DXRacer Martian Pro review: Gaming chair? Massage chair? Both.

Gaming chairs are a must for any respectable gaming setup. After your build itself, a snug place to rest your gamer behind and back on is usually the next one on the list. With all of the various choices out there, the Martian Pro from DXRacer stands out with its multitude of features. Cooling, heating, and a massager? This chair has you covered. See just how much the DXRacer Martian Pro is capable of in my review of this all-in-one gaming chair below.

The box that the chair came in was huge. Its gross weight was about 38 kilograms (~84 lbs), and the box in itself was sizable. The weight was mostly the hefty chair parts, like the backrest and seat cushion. The seat in itself only weighed in at 32 kg (~71 lbs), matching up with the average for top-of-the-line gaming chairs from competitors.

The box securely protected the smaller parts, like the wheels, screws, and handles. It also came with a hex key and charger (more on that later).

Assembling the chair took me less than two hours, and a more experienced person can definitely get this done much quicker. As with most other gaming chairs, the bulk of the gaming chair was the wheels, the seat, and the backrest. Extra time with the hex key was needed to secure all of the chair's electronics to its body, and to connect some cables and the battery to its undercarriage.

These considerations should feel daunting. After all, why are there multiple pairs of wires on my gaming chair? But the power cables were neatly labeled, and it made connecting the wrong wires together virtually impossible.

The detailing on the chair is impressive. The livery boasts silently, and every part of the chair feels premium.

After patting myself on the back for assembling the DXRacer Martian Pro XL, it was time to test its long list of capabilities.

Firstly, as a chair, it gave me a lot of room to move my legs around. I also felt well-supported by the seat and the backrest, and I felt confident that it could take all of my weight. The EPU leatherette lining on both the seat and the backrest felt immaculate, even on the parts where it was making contact with my skin directly.

Its suspension and 15-degree tilt (which can be locked for comfort) were more than satisfactory. I was able to find a tilt that felt right for my posture and setup, and whatever rowdy behavior happens on top of the chair feels well-supported.

More on the seat and backrest in their respective sections below.

The magnetic headrest also had a generous adjustment area, so I can reliably put it in the most comfortable spots. Despite being magnetic, it held firmly onto the seat. I tried placing it with a seat cover in between, and that didn't affect the strong hold it had at all. If it felt claustrophobic to have it on the seat, it was easy to remove, too.

The armrests had a nice range of motion: they could move up and down, left and right, forward and back, and swing in and out. This covers virtually any place that my elbow and arm could be.

One thing that left me wanting was the swivel. It was a little too sensitive for my liking, and I couldn't find a way to adjust it such that it poses some resistance when turning left or right.

One of the many features that the DXRacer Martian Pro XL has is its heating and fan system on the seat. While both are present, only one can be turned on at a time.

Both systems work similarly. They both have three levels of strength. For cold nights, the heating warms up your seat for maximum comfort. Meanwhile, the fan system heavily improves airflow and prevents the seat from getting swampy, especially during humid days.

Personally, turning on the fan system during the hot afternoons has introduced a luxury I never knew I needed. Since I was using the chair during hot days, I was using the heating system sparingly. I would describe both functions as similar to the ones found in some cars, but your mileage and opinion may vary.

The backrest was just as capable as the seat, if not more. Of course, it can lean back with a wide range: from 90 to 135 degrees. The leaning is part of the electronics, and it takes about 25 seconds of holding the lever on the left side of the chair to go from one end to the other. The speed and droning sound that it makes all the while is reminiscent of dentist chairs; whether that's a pro or a con is up to you.

Additionally, it features adjustable lumbar support, controlled by buttons located on the right-hand side of the chair. This ensures that you can find the best possible support for your back, especially during long gaming sessions.

Now for the star of the show: the back massager. The backrest has eight rollers, arranged in two columns of four. There are eight pre-programmed massage modes to choose from: Pulse, Continuous, Wave, Auto, Normal, and Mixed. Each massage session runs for 10 minutes. I've found this perfect during breaks in between long Marvel Rivals or League of Legends grinds. It helps relax my back from sitting with a horrible posture when those teamfights get intense.

The DXRacer Martian Pro XL has five plastic casters. From what I can glean, this doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary, but they feel premium nonetheless. Especially when they're attached to the metallic axle and the rest of the chair.

Rolling the chair through various types of hard floors didn't pose much of an issue. When it came to carpets, however, it would occasionally have trouble rolling consistently. You can pick up rollerblade casters from the official DXRacer store to replace the stock wheels.

Throughout using its various electric functions like the ventilation, leaning, and massage for about a month, I've only had to charge my DXRacer Martian Pro XL twice. It plugs into the wall like most of your setup already does, and charges through a circular plug at the back of the seat.

The chair has a 5000 mAh Lithium-ion battery in its undercarriage. This can easily be removed in case you don't want your chair to be tethered to your wall socket while charging it, since the battery itself has a port for charging using the same adapter.

Charging from empty to full takes about three hours. When the battery is dead, all electrical functions of the chair cease to function. This includes the heating, cooling, but the one that affected me most was the fact that I can't lean my chair back or forward.

The "smart electric massage gaming chair," as DXRacer calls the Martian Pro, is certainly all of those five words. However, that title does not do it justice. It felt like when I asked myself, "I wonder if it can do this?" about a specific function, the answer was yes most of the time.

This chair could easily have been a jack of all trades and a master of none with its long list of features. Instead, DXRacer crafted a chair optimized for comfort, support, and relaxation to boot. The Martian Pro XL felt like a Swiss knife in gaming chair form, and is worthy of its premium stature.

A caveat is that since a lot of the seat's functions depend on being powered, being out of battery is an extremely unfun situation. "I need to charge my chair" is a sentence I'd never thought I'd utter, but I say that in jest. "I can't lean my chair until I finish charging it" is a more ridiculous one, and can be frustrating at times. That being said, it happens scarcely enough that it isn't anything more than a frustration.

Should DXRacer pursue improvements to their electric gaming chairs, I can only hope that the battery is improved in future iterations.

The price tag is also where it takes a little bit of a hit. Everything comes at a price, after all, and the DXRacer Martian Pro XL's is a steep one. If you can comfortably afford the chair without breaking your bank, then this is a good consideration. It should be one of your candidates, if not the top, as your next gaming chair.

DXRacer provided the product (DXRacer Martian Pro) for review.

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