Wears the racing kit, sits like an armchair

The whole point of the Relaxed is the shape. The side bolsters are low and gently angled instead of hugging your ribs, the backrest is 59.5cm across at the shoulders, and the seat's 50cm deep. In practice, that means you can sit cross-legged, tuck a foot under you, slump, un-slump and slump again, and the chair just lets you get on with it. No judgement.

Then there's the recline. It goes back to 160 degrees, which isn't so much "leaning back" as "I live here now". There's a ten-degree rock on top as well, and you can lock it off if you'd rather the chair didn't sway every time you reach for a drink.

Get the fabric version. It's soft, it's got perforated panels to let a bit of air through, and it doesn't do that thing faux leather does, where you peel yourself off it at the end of a long session.

The 36cm that actually matters

This is where the tape measure earns its keep.

Corsair's sheet says the seat base is 54cm wide, and it is. But you don't sit on the whole base. You sit in the flat part between the two side bolsters, and that's 36cm. The backrest plays the same game: 59.5cm across, 33cm between its bolsters.

For most people that's plenty, and you'll never think about it again. If you've got broad thighs, though, say hello to the wings. The bolsters rise into two little points at the front edge of the seat, and if your legs reach them they press into the outside of your thighs - not enough to notice at first, plenty to notice an hour in. We noticed it on ours, and no product photo on earth is going to warn you about it.

Six foot two, and the neck pillow taps out first

Corsair's limit is 188cm, and if you're anywhere near it, the first thing to give up isn't the backrest.

It's the neck pillow. It hangs off an elastic strap looped over the top of the chair, and straight out of the box it sits too low to do much for a taller neck.

The fix costs nothing.

Let the strap out and hitch the pillow up to the top edge of the backrest, which is where most adults will want it anyway.

If you're over 6ft 2, don't bother fiddling. Buy a chair that was built with you in mind.

The arms are where the budget went missing

Every chair at this price saves money somewhere. On the TC100 Relaxed, it's the arms, and once you've noticed, you can't un-notice it.

They're 2D: up and down, in and out. No sliding forwards, no swivel. If you game with your forearms resting on the edge of the desk, that's a genuine problem, because there's no way to bring the pads forward to meet it. There's a bit of play in them when you put your weight on one, the height paddle clacks like a cheap stapler, and the pads are firm foam rather than anything you'd call cushioned. If anything on this chair gives up first, my money's on the arms.

And then there's my favourite design decision. Lean back into that lovely 160-degree recline and the arms stay exactly where they were. The further you relax, the further your elbows drift from anything to rest on. It's a chair called Relaxed with arms that refuse to come along for the ride.

The lumbar pillow: firm, fussy and worth it

Of the two cushions in the box, the lumbar's the one that earns its place. It's dense foam on two straps, so you can slide it up and down until it sits in the small of your back. It's firm - properly firm - and for the first few days it feels less like support and more like someone's left a house brick on your chair. Stick with it. A soft one would just flatten out and do nothing.

Start it higher than you think. If it's shoving your hips forward rather than holding your lower back, slide it up. The one thing I'd keep an eye on is the elastic on those straps. It's the part I'd expect to go slack first, and when it does, it just wants tightening up.

A chair in a box, minus the manual

There's no printed manual. Not one page. Instead there's a QR code, which is a bold choice for something you put together kneeling on the floor surrounded by bolts. Do yourself a favour and grab the quick start guide from the Downloads section of the TC100 Relaxed page on Corsair's site before the box turns up.

The build itself is the usual chair routine: casters into the base, gas lift into the base, seat onto the lift, arms onto the seat, backrest on last. The backrest is the one that'll test your patience. You have to hang it on the side brackets and line up the bolt holes at the same time, which is a three-handed job for a two-handed person. Rope someone in to hold it square while you start the bolts.

Three measurements before you hit buy

The listing will change. The price will change. Your thighs, hopefully, won't. Take these three before you order and you'll know whether this chair fits you or just fits the photos.

• Your height and weight. Corsair's limits are 188cm (6ft 2in) and 120kg. Over either, this isn't your chair, however good it looks.
• Your thighs against 36cm. Sit on a flat, hard chair the way you'd sit to game, and measure straight across the outside of your thighs just behind the knee. The closer you get to 36cm - the gap between the seat bolsters - the better acquainted you'll get with those front wings.
• Your desk against the arms. Measure from the floor to the underside of your desk. Corsair puts the armrests at 61- 68 cm off the floor. If your desk's underside is lower than the arms at the height you like them, the chair won't tuck in, and the arms can't slide back out of the way.

No footrest, no massage, no lights - and that's fine

Spend five minutes in the gaming chair best-seller lists, and you'll see what feels like the same chair forty times: footrest, vibrating lumbar pillow, LED strip, the works. The TC100 Relaxed has none of it. What Corsair spent the money on instead is a steel seat frame, a class 4 gas lift with 100mm of travel, a deep seat and a two-year warranty. The boring bits. The bits nobody photographs. Also the bits that decide whether you still like the chair once the novelty's worn off.

If you'd rather have better arms, Corsair's own T3 Rush is the same idea turned inside out: a narrower racing seat with deeper bolsters, and 4D arms that slide forwards and swivel. If you're slim through the hips, you like your forearms on the desk, and the Rush costs about the same, get the Rush. If it costs noticeably more, the Relaxed is the better buy, and I wouldn't think twice.

How the score was built: six categories, weighted by what matters in a chair you'll sit in every day. Fit and adjustability rest on Corsair's own dimensions; every other score is our judgement of the chair.

Final verdict

If a mate asked me about the TC100 Relaxed, I'd tell them it's the chair I'd pick for long evenings of gaming, working and lying half-flat watching something - as long as it fits. Big back, deep seat, a recline that goes further than you'll ever need, a lumbar pillow that does its job once you've made friends with it, and fabric that doesn't get sweaty. The arms feel cheap, and the neck pillow needs moving. Neither would stop me from buying it.

What would stop me is the tape measure. Over 6 ft 2 in or 120 kg, walk on by. Thighs close to 36cm across, and those wings will remind you every single night. Want arms that reach the desk, and the T3 Rush costs about the same? Get the Rush. Anyone else, pull it up to the desk, lean back, and enjoy it.

Check the current Corsair TC100 Relaxed price at Amazon.