Cooler Master Hybrid 1 Gaming Chair Review: Comfy and Professional

The Hybrid 1 is a no-nonsense office/gaming chair with breathable upholstery and a wide seat that’s surprisingly comfortable.

Comfortable upholstery

Extra wide seat

Lumbar support adjusts for height

Recline, rock, or tilt

Armrests do not lock

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Cooler Master’s Hybrid 1 is a gaming chair for both work and play, with outstanding adjustability and support for keyboard warriors. This is a chair designed to adjust to your sitting style, whether you need to sit forward to type, lean back to game or relax cross-legged while chilling out to video.

Some gaming chairs are designed with style before comfort, hoping that you’ll only game for a few hours after work. This is not that chair. It’s a bit bland in the fashion department, with plain black upholstery and a bolted on head rest. But that’s also its strength. This chair is here to do the work and will look professional in an office while blending quietly in the background for Zoom calls.

Priced at $449 at the time of this review, the Hybrid 1 is a great chair for gamers of various sizes who spend a lot of time at their computer. Designed to compete with the best gaming chairs in terms of comfort, it has a steel frame, aluminum base and super wide foam filled seat that can handle body types up to 330 pounds and 6’3” tall. It’s extremely adjustable, allowing smaller humans to mold the chair to fit their needs.

The Cooler Master Hybrid 1 gaming/office chair arrives in a 69 pound box with a slim manual and a hex key.

Chair assembly is fairly straightforward: Snap the wheels onto their sockets and mount the piston onto the wheelbase, then slip four bolts onto the backrest to hold it all together. The headrest is already attached for you.

The Cooler Master Hybrid 1 computer chair is built for both office use and gaming, with a combination of deluxe ergonomic features in a low-key design. It only comes in black, with a simple accent of purple stitching and a simplified Cool Master logo. It’s perfect for the PC gamer who doesn’t want their home office to look like a Twitch stream.

The back is constructed of breathable “MuscleFlex” mesh to keep you cool, while the seat is filled with ventilated high-density foam. The elastic mesh has a bit of give, so it can flex to your contours.

The chair has a steel frame and aluminum base and is rated for people up to 330 pounds. The smooth PU leatherette has an easy to clean surface.

The Hybrid 1 comes in one size, but it is extremely adjustable, allowing it to be used by people of various heights. For example, the lumbar support moves in four directions so you can place it exactly where you need it as well as how much you need it. I found this to be extremely thoughtful as many chairs are only designed for one body type.

The armrests move up and down, forward and back, and pivot. The one thing I didn’t like was the armrest’s back and forth motion didn’t lock in place and had a tendency to move when I got up from the chair.

The Hybrid 1’s headrest looked like it was swiped from a car. Rather than a foam pillow tied on with elastic, the chair has a firm, bolted-on headrest. Its curved shape can be slid up or down to suit your height. I found this to be delightfully different from other chairs I’ve tested with pillows that flop out of place.

The seat is wide and mostly flat, so instead of trying to cup your tuchus, it allows you wiggle room. Let’s face it, some of us have a bodacious backside and this chair acknowledges that. This is also one of the few chairs I can comfortably sit cross-legged in, which is great since my feet don’t touch the floor. Yes. I’m short.

The chair can rock, or you can lock it into one stable position. It also reclines to a nearly flat 180 degrees if you need to catch a nap at your desk.

The Cooler Master Hybrid 1 is a professional chair for grown up gamers who also use their computer for mundane work tasks. Its ergonomic features and breathable upholstery are designed to get you through the work day then come back for play. The sturdy frame, flexible design and ample seat can accommodate people of various sizes and body types, from petite to linebacker.

The Hybrid 1 retails for $449, which is a solid investment in your home office/gaming den. Its extremely adjustable elements eliminate confusion over which size chair you should get – this one will fit.

Denise Bertacchi is a Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering 3D printing.

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