This $240 office chair is supremely light and packs a boing

Sihoo has fast become one of our top recommendations for office chairs for the simple fact that it makes ergonomic and good-looking chairs that cost a fraction of the price of high-end units. And although the Sihoo M18 will continue to be our top budget chair option until it's discontinued, the M59AS is one of Sihoo’s boingiest budget chairs yet, coming in at $239.99, and it's also well worth considering.

Rather than trying to create a solid and premium office chair, Sihoo has leaned into its low-cost business model and delivered a more springy and lightweight perch that doesn’t feature much adjustability, but makes up for it in conforming to your posture and position, a lot like Branch’s Aire. The lumbar support and backrest can’t be tuned to your exact preferences, but it could easily make our list of the best office chairs for back pain, thanks to its effortless comfort.

Comfort & ergonomics

To start with, I wasn’t expecting much: the M59AS has a comical flexibility that makes it feel cheap and even slightly broken, especially when compared to more solid office chairs. But this springiness is its greatest asset.

From the moment you sit in it, the chair conforms to your body. Lean back and the armrests go with you, stick your bum out and the lumbar support gently engages with the small of your back, and the sprung mesh back support even follows the expansion and contraction of your chest as you breathe.

While adjustability is minimal, especially compared to the endlessly tweakable Hinomi H2 Pro, there's enough here to ensure comfort. As you’d expect, the gas lift goes up and down and round and round, and you can change the angle and height of the headrest.

As a taller human being, I often find that headrests support the bottom of my neck rather than the base of my skull, but the M59AS’s headrest can be moved upwards enough to engage with my cranium as it should.

The armrests rotate horizontally and move backwards and forwards, but they can’t be moved up and down, so if your desk is lower or higher than average you might find your forearms aren’t perfectly level, which is less than ideal.

However, the armrests flip up and out of the way completely, so you can push the chair right up to your desk when not in use, or give yourself more elbow room for playing your hurdy-gurdy or kicking back with a controller.

While the backrest will recline, that’s as far as the adjustability at the back goes. There is no lumbar back-and-forth or up-and-down; instead, it features spring-loaded suspension, but I felt like the lumbar support was just right, definitely there, but not aggressively so. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach!

It is worth noting that the springs can produce an audible twang as you move around, so this might not be a great chair for recording your hurdy-gurdy sessions.

It’s hard to tell if the ergonomics of the Sihoo M59AS are a result of careful design to ensure premium comfort in a budget chair, or happy accidents from creating a one-size-fits-all office chair. I’m inclined to believe the former, but even if it is the latter, it doesn’t matter: the chair will be perfectly comfortable and supportive for the majority of people who sit in it.

Design & aesthetics

For a budget chair, the M59AS looks surprisingly classy — from a distance. Mesh chairs can look a lot cheaper and more flimsy than solid options, and while the mesh can feel rough against bare skin, Sihoo has woven it with a spiderweb pattern that catches the light and draws the eye.

I was sent the black model, but it's also available in grey. It would be great to see a few more lively colour choices, but black and grey do the job. An nice touch is a coat hanger at the back of the chair, which makes me feel like an important executive and not someone who usually just puts their jacket on the floor.

Elsewhere its budget origins shine through. There’s a lot of chromium in its lower regions, which somehow makes the metal elements look like they’re made of plastic. The central parts of the castors seem to be made of chunky, reinforced plastic, and while they seem solid enough, I’m not sure how long they’ll last.

At this price point, the M59AS is about as good as it gets — closer inspection may reveal where Sihoo has cut corners, but the overall chair has a graceful serenity that will slot into both home and office environments.

Specs

Assembly

Sihoo has definitely saved money in the assembly stages by leaving a lot more up to the user. It makes sense from a budget point of view: the M59AS is packed into a smaller box, so Sihoo can stick more in a shipping container.

If you can put together IKEA furniture, you’ll be fine here, and the instructions are easy to follow. However, if you’re used to the minimal steps of more expensive chairs, or your manservant isn’t around to help out, you might find it more challenging.

The biggest task here is that you have to bolt the arms onto the five-way base of the chair, which is time-consuming but satisfying. From here, you just have to bolt the seat, arms and back together, and there’s a nice progression from smaller bolts to bigger ones, which makes you feel like you’ve become a true chair assembly master by the end, and I even made myself a little ‘chair master’ badge.

The extra steps make it into a 20-minute process as opposed to a 10-minute one, and because the chair is so light (14kg, which also saves on shipping costs), you never feel as if you’re in danger of being crushed by a backrest.

Price & value

At £179.99/$239.99 Sihoo’s M59AS absolutely nails the cheaper end of the office chair market — but there’s still plenty of competition here.

Its biggest enemy is its closest friend, as the saying goes (right?!) But Sihoo’s own M18 is roughly in the same price region, although it’s quite a different, and more conventional, beast. While the M59AS relies on a rebounding and flexible build to support you, the M18 is much more adjustable, with armrests and lumbar support that can be finely tuned to your needs, plus a padded seat rather than a mesh one.

There is no right or wrong answer here. The M59AS is more fun and I prefer its airier aesthetics, but if you know exactly what you need from an office chair in terms of adjustments the M18 is the better option.

The alternative here is the Branch Aire, which has a similarly mesh-based, airy design and one-size-fits-all approach, as well as a distinct lack of adjustability. It’s more expensive and its swooping lines look classier, but, honestly, I’d say the comfort levels are more or less identical to Sihoo’s model.

Should you buy?

This chair is a unique proposition, giving a light and fluid ergonomic experience without breaking the bank. It’s not for people who prefer firm and heavy seating that they can sink into for long sessions, but it works for livelier multitaskers who like to move around a lot and change position frequently (which is what we should aspire to anyway).

There are areas where Sihoo has cut corners to keep the price tag low, but they’re not deal-breakers, and for the most part it looks and feels far classier than its price tag suggests. It's the perfect gateway chair into the world of office furniture.