I've bought this chair around a year ago and 've been using it almost every single day, so I feel confident enough to finally write a review for it. I originally decided to finally buy myself an ergonomic chair when I started having lower back pain after using a regular dining chair as a pc chair. I've spend a lot of time choosing a chair, but many of them were either very expensive or inaccessible in Estonia where I live, or I didn't like them. Haworth was the only big chair company I could find that did deliver to Eastern Europe without any bs and Aloha was simply the cheapest chair at the time (and still is), so I got it for 405€ with nice 10% discount in the blue(that looks like pale cyan in reality, not a complaint, the pictures show it) colour.
Important things to note about me before I start:
1. I'm 191cm tall with pretty long legs
2. Weight around 75kg, so pretty skinny
3. Spend a lot of time in front of the screen, like 3 hours minimum, so the chair was under moderate load every single day.
This is important as your body proportions and use case can be very different from mine which can directly affect your user experience.
When I ordered a chair I was expecting to wait about a week, but the FREE shipping option turned out to be DHL Express that somehow delivered the chair from Warsaw to Tallinn in just 2 DAYS directly to my door. The package itself was damaged, but the chair inside was fine, the only thing was some weird, white, plaster-like stains on the chair frame that I just scraped off and thought nothing about it.
The assembly was extremely easy. The chair arrives in 3 parts: the back, seat and handles already together, gas lift and the chair base with the wheels. The only thing I had to do was to insert the gas lift into the base and the attach already put together base onto it. It's impossible to mess up and not hard to do on your own. Oh, and you also put the handles on yourself, yeah, not hard either.
The adjustments are also very easy and understandable. There are only 2 levers under the chair. The right one regulates the gas lift height and it does go pretty high and found no problems finding a comfortable height. The left one controls the backrest recline, there are 3 settings: 1'st is a strict 90° angle, 2'nd is around 105° and the 3'rd is a full recline for this chair at around 145°. I've found myself only using the 2'nd setting, as the 1'st is too upright and at the 3'rd setting you aren't actually sitting anymore, so it's not applicable for daily use.
It should also be noted that the seat moves WITH the back when it is reclined, so your legs will also be pushed up when you recline. Can be good or bad depending on your preferences.
Speaking the seat, you can adjust it's depth too. I have set it to max depth and it fit me pretty much perfectly, so you probably will be able to find suitable depth for yourself.
The chair also has a back support, made in a for of a pitiful piece of plastic that just slides all the way down over a course of few days and has to be manually readjusted each time. And even if you do that it will feel very stiff and might cause discomfort, as it is still just a piece of hard plastic without any padding, especially in the middle where the flexible part of it ends. I've tried to use it, but it ultimately ended up all the way down on the minimal setting under my kidneys, not supporting much, but maybe I'm slandering it too much and it is actually does something for my spine, I'm not an expert.
The handles are easy to adjust for any height, and the height is locked in placed. Their position, however, doesn't lock and they can be accidentally pushed out of place. I wouldn't call it a problem though, they lock enough to not go away when you are resting your hands on them, and they have a very nice feel to them then you move them, so I sometimes use them as a fidget toy, works wonders.
Now talk about the materials. The backrest is made out of a soft mesh that you can squeeze with your hands. It feels nice and soft even for the naked skin, but is supportive enough and doesn't seem to weaken.
The seat is soft but not too much, I would prefer it a bit softer, but I like it and believe most people will too.
The handles are quite hard, I wont lie. Not a brick by any means, the padding still can be squeezed with a finger, but I would definitely prefer them to be softer. They feel good to the touch though.
The fabric on the seat is fine. Easy to clean too, I've spilled Coke and other soda on it several times and a wet towel cleaned it up no problem.
The plastic that the chair is made of is good. Feels sturdy and nice to the touch and wont scratch you. The back is also quite flexible because of it.
And now for the biggest downside I've found - The chair SQUEAKS. This problem emerged on the second day after purchase and it present to this day. The squeaking appears when moving from side-to-side in the seat. It's not a big issue fo...