This chair is so comfortable I haven’t got up in 3 days

The relationship between price, quality, and features seems almost arbitrary in office chairs. Some, such as the Sihoo M18, are cheap but ergonomically excellent. Others, like the Hbada X7, are expensive and stuffed with features that don't really help. It’s rare to find a chair that sits perfectly in the Venn diagram of price, comfort, and features.

The LiberNovo Omni Pro just about does it.

It is so absurdly plush that you can work, relax, and sleep in it, as I've found (I'm not ashamed to admit I've taken short naps in it – it was for WORK!) It’s the first chair I’ve used that gets its electronic functions absolutely right: useful without feeling like they're only there to push the price up. The design is a classy blend of cushioned support and clever biomechanics. Yes, it’s pricier than most chairs, but it’s worth it, and its intelligently designed lumbar support makes it a definite contender for the best chair for back pain.

Comfort & ergonomics

Have you ever sat on a chair that breathes? The LiberNovo Omni Pro does, kind of, and not in a creepy heavy-breathing-on-the-telephone way. Activate the OmniStretch mode and the lumbar support rises and falls with a gentle rhythm, stretching your back out and lulling you into a state of relaxation, like you’re in the womb of some enormous creature, an elephant maybe. Other chairs try to massage you with varying degrees of success, often feeling intrusive and awkward, but the Omni Pro does it a little differently and it absolutely works.

The fact that it’s so comfortable is down to the lumbar support, which itself is a masterpiece of less-is-more engineering. The back support consists of eight segmented panels that flex and rotate, and a single central electric piston pushes in the centre. The genius of the design is that the panels align themselves perfectly with the curve of your entire back, rather than just your lumbar, resulting in ergonomic perfection.

The core comfort provided by the back support is complemented by the rest of the LiberNovo Omni Pro. The squishy headrest provides a perfect level of support when the chair is upright and pillow-like relaxation when it’s reclined. The armrests are in the Goldilocks zone: firm, but they don’t make your elbows feel like they’re going to poke through your skin, and they cleverly move in tandem with the backrest to ensure they’re always in just the right place, with additional fore-and-aft and rotational movements if needed.

LiberNovo lists the chair as suited to people up to 6’ 1” tall. I’m a little taller than this, and I actually found it’s one of the few chairs that fits me in its standard size, but I would size up to the LiberNovo Maxi (which is basically the same chair, but bigger) if I had a choice.

The LiberNovo Omni Pro is the chair others should aspire to be. The ergonomics are so perfect that it feels like the chair is no longer there, you’re never conscious of it, which makes it harder to review. This is also the first chair I’ve found where electrical features are genuinely worth the extra overhead.

Design & aesthetics

Chair design is an art form in itself: it’s hard to think of any other product that can look so different depending on its angle. The LiberNovo Omni Pro is aesthetically pleasing front-on, with a cartoony and cloud-like design language that matches its comfort levels. But, from behind and the side, it’s much more organically mechanical, with the curved support, abrupt motorised section, and vertebral panels combining to recall the Space Jockey’s seat in Alien. This is no bad thing: it’s distinctive and it doesn’t hide the ergonomic-first design.

I was initially a little concerned that the non-mesh cushioning might be a recipe for sweat, but there is a fan included in the seat pad. Speaking of which, the movement and cooling systems require electricity, and LiberNovo includes a battery that can be removed and charged via USB-C. It’s not a huge issue, and trailing cables can be annoying, but if you’re the kind of person who might forget to charge the battery then it’s worth getting an extra when you purchase.

Specs

Assembly

Tech-heavy chairs tend to be, well, heavy, and the LiberNovo Omni Pro is no exception to this rule. Most of the 25kg heft of the item is contained within the bracket that arcs around the back of the chair, which makes assembly easier because everything attaches to it.

It’s a fairly straightforward assembly process with very few bolts, and you get a nice big card to explain the steps. One thing to note is that it’s a good idea to make sure the control levers are to the side of the chair, and not pointing to the front, else you have to go a few steps back to get them in the right place. Yes, I did this.

Price & value

The LiberNovo Omni Pro retails for $1,299 / £1,369 , but it’s currently on sale for $1,009 / £989 — and I think it’s worth it. Yes, that’s a lot to spend on a chair, but it is the most comfortable I’ve used, while being super versatile. LiberNovo is also including a hat at the moment, and I feel a bit disappointed that I don’t have said hat to let people know that I’ve got the chair at home.

The closest competitor I’ve reviewed recently is the Hbada X7 ($999 / £1,299 on sale), which is similar on paper to the LiberNovo Omni Pro. In reality, I found its relaxation features more intimidating than blissful. It also doesn't come with a hat.

Remember, you can spend a lot more on a chair: the Herman Miller Embody costs twice as much and is a masterclass in premium ergonomic design with similar levels of support to the Omni Pro, but it lacks the electronic features. And the hat.

Should you buy?

I had doubts about the LiberNovo Omni when I first saw it — it felt like it was taking too many risks in the fairly conservative world of office chair design. But every single decision LiberNovo has made here has been the right one: it’s a good-looking chair that’s luxuriously comfortable from the moment you sit down, it’s easy to tweak the settings so it’s just right, and the electronic features are genuinely useful.

This might not appeal to anyone who wants a chair that’s more lightweight and small (the Omni Pro takes up quite a bit of space), and the price is going to be out of the range of a lot of people, but this is hands-down the best premium chair I’ve tried so far, and the perfect centrepiece for a productive home office.