In a Nutshell:
Slightly larger and more robust than the Core, the Ergo Pro is for people who like the Core but find it slightly too small.
Recommended For: Anyone weighing up to 300 pounds who like the Core but finds it a poor fit for them.
Value for the Money
Comfort
Brand Reliability*
Aesthetic Flexibility**
Overall Rating
4.2/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Is your current office chair beginning to show its age? Are you looking for a replacement?
If so, and if you’ve spent any time looking at the various options available, you know that the choices can seem almost overwhelming. There are just so many to choose from!
If you’re struggling to narrow the field, then you’ll like what you read in this—our Autonomous ErgoChair review.
If you haven’t heard of Autonomous AI, you’re not alone. While many companies that make office furniture have been in the business for decades—and some have been doing it for a century or more—Autonomous is very new to the scene, having burst onto the stage in 2015 with the introduction of their first product—Maya, a robot assistant.
Based on the success of that product, the company decided to apply its engineering and productivity hacking skills to making office furniture, which is how these products came to be. Note that we said products. Here, we’re not talking about a single chair made by the company but an entire product line consisting of four Autonomous office chairs.
These models are:
The Autonomous ErgoChair 1 was released in 2016 and sold over a million units. Since then, the company has taken user feedback to heart and continued refining its product line. While it’s still possible to find Ergo Chair 1 models for sale, the company has moved on to the Autonomous Ergo Chair v2, which this review will center on.
While these various models are highly similar, they have some important differences that will naturally cause you to gravitate to one chair or another, depending on your specific needs.
In this piece, we’ll step you through all of the Autonomous ErgoChair 2 variants and outline what each one brings to the table so you can decide for yourself if this is the company you want to buy your next office chair from and, if so, which one meets your needs the best. If that sounds good, read on, and let’s look closer.
Key Features of Ergo Chair 2 From Autonomous
We consider this a very strong component of our Autonomous ErgoChair review, but at first glance, it’s easy to miss the subtle design flourishes that Autonomous ErgoChairs offer. A closer look, however, tells the tale by revealing the fun sculpted area in the lumbar region of the seatback and the innovative lumbar support system.
We’re not even huge fans of mesh office chairs; this product line impressed us. Even if your tastes are similar to ours and you’re normally not a fan of mesh chairs, these are well worth at least looking at.
Of course, an office chair is defined by much more than its appearance, so we need numbers to understand what these chairs are all about. Below, we’ve compiled the basic stats for the four main Autonomous AI ErgoChair2 models so that you can make a side-by-side comparison. Here are the basics:
Attribute/Model | Core | Pro | Recline | Pro + |
Product Dimensions | 28” – 45” L x 28” W x 45-49” H | 29” L x 29” W x 46” – 50” H | 28” – 45” L x 28” W x 45” – 49” H | 28” L x 28” W x 40” – 44” H |
Chair Weight | 33.7 pounds | 48.5 pounds | 45 pounds | 35.3 pounds |
Maximum Supported Weight | 250 pounds | 300 pounds | 250 pounds | 300 pounds |
Seat Depth | 19” | 20” | 19” | 19” |
Seat Width | 19” | 20” | 19” | 19” |
Seat Height Range | 18” – 21” | 18” – 20” | 18” – 21” | 17” – 21” |
Warranty | 1 year | 2 years | 1 year | 5 years |
Color Options | All Black, Cool Grey | All Black, Cool Grey, Evergreen, Black and White, Red Apple, and Baby Blue | All Black, Cool Grey | Black Frame & Grey TPE with Grey Mesh, White Frame & Naked Grey TPE, Black Frame & Naked Black TPE, Black Frame & Black TPE with Black Mesh, White Frame & Grey TPE with Blue Mesh |
Tilt Range | 18 degrees | 22 degrees | 18 degrees | 25 degrees |
Adjustability | Armrest, back tilt angle, seat height | Headrest, armrest, back tilt angle and tension, seat tilt and height | Headrest, armrests, back tilt angle, seat height, footrest | Armrests, Back Tilt Angle and Tension, Seat Height |
Price | $349 | $499 | $599 | $699 |
There’s quite a lot to talk about here, but by and large, these are good numbers. Let’s take it from the top.
The weakest chair is the Autonomous Core, which offers the fewest adjustable features and a disappointing maximum user weight.
Everything else about the chair, however, is quite good.
It’s worth noting that although this is the weakest chair by the numbers, we gave it the second-highest rating overall because, for the niche that it serves (tallish people with long legs of light to medium build), it really delivers value. If you fall into that category and don’t have much money to spend on a new chair, the Autonomous Ergo 2 Core will get the job done.
The ErgoChair Pro 2 is a more robust and slightly larger version of the Core chair.
If you happen to weigh more than the Core can support but like all of its features, then the Pro is the model you want. In addition to offering the same basic feature set, the Autonomous Ergo Pro Chair boasts a headrest and a means of controlling tilt tension, making it a good deal more versatile than its less expensive cousin.
The Recline variant is the one we wanted to like best out of the Autonomous family, but the weight limit is underwhelming (back to the modest 250-pound limit). So, although it offers a lot to love, it caters to a relatively narrow market segment, which is disappointing.
We’d love to see a rugged version of this chair capable of supporting 300 pounds of user weight and perhaps even more. As it is, we wanted to love this model but couldn’t quite.
The Autonomous ErgoChair Pro+ is not just the lineup’s flagship model; note that we gave it the highest value score. That’s a bit of a rarity. Normally, as the price of a chair increases, the value proposition starts to dry up because manufacturers add more features. Still, they tend to be of lower value or less than universal appeal.
However, even if it’s the most expensive chair of the bunch if you can afford it, this is the one you want. It has a raft of high-value adjustable features, a decent array of colors, and a fantastic warranty to boot. That’s an awfully difficult combination of features to beat!
The Ergo Autonomous Chair Is Delightfully Adjustable And More Comfortable Than You Think!
We’ve already highlighted which chairs have adjustable features so that we won’t have to reiterate those points again, but it’s worth mentioning that these are mesh-backed chairs.
That’s a good thing because the mesh is incredibly breathable, which means you can sit in your Autonomous—whichever one you ultimately decide is right for you—for extended periods and not get hot and sweaty.
These chairs offer a markedly different seating experience than you’d get if you were trying to spend extended periods sitting in leather or vinyl-clad chairs. The more time you spent sitting in it, the hotter and more uncomfortable you’d get!
The seats of these chairs are also worth mentioning. The company attempted to provide the best of both worlds by using a thinly woven material (polyester fabric or TPE, depending on your choice when buying) to cover a generous layer of padding.
It’s a good combination, but it works best for short to medium stints in the chair.
You’ll be quite comfortable at hour 4 and still comfortable at hour 6, but beyond that, the more time you spend in the chair, the more you’ll wish for some additional padding.
That’s still pretty good for office chairs, and the chair’s ergonomic features, along with the padding and breathable seatback, work well to augment the overall level of comfort.
Even so, by hour 8+, you’ll be craving some memory foam.
Some Assembly Required
This, too, is a surprisingly strong component of our Autonomous ErgoChair review. As is the case with most of the office furniture sold today, if you decide you want one of these, the chair you pick will arrive at your door in a giant box and in several pieces, so you’ll need to spend some time unboxing and sorting pieces before putting it together.
The good news is that the assembly instructions are quite clear, and the chair’s production quality is off the charts good, so the process itself is relatively painless.
Autonomous AI ErgoChair Office Chair Color Variants
Pros And Cons of Autonomous AI ErgoChair Office Chair
So, where does that leave us?
If you’ve read this point, we think you’ll agree that the Autonomous product line is quite good.
From a technical standpoint, there’s not a thing in the world wrong with these chairs.
However, they do have a few limitations.
First and foremost, two models (the Core and Recline) only support up to 250 pounds of user weight.
That’s fine if you weigh 250 or less, but if you happen to weigh more, then no matter how much you may like these, they’re just going to be nonstarters for you.
The Pro and the Pro+ are better in that regard. They support up to 300 pounds of user weight, and the Pro+ has the most adjustable features of any of the chairs in the lineup. We do kind of wish the company had merged the reclining model with this one, which would have made their flagship design flat-out amazing.
Autonomous ErgoChair Review Conclusion
Overall, we really like these chairs but don’t quite love them. They’re a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for, and all four models offer solid value.
We provisionally recommend the Core and Recline variants because of their modest weight limit, and we recommend the Pro and Pro+ models as excellent, versatile general-purpose office chairs for light to moderate daily use.
Other Options To Consider
If, after looking at the designs on offer, you’re not sold on these, here are a couple of other great options to consider:
This is a fantastic office chair. If you haven’t heard of SIDIZ, you’re not alone. The company is based in South Korea. Although they are a titan in the office furniture industry, they mostly sell directly to other businesses, so most individual consumers don’t have any experience with them.
However, they are an amazing company, and we regard the T50 as their best chair. It’s all mesh but insanely adjustable, and we love it.
In some ways, this chair is a study of opposites compared to the chairs we discussed. Where the Autonomous chairs are sleek and modern-looking, the Herc is designed along purely conventional lines. It’s a big, steel-framed, hulking brute of a chair.
Where the Autonomous chairs have various adjustment features, this one only has the basics and offers basic lumbar support.
On the other hand, these chairs were specifically designed for 24/7 call center use and can withstand just about any punishment.
Virtually indestructible, well-padded, and comfortable, the chair is available in either PU or fabric upholstery. But if you’re going this route, we highly recommend fabric, especially if you plan to sit for extended periods in it.
Best of all, the Herc can support up to 400 pounds of user weight, and Flash Furniture makes an even bigger and more robust model that can support more than that. So, if the weight limit keeps you from selecting the Autonomous chairs, this is the one you want.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES:
- Autonomous AI, Official Brand Website.
- Autonomous AI ErgoChair Pro Functions Guide
- Autonomous AI ErgoChair Pro+ Functions Guide
- 5 Ways an Ergonomically Designed Workstation Can Improve Your Productivity, Business.com.
- Using Ergonomics to Target Productivity Improvements, Science Direct.
- 9 Ergonomic Tips for Synchronizing Your Work Station and Office Chair, Spine Health.