuries and the aches and pains that can come from long hours seated at a desk.
The Think checks all of these boxes, though I have to admit there are fewer adjustments than I expected here. The Think is not the company’s flagship chair. It exists in the middle of the stack. It’s still very comfortable and can still be customized to match your body, but you’re missing a couple things, like the highly adjustable armrests of the Gesture. And compared to the Amia, which I reviewed previously, I do find it to be a touch less comfortable (though both are a far sight above most gaming chairs).
It takes a different approach to ergonomics and support than either of its sibling chairs, however. Its backrest uses a LiveBack system, which lines the frame with flexible strips. Any time you twist, stretch, or lean, the backrest is able to flex and move with you, keeping its support in place. A more rigid seat, like a cold cure foam gaming chair, isn’t able to do this. Similar movements cause your back to shift and be unsupported at intervals. A separate lumbar support runs on rails and can be moved up and down to target a specific point of curvature unique to your body. Visually, the system looks interesting and helps it stand out from other chairs, and there’s a silver badge on the lumbar that looks quite slick.
It also uses weight activation for tilt instead of using a tensioning knob to adjust its resistance and how much the backrest pushes back against you. This is an important feature and one that isn’t going to work for everyone. Below the seat, its single knob can be twisted to one of four settings. The first locks the back upright. The second provides a small amount of tilt before hitting a wall. The third unlocks the recline completely and provides stronger resistance, while the last is essentially a free tilt.
You can also adjust the depth of the seat with a lever under the seat edge. You can easily slide the seat in and out even while seated, which is refreshing after testing so many mesh chairs that force you to get up to slide or to awkwardly scoot back and forth, trying not to let the casters roll.
Other standard adjustments are also present. A lever on the recline knob unlocks the gas piston to adjust its height. The armrests can also be moved up and down, in and out, angled, or adjusted for depth. They have the same free-floating design as the Amia and Leap where the cushioned pad can slide along the top of the armrest to make adjustments. There’s no lock, however, and they’re fairly easy to shift by accident.
The build quality is expectedly excellent. Its metal frame is heavy, durable, and well-finished. The backrest uses plastic for its flexors, but it’s necessary for their function and they feel solid and shouldn’t break with normal use (and are covered by Steelcase’s warranty, just in case).
I also love the upholstery. The three fabrics to choose from span from exceptionally soft (Era) to still-soft but felt-like (Billiard Multi-Use) for added robustness. My sample was sent with the latter and the quality is just exceptional. From the impeccable stitchwork to simply how nice it feels to touch and sit on, it’s excellent. The seat padding isn’t exceptionally thick, but I found that it hid the frame well so I couldn’t feel it in normal use (for context, I’m about 175 pounds). The armrests are also padded in soft but rubbery foam to prevent elbow soreness from leaning.
Taken as a whole, it’s less adjustable than some of the other chairs in Steelcase’s lineup but is still very good and has a lot to appreciate, especially if you spend long hours at your desk.
The final thing to note: assembly. It’s minimal and just about anyone can do it within five minutes. The chair comes almost completely assembled straight out of the box. The only portion that needs to be assembled is the wheelbase, which is as simple as pressing the casters into place, dropping the gas cylinder in, and putting the top of the cylinder into the slot in the bottom of the chair. I was able to do it by myself with ease and most other users should too.
Steelcase Think – Performance
I’ve been testing the Think in regular rotation for both gaming and day to day work at my office. Throughout that time, I’ve sat in it for everything from quick play sessions to extended hours of work. There’s a lot to love about this chair, and I’ve enjoyed it and found it quite comfortable, but it’s not the one I would choose from Steelcase’s lineup if I was shopping today. That may be different for you, so, allow me to break down my impressions a bit further and explain that while also acknowledging that this is a high-quality chair that has rightly earned its place as one of the company’s best sellers.
Testing chairs for a living, I’ve been able to experience a handful of options from the brand at this point, and I think it’s safe to say that it has ergonomics dialed in. The backrests on each of the four Steelcase chairs I’ve tried at this point have all been very supportive with pitch perfect contouring that allows the small, rather simple lumbar support to dial in its focus right where you need it the most. It’s a bit like pulling focus on a camera: the smart contouring of the backrest gets you most of the way there while the adjustable lumbar piece brings its support into clarity.
That’s the case here on the Think, though this type of design inherently means that the experience will be a little different between users. Someone that has a long back may find the experience different than someone with a shorter one. The chair has other things going for it that could still make it a good fit for taller users, including that adjustable lumbar slider, but the point is that when compared side by side, it’s pretty likely that different individuals will lean toward different models based on exactly how that back is contoured. While I can sit in the Think all day without discomfort, there’s something about the Amia that just matches my body a bit better, making it my preferred chair.
There are a number of things about the chair that I really enjoy, however. The armrests, like the Amia and Leap before it, are excellent. There’s a nice height range to support different sitting postures, and the floating cushion caps are easy to adjust and have a wide range of movement to get them exactly where you need them to be. The Gesture is still the hands down winner in that department with its monitor arm like armrests, but these are excellent and soft enough that you can actually use them for extended periods of time when necessary. I also found that, while I wish I could get them even more out of the way, they do depress far enough that I could have an acoustic guitar in my lap without them making me feel crowded.
For gaming, it works exceptionally well. The seat has flexible sides, so you can cross your legs underneath you and adjust your sitting position without feeling any hard edges pressing into your skin. The adjustability of the armrests also makes transitioning from a mouse and keyboard to a controller effortless. Most importantly, the cushioning, fabric, and support are all aligned to make a comfortable long-term sitting experience that doesn’t fatigue your body, even if you’re gaming for several hours at a time.
Like all ergo chairs, however, it’s important that you take the time to dial it in. That includes the height, armrests, seat depth, and lumbar. The one area where you can’t do that is the tilt tension, and that’s a shame. While Steelcase asserts the benefits of the weight-activated responsive recline, what it amounts to in practice is less adjustability. I found that the tighter recline setting worked well enough, but I would have preferred a bit more pushback and that wasn’t an option.
The ideal here is that the chair should essentially make you feel like you’re floating. You can lean back naturally to any depth and the chair will hold you there, not fighting to push you back and not just falling back as far as it will go. For this to be the case, it really needs to be matched to each individual user, and the Think limits you to two settings.
While support and build quality are clearly the most important qualities in a computer chair, I do think it’s worth highlighting its appearance. The Think is a much sharper looking chair than the Amia, which really doesn’t look all that different from any other office chair. The open backrest and silver plate on the lumbar adjustment, as well as the stitching on the backrest, really do make it look and feel more premium. And when you’re paying $1,000 or more for a chair, I think it’s reasonable to expect classy looks.
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