Hbada X7 Chair Review: AI-assisted comfort

Hbada chairs seem to have taken over my social media in recent months, with influencers trying out all of the models the brand has to offer. Well, we’ve got the flagship Hbada X7 Smart Ergonomic chair in for testing to see if AI truly can improve your posture and offer you a more comfortable sitting experience while you're working and/or gaming in the X7.

The Hbada X7 looks like it belongs on the set of a sci-fi television series with its blend of a solid aluminum frame, segmented back supports, and mesh cloth coverings. The chair is fully customizable to fit a good range of body types and heights, and it comes with a remote control for operating the battery-powered AI functionality that controls lumbar support, a massage function, a heat function, and even fan cooling in the seat of the chair for keeping your rear-end cool in hot weather.

With a listed price of $1,499.99 and a sale price of $1,234.99, the Hbada X7 is competing with the most premium chairs on our best gaming chairs list — chairs from established companies such as Steelcase and Herman Miller. The X7 is still cheaper than chairs like the Herman Miller Embody (which is currently $1,688 on sale). Also, to my surprise, I found that the Hbada X7 actually did seem to improve my posture while I was sitting at my desk — not from the AI lumbar support, however, but from eliminating my options for bad seating habits (I'll go into further detail on this later).

Assembly

Arriving in two separate boxes, the Hbada X7 chair came in a large and very heavy package, whilst a tiny little box shipped the battery separately. Opening the boxes revealed excellent packing and foam supports for the parts inside, and thank goodness, because the box had been absolutely battered in transit. After emptying the box of all of its contents, the separate parts of the chair were all in excellent condition and individually wrapped. There were no scuffs, scratches, or marks on any of the parts of the chair — exactly what you expect when ordering a premium product such as this.

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The only parts of the chair that came pre-constructed were the seat, footrests, and the chair back segments, which were already attached to the extremely heavy (and reassuringly solid) aluminum frame. I would definitely recommend two people for putting the X7 together, especially when mounting the seat to the gas lift and wheels. After removing all the protective packaging from all the separate pieces, you’re left with just the assembly. All the bolts and an Allen key are packed on a card back, and a separate screwdriver is also included — everything you need to put the chair together. Overall, construction was simple, taking around 30-40 minutes to put together. The instructions were easy to follow, with the only fiddly bit being the threading of the power cable from the seat through to a port on the backrest after bolting the two together.

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Specs

Design and Construction

Hbada’s X7 chair is somewhat similar in design to a few ergonomic chairs on the market, but only at first glance. The built-in footrest and back panel, made up of two pieces and a headrest, is nothing new — but what they have done, they’ve done very well. The armrests have a ridiculous amount of configurability, with 720° omni adjustable positions, a lumbar support area that has padded wings, and enough movement to allow you to move in the chair without the lumbar support feeling wobbly. It also has an efficient cable-controlled seat adjustment mechanism for raising/lowering the seat, adjusting the tilt of the chair, and moving the seat base backwards and forwards.

The seat is covered in a DuPont meshed fabric that allows you to stay cool and comfortable when sitting in the chair for long periods of time. Hidden behind the mesh and installed in the base of the seat and the lumbar support is one of the major selling points of the X7 — its electronic smart features. These features include fan-driven air cooling in the seat of the chair that blows air through the mesh cloth covering and an automatically adjusting lumbar support that uses an “AI” processor to calibrate pressure sensor readings on-the-fly to allow the lumbar support to constantly support your lower back, dual graphene heating pads with red light therapy, and finally, dual massaging disks.

This is a pretty heavy chair, coming in at around 83.78 lbs (38 kg), and it feels solid, too. There’s no loose fit, and no wobbles. The seat and gas lift support up to 330lbs (150kg) in weight, with ratcheted adjustability on the armrests, lumbar, backrest, and headrest. The seat width is 20.4 inches (52 cm), but it looks and feels narrower due to the shape. The armrests move up and down, tilt upwards (3 ratchet adjustments), swivel 360° at the first joint, and also swivel another 360° at the second joint (hence the 720°), with the tough foam rest moving backwards and forwards. This allows for far too many configurations and is both a blessing and a curse.

Powering the electrics of the chair is a chunky 5200mAh lithium-ion battery pack that slides into a drawer that’s part of the construction of the seat. Once inserted into the chair, you can charge the battery via an included charger and magnetic adapter. I had issues getting the battery to charge via the adapter, so I had to take the battery out and charge it via the USB-C port on the battery. Even though I couldn’t get the charger to work, the fact that it was a magnetic attachment made sense, as I forgot to unplug the charger from the chair the first time I tried charging it — if it wasn’t for the magnetic connection, I would have definitely damaged something.

Comfort and Adjustments

The Hbada X7 is a very comfortable chair if you sit in it correctly. The chair's maximum height was perfect for me as a six-footer — but for anyone taller than me, this chair could fall a little short. I had to have all the parts of the chair ratcheted to their maximum positions to feel comfortable. Once configured, however, I could sit in the chair for hours. The footrest feels a little flimsy when extended, but it was more than strong enough to hold the weight of my legs (although it did flex slightly). The padding on the footrest is nice and soft, and it supported my legs without discomfort.

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You can adjust all the electronics of the X7 with a remote control that’s attached to a retractable power cable; the control then sits in a little moulded crevice and magnetically attaches to the chair. The remote control has a small screen and individual buttons to power on the controller, adjust the smart lumbar (on/off - manual adjustment), seat fans (low, medium, high vent, off), massage (low, medium, high, off), and heat (low, medium, high, off). You can also turn on or off a “sedentary” alarm that will automatically start massaging your back after you’ve been sitting in the chair for 45 minutes. The sedentary alarm feature caught me off guard the first time and made me jump when the chair just started randomly massaging my back. You can disable this feature if you don’t feel it is needed.

To get the AI lumbar support to work correctly for you, you must first configure the sensitivity. If you are a smaller, lighter chair user, you want it to be a little more sensitive so that it picks up your movement. If you have a bigger, heavier build, then you need to turn the sensitivity down, or the lumbar will move far too easily and offer you no support.

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The massage and heat function of the lumbar support is the best part. The rotating massage disk, combined with the heat pads (113℉ - 129.2℉) and Infrared light therapy (86℉ - 100.4℉), really does work. I was super impressed at how much heat the chair put out and how good it felt. In the reclined position, this chair will put you to sleep in no time. It was great for alleviating some of that midday back stiffness.

Bottom Line

The Hbada X7 is a very comfortable gaming chair with some excellent features. My concerns are mainly for the life of the battery and how much a replacement would cost — as none of the best features of this chair would work without a working battery. Also, the battery drains very quickly if you use the massage and heat functions too often. I would generally drain this chair in a couple of days, and have to recharge the battery overnight. This also means you have to have a readily available plug socket for the chair (on top of needing a bunch for your PC, standing desk, and other power-consuming bits and pieces).

The automatic moving lumbar support takes some getting used to, and multiple configurations are required to find the correct sensitivity for your frame. If someone else comes along and messes with your chair, you'd better have taken note of which settings you had selected previously. There were also some minor niggles with clothing being adjusted when the lumbar moved: If I moved slightly and it started adjusting, it would often ride my t-shirt or jumper up. This was a little annoying until learning how to avoid it. My least favorite part of the X7 were its highly adjustable 720° armrests. I could spend a moment tweaking them to a certain position, only for them to easily move out of position with the slightest knock. There are almost too many movement possibilities, and the armrests just don’t provide a stable enough foundation.

I mentioned earlier that the Hbada X7 helped to improve my posture, and that is true. The AI lumbar support is great, but it was the shape of the seat that made the most difference. I have some bad seating habits, and I often either sit on my foot or sit cross-legged. You cannot do that in this chair — the seat isn’t wide enough, and it’s also too uncomfortable to do so, as the hard plastic rim of the seat digs in. So, if you sit normally and upright, this chair is heaven, but if you’re likely to slouch and lift your legs up, you probably aren’t going to find this chair to be a comfortable fit for you. But for long days sitting at your desk while working or gaming, the Hbada X7 is both comfortable and highly configurable. It’s certainly an expensive outlay from a not-so-well-known brand, but the X7 is certainly making a statement. At $1,234, it’s cheaper than premium gaming chairs like the $1,688 Herman Miller Embody, but it's pricier than the Libernovo Omni at $929 — which also offers a form of battery-powered adaptive lumbar support.