Mavix M4: Two-minute review
The Mavix M4 is the latest mid-range gaming chair from the up-and-coming brand, and like the company’s most premium offering, the Mavix M9, the M4 delivers where it counts.
The competition to provide the best gaming chair in the mid-range segment of the market is crazy: it’s where PC gamers most likely to spend on gaming gear and accessories reside, especially as supply shortages across the world continue to drive inflation.
And while it lacks some of the M9’s more luxurious features, the M4 still outperforms top competitors like Razer and AndaSeat at the same price points, while also boasting plenty of ergonomic features – features gamers probably don’t even realize they desperately need.
Still, this isn’t a cheap gaming chair by any means, so some design choices might annoy some people.
Some of the complaints we’ve had about the higher-end M9 still apply to the M4, although given the price, they’re much more palatable here. This includes a reliance on hard, durable plastic for most of the build and the M4’s common plastic wheels (which are seen on pretty much every other gaming chair) instead of the awesome, rubberized, skates used on the M9.
Still, even with the cheaper wheels, the Mavix will be the Mavix, so the M4 has per-wheel brakes that can securely anchor your chair in place with a quick heel kick. Those of us with fidgety, fidgety legs will regularly kick the brakes by accident, which can be annoying when you’re going to move around in a firmly anchored chair. It’s a minor inconvenience most people will never experience (or at least not as regularly), and the extra step to include brakes on a gaming chair at this price point is the sort of thing that is quickly making Mavix our new game. favorite brand of chair.
The Mavix M4, then, is an excellent introduction for anyone who hasn’t heard of the company, and there are few gaming chairs at this price point that we’d put in the same league in terms of style and overall comfort. There are a few compromises at this price point that any customer will have to accept, but once again, Mavix has ensured that those compromises don’t include comfort. And for that alone, the Mavix M4 gaming chair should be your first stop in your search for gaming chairs under $500 / £400.
Mavix M4: Price and Availability
The Mavix M4 gaming chair is available now for $488, although that has been reduced to $444.44 for as long as we can remember (about £355 / AU$640).
This makes it quite competitive against chairs like the AndaSeat Jungle Pro gaming chair and Secretlab Titan gaming chair. The AndaSeat chair has an MSRP of $349 (about £250, AU$450), for example, which is about 22% cheaper than the M4, while the Titan retails for $490 in the US.
That said, we’d pit the M4 against the Jungle Pro and Titan any day of the week when it comes to comfort and ergonomics. These two features alone would justify paying more if it means you can get them, and having sat in a lot of horrible gaming chairs in my life, trust me, it’s worth paying.
You can buy the M4 from the Mavix website and ship it anywhere in the lower 48 states, with extra fees for shipping to Hawaii, Alaska and international locations – which will be expensive as hell, obviously. If you really want this chair outside of the continental US, you can have it, almost certainly paying more shipping than the chair itself.
Mavix M4: Project
The Mavix M4 gaming chair is the company’s lowest tier chair in the M line (the other three being the M5, M7 and the aforementioned M9). The M4 utilizes a breathable, fixed mesh back with dynamic variable lumbar and a Mavix mesh fabric in the seat to help keep things cool and comfortable. While it works on that front, this isn’t the best material for bare, sensitive skin; so if you spend a lot of time playing in shorts or shirtless, this might not be the best chair for you.
That said, the color choices for the M4 are eye-catching across the board, and it’s nice to have options here. There are also additional accessories for purchase, such as a Mavix gaming chair mat to help protect your floors, a footrest and an Elemax lumbar insert for cooling, heating and massage.
Being the starting chair in the lineup, there are several other limitations compared to its more expensive brethren. First, M4’s recline is not as deep as that of M7 or M9, reaching only about 135°, compared to M7’s 148° or M9’s 150°. The back height isn’t adjustable either, and the M4 only comes in a standard-width seat; those with larger frames may not be as comfortable as they could or should be.
The arms are strictly height adjustable, and that’s it. They’re comfortable enough, but nothing you haven’t seen before in a gaming chair. The wheel casters, meanwhile, are unlike most chairs at this price point, with per-wheel slide brakes that lock the wheels in place and are as easy to apply as using your foot. This led to us accidentally hitting the brakes on the M4 when we didn’t want to, but it’s a pretty minor inconvenience all things considered.
Mavix M4: Comfort
The Mavix M4 is one of the most comfortable gaming chairs you’ll find for this price, if not The more comfortable, at least in terms of the seat cushion. While it lacks the M9’s Cool Gel M-Foam seat with breathable ATR fabric, the Mavix mesh and HD foam provide plenty of support and are very breathable overall, so you won’t get stuck in a sweaty mess if it gets hot.
Lumbar support is the kind of ergonomics every chair maker should embrace (if only they would get out of that obsolete race car bucket seat paradigm they’re stuck in). It automatically adjusts with your body weight to support the lumbar region of your lower back and requires no more intervention from you than leaning your back towards it.
That kind of smart, thoughtful design makes this chair feel so much more premium than it is, and it’s one of the reasons we really like Mavix as a brand.
But it’s not all wine and roses: the fabric Mavix uses to cover the seat and back is a potential pitfall of the M4. Mavix mesh, as the company calls it, can feel a little rough at times compared to some soft fabrics or faux leather. This would be especially true if you were, say, wearing shorts on a hot summer day for hours on end. That bit of your bare leg rubbing against the Mavix mesh isn’t painful or irritating, mind you, but we can see a case for someone with more sensitive skin not taking it as well as we do.
With that important caveat, if your priority is comfort first and you’re fine with not indulging in leather, then you really don’t need to look much further than the Mavix M4 – unless you have more room in your budget to move to an M5 or M7. And if you have the money for the M9… well, you know what to do.
Should I buy a Mavix M4?
Buy if…
Don’t buy if…
Also consider
Mavix M4: Bulletin
| Value | As an “entry-level” gaming chair for a brand, the Mavix M4 costs more than some flagship products, but it’s well worth the price. | 4/5 |
| Project | From the ergonomics to the brakes on each caster, a lot of thought has gone into the details of this chair, which makes its omissions, like more adjustment, more blatant. | 4/5 |
| Comfort | The price of this chair buys you two things: the ergonomics and the cushion, and that helps deliver quality comfort above what you would normally get for this price. | 4/5 |
- First reviewed in July 2022
