Humanscale Diffrient Smart Office Chair Review

Performance Comparison

Comfort

Comfort is the highest-rated metric in our testing process. Our comfort evaluations comprise half of the total score for each office chair. We selected a group of testers of varied sizes and stature and they put each chair to the test. To award points, we had each judge rate various parts of the chair, with respect to comfort; each tester then evaluated how long they would be comfortable sitting in the chair. The Diffrient did well, though it experienced mixed reviews; half rated the chair highly and reported that they would be able to sit on it for 10-12 hours. The other half detested the chair, and experienced discomfort after sitting in it for 1-2 hours.

The seat and armrests were rated highly across the board; however, when evaluating the backrest, the difference of opinion became noticeable.

Adjustability

We had the same panel of judges try out the full range of motion available to them on the backrest, armrests, and seat, and rate their impressions. We also had them assess the customization afforded to you with the reclining mechanism. It didn't perform as well, meriting an above average score for adjustability.

This chair got off to a bad start when we scored its backrest, as it barely has any lumbar support and you can't adjust the backrest at all. The version of this chair we tested only has the ability to raise and lower the armrests, but the newer versions are fully adjustable, letting you move them up or down, forward or back, and swivel them. It did redeem itself a bit by having a very adjustable seat, which lets you change both the height and the depth.

Unfortunately, this chair doesn't have a way to manipulate the amount of resistance required to recline and we found the default setting to be far too low.

It also doesn't have tilt limiters, so you can find yourself reclined much further than you would have liked by only slightly leaning back.

Durability

Next, we moved on to comparing how durable and sturdily constructed each chair is. We used both our own observations and other reviews to determine scores. The Humanscale Diffrient achieves an almost perfect score in the department. We do not have any issues to report, as our chair held up well in our tests, showing no noticeable signs of wear over the multiple month testing period.

Ease of Assembly

For our last category of assessments, we judged each chair on the effort required to go from unboxing to sitting in it, as well as how easy the directions are to understand. The Diffrient achieves one of the top spots overall, meriting it a perfect score. The process is straightforward and we had it ready to go in less than five minutes. You just need to set the top on the base and you are ready to go.

Value

This chair is a far from worthy value option, pairing an uninspiring performance with a premium price.

Conclusion

While the Humanscale Diffrient is a solid chair, we would expect a chair in its price range to be pretty close to perfect.