We've had both the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 and Vertagear SL5000 gaming chairs in our studio for a while. Here are our thoughts on which you should buy in 2022.
Having used both a Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 and a Vertagear SL5000 for quite a while, both gaming chairs have some fantastic selling points. Secretlab’s have been making high-quality gaming chairs for years, while Vertagear has nailed their design with a few cool features that no other gaming chair manufacturer is currently doing.
Both Vertagear and Secretlab are well known for producing high-quality gaming chairs. Both brands have a strong lineup of gaming products, with Secretlab focusing on a condensed gaming chair lineup, primarily focused on their Titan Evo 2022. Vertagear takes a different approach by offering multiple gaming chairs that sit within a few product ranges.
Despite this difference, both brands are competing for the best gaming chair with their star products. In this guide, I’m going to compare both the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 and the Vertagear SL5000 to see which chair takes the crown of the best gaming chair for 2022.
Below is a snapshot of both products showing you the similarities and differences.
Vertagear SL5000 | Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 |
 |  |
RECLINE Up to 140 degrees | RECLINE Up to 165 degrees |
ARMRESTS 4D (Removeable) | ARMRESTS 4D (Removeable) |
RECOMMENDED HEIGHT Up to 6’4” / 193 cm | RECOMMENDED HEIGHT Up to 6’7” / 205 cm |
RECOMMENDED WEIGHT Up to 260lbs / 120kg | RECOMMENDED WEIGHT Up to 395lbs / 179kg |
MATERIALS PUC Synthetic Faux Leather, HygennX | MATERIALS NEO Hybrid Leatherette, SoftWeave, NAPA Leather |
PRICE £349 / $399 | PRICE £465 / $569 |
Vertagear launched into the gaming chair market back in 2015 with the goal of bringing comfort and quality to gamers worldwide. They offer a range of gaming chair products, with each range focusing on an individual key USP.
The SL lineup is Vertagear’s main racing series of gaming chair. These chairs are designed with aesthetics, comfort and ergonomics in mind.
The PL lineup consists of wider and more comfortable gaming chairs. This product lineup has been designed to accommodate larger bodies while remaining comfortable for long periods of time.
The Triigger line of chairs focuses heavily on ergonomics and comfort. This is described as Vertagear’s most ergonomic gaming chair.
Prices for Vertagear gaming chairs range from £300/$300 up to £1000/$1000.
Secretlab are widely known as one of the better premium gaming chair brands. They have previously offered a lineup of different gaming chairs for different requirements. However, they have recently amalgamated their product lineup to just a single chair available in multiple sizes.
Many gamers swear by Secretlab chairs, as since their launch in 2014, they’ve gained an extremely good reputation for creating comfortable and high-quality gaming chairs.
Prices for Secretlab gaming chairs range from £400/$400 up to £800/$800 for more premium materials and designs.
The Vertagear SL5000 is a very special chair. It sits at the top of Vertagear’s racing series of chairs, and you can certainly tell from the design. It features an incredibly premium design, consisting of a dual material finish.
The rear side and side lumbar supports are all finished in PUC leather. This both looks and feels premium to the touch. With this faux leather not being featured on the main seat and backrest, you can ensure it won’t wear much and will look new for a long time.
On the main parts of the seat and backrest is a fabric that Vertagear have called HygennX. This consists of coffee-infused fibre that is designed to increase durability over time as well as ensuring the material remains breathable.
The HygennX feels almost like Alcantara. It’s incredibly soft and luxurious and works very well with the PUC leather. In combination, both of these materials lead to one of the best looking gaming chairs on the market.
The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 has been designed as the only chair any gamer will ever need. It incorporates all of the best elements from previous Secretlab gaming chairs into one. It’s available in a variety of sizes from small through to XL. These sizes ensure that anyone, no matter size or weight will be able to achieve a comfy fit in a Secretlab Titan Evo 2022.
The version of Titan Evo I have in the studio is the regular size, finished in Secretlab’s SoftWeave fabric. This fabric is extremely soft to the touch and feels incredibly premium. It also works to dissipate any heat generated from your body, and this works great, especially during the hotter months.
Secretlab has been incredibly clever with a few design features of this latest gaming chair. They’ve incorporated adjustable lumbar support for the lower back. This is essentially a spine within the backrest that can be moved and adjusted to support your own back.
This lumbar support provides a lot of adjustability. You can move the support higher or lower to support different parts of your back. And you can adjust how far it protrudes to achieve just the right level of comfort and support.
While this is a great feature and allows the Titan Evo to be used without an additional lumbar pillow, it doesn’t provide quite enough support for my liking. I can never get enough lower back support and sometimes resort to the trusty lower back pillow from my old Secretlab chair.
One area of the 2022 Titan Evo that does work incredibly well is the neck pillow. While this pillow is incredibly soft to the touch, it also includes an in-built magnet. This allows the pillow to attach itself to the headrest without the need for straps. I absolutely love this feature, and honestly think every office and gaming chair manufacturer should be implementing this!
Being gaming chairs, there are some similarities between both the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 and the Vertagear SL5000. And then there are some striking differences. But let’s talk about the similar design aspects first.
Both gaming chairs utilise a steel frame for maximum strength and rigidity. Both include 4D armrests, although I have to say I prefer Vertagear’s implementation of the armrests.
The exterior design of both of these gaming chairs does differ substantially from one another. Secretlab takes a subtle approach, removing any racing elements such as holes at the rear that mimic a real race seat. Instead, they opt for a smooth, flowing design that doesn’t shout too loudly.
Vertagear on the other hand has pulled out all the stops with the design of the SL5000. It features a sleek racing-inspired design, with a two-material finish. The SL5000, especially when finished in the midnight blue colourway, wants to be noticed.
A neat feature of Vertagear chairs is the optional addition of full LED lights. These can be added under the seat base and to the neck rest. These RGB LEDs are fully customisable, and wireless and even allow you to engrave your name or logo onto them.
The additional lights do look amazing and add an extra level of wow to your gaming chair. If you are streaming or already have RGB lighting throughout your office or gaming space, these lights will allow your Vertagear chair to stand out!
Out of the two designs, I have to say I prefer the Vertagear gaming chair. It looks much more impressive from a design front, and with the added lights is a real showpiece.
The armrests on the Secretlab gaming chairs have a lot of wobbly in them. And this is an issue that has plagued Secretlab chairs for years. When contacted, Secretlab stated that this wobble is due to the 4D design, where the armrests need to be able to move forward, sideways, and rotate.
However, the Vertagear SL5000 seems to have implemented very similar 4D armrests with much less wobble. During regular use, the Secretlab armrests have around an inch of movement, whereas the Vertagear armrests have barely any movement.
With that said, the quality of the finish on the armrests of the Secretlab chair does feel more premium. It is soft to the touch and very comfy to rest your elbows on while sitting at your desk. That isn’t to say the armrests of the Vertagear are bad, as they are also comfy.
Secretlab wins on the comfort of the armrests, but Vertagear wins on the lack of movement and wobbling.
Both chairs also feature a tilt-lock mechanism allowing you to tilt your chair and lock it into position. The Secretlab chair tilts back to a whopping 165° which is almost horizontal. This feels strange at first as you are certain you’re going to topple off the chair. But is actually incredibly comfy.
The tilting mechanism on the Vertagear is just 140°. While this doesn’t match the tilt on the Secretlab chair, it is more than enough. And it can be locked at any specific tilt angle required.
Both chairs also feature class-4 hydraulics to control the height. Both of these work almost identically on each chair, with there being more than enough range of height to find a comfy seating position.
Assembling both chairs is a relatively similar affair, apart from the design of how the backrest attaches to the base. On the Secretlab Titan Evo, there are two metal braces that sit on the outside of the backrest. These are then covered by two plastic covers to hide the bolts and steel frame.
The Vertagear differs by having the metal braces slotting into the sides of the backrest. This hides the framework, with the only thing being visible are the two bolts on each side. I much prefer this method, as the plastic covers on the Titan Evo detract from the overall design. This design feature allows the Vertagear SL5000 to appear more streamlined.
The pillows are where one of the major differences between these two chairs lies. Secretlab has really perfected their neck pillow. By using magnets inside the pillow and chair, the Secretlab pillow doesn’t require any straps.
This really helps the overall aesthetic and allows for very quick removal and adjustments if required. The head cushion is the only pillow supplied by Secretlab as there is in-built lumbar support for the lower back so no back pillow is supplied.
This is a shame as I don’t think there is quite enough back support from the in-built dynamic L-ADAPT Lumbar Support. The in-built lumbar support is a cool idea. It allows you to adjust the intensity of the support and height via two dials found on the side of the chair.
However, even at its maximum protrusion, it doesn’t give me enough lower back support. In this instance, I would prefer a lower back pillow with a similar magnetic fixing to the neck pillow.
The Best F1 22 Racing WheelsVertagear has gone with the tried and tested method of providing both a back and neck pillow that attaches by straps. Both pillows are incredibly soft and comfortable to use. However, once you’ve used the strapless magnetic pillow in the Secretlab chair, it’s hard to go back to straps.
I would hope that all gaming chair manufacturers will now look to adopt similar methods of attaching pillows to remove the need for straps. The straps on the Vertagear chair work fine but do ruin the sleek look.
Both gaming chairs utilise casters that are smooth and work well. I would say the casters on the Vertagear chair look and feel a little more premium and fit better with the racing aesthetic. And they also feature a neat addition missing from Secretlab’s casters.
The Vertagear casters feature an autolock feature. They utilise your body weight to stop the chair from moving around the floor all the while you’re sitting on it. Then when you lift your weight a little, the autolock disengages allowing you to roll your chair about.
This works great, especially if you are sim racing with your Vertagear chair. It means you won’t need to purchase any additional products to stop your gaming chair from rolling about.
Both chairs utilise faux leather on the majority of their gaming chairs. Faux leather on gaming chairs often gets a bad reputation for wearing badly and cracking. However, both Secretlab and Vertagear deliver premium materials that are designed to make both chairs stand out.
Secretlab uses a NEO™ Hybrid Leatherette. This is designed to look and feel similar to real NAPA leather while delivering comfort and durability. They even state that it is 12x more durable than PU leather!
If you fancy a fabric chair, Secretlab have you covered.
They offer a material called SoftWeave which is a soft and durable fabric. This is the material finish I have on my Titan Evo 2022 and I love it. It looks much nicer than the leather option in my opinion and has worn very well. After a full year of regular use, it hasn’t worn or faded in any way!
Vertagear also has upgraded options for both leather and fabric. Although the only way you can get a fabric finish on the SL5000 gaming chair is by choosing the two-material midnight blue colourway.
The midnight blue features both PUC faux leather and HygennX fabric. The PUC leather combines both PVC and PU leather into one material that is designed for durability. Again, I cannot complain about this PUC on my Vertagear chair. It is showing no signs of wear or tear and feels very premium.
There is also HygennX fabric on my midnight blue SL5000. This is a coffee-infused fibre designed to limit any odour buildup and allow for maximum breathability. This feels almost like an Alcantara style material.
While HygennX does look incredibly premium and is extremely comfortable, it does attract dust and loose hair! Because of the Alcantara-style fabric, it is a huge magnet for dust. This can take away from the look a little over time, but after a good clean it looks brand new again.
I absolutely love the look of both materials found on my Vertagear SL5000, including the bright yellow stitching. The use of two different materials brings interest to the overall design.
Comfort is an incredibly important part of any office or gaming chair. If you’re buying a chair to sit in for hours at a time, you need to ensure you’re comfortable throughout and that you have enough support.
Fortunately, both Secretlab and Vertagear chairs perform incredibly well in the comfort department. Both chairs utilise a relatively firm, yet soft foam in their seats, but for me, Vertagear edges it on the comfort front.
Secretlab often gets some stick over being slightly too firm, and I have to agree with this. Spending full days sitting in a Secretlab chair will never give you a numb bum or back, but you will be searching for the soft parts of the seat.
While doing a good job of distributing weight and not sagging, the Secretlab chair is a little too stiff for my liking. Combine this with the lack of support in the lower back, and you’ve got a gaming chair that isn’t winning any comfort category.
Vertagear uses a similar foam in their seat and backrest, but it has a little more squidge. (Yes, that is the technical term!) It has just a little more give, allowing you to feel a little more comfortable over time. When I use both the back and neck pillow, I can find a pretty perfect seating position where I can remain comfortable for hours at a time.
Both Secretlab and Vertagear gaming chairs are priced towards the premium end. And that is a fair reflection of just how good these two brands are at producing excellent gaming chairs.
In the price category though, Vertagear is definitely a step ahead of Secretlab. The Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 comes in at £465 / $569, while the Vertagear SL5000 sits at just £349 / $399.
You can see where the extra money has gone in the Secretlab chair. Some of the fixings and small details such as the NFC tag, various levers and armrests are impressively high quality.
However, for around £100 / $150 I can’t see enough to make me want to recommend purchasing a Secretlab chair over the Vertagear SL5000.
For me, taking into account each category and the overall price, I would have to recommend the Vertagear SL5000 over the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022.
Vertagear has beaten out Secretlab in various categories. The chair looks edgier and sleeker. It is ever so slightly more comfortable over time. The armrests are more stable. And the price is considerably less than that of a Secretlab Titan Evo 2022.
Whichever gaming chair you opt for in 2022, you won’t be disappointed as both the Titan Evo 2022 and SL5000 are fantastic gaming chairs, and both are among the best you can buy.
Check the price & purchase the Vertagear SL5000 here
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