Elevate Your Workstation Gear With Vertagear and Edifier

Though what I’ve reviewed below is intended to be used by gamers/for gaming, I’m not really a stereotypical gamer per se, but always appreciate a good chair and good headphones. So, these products are really for everyone.

Computing tools aren’t all about your computer, monitor, mouse, keyboard, and what have you. The extras can also make or break the computing experience. Your chair can be incredibly supportive and melt into the background, or it can actually cause physical pain, discomfort, or problems. And your headphones, well, I’ve found that they either just work for my needs or fall short. I recently had the chance to evaluate a desk chair and a pair of headphones that have passed muster.

The Vertagear PL1000 Desk Chair

The Vertagear PL1000 is my first experience with a “fancy” office chair. At least, other than sitting in someone else’s fancy chair for a few seconds. They sent me this chair to try out, and I’ve been using it for a few weeks, nonstop. I wanted to put it through its paces before deciding how I felt about it.

My first impressions were that the chair was a little firm, and kind of hard to put together (their definition of “effortless” and mine are different), compared with other office chairs I’d owned. It rolls pretty well on pile carpet and has a smooth swivel. Assembly had quite a number of steps, and the chair even comes with its own hex tool—much fancier than the ones that IKEA gives you. The chair has very good built-in lumbar support (with no clumsy pillow to adjust), and the whole chair is very heavy. It comes with a pillow for your head, including an elastic band to attach it to the head rest. With curly hair, pillows are a bad idea except at night when I’m sleeping, so I haven’t been using the pillow with the chair. (It is an incredibly luxurious pillow, though, with the perfect kind of squeeze. They call it memory foam—I’d agree. I’ll be making a pillow case for it and using it as a travel pillow. Score.)

Almost literally everything on this chair is adjustable, so it’s easy to fit the chair to your body. It has all the normal adjustments, such as chair height and arm rest height, but it also allows you to set it so the chair will tilt or not tilt as well as adjust the tension on the tilt feature. The biggest “wow” for me was the fact that you can recline the chair. And not just a little. This is like a car seat. It will almost go horizontal—it goes to 140 degrees!—perfect for if you have one of those monitor setups like in Wall-E. Despite all of those great options, I was most excited for the adjustable arm rest height, since my last chair had arm rests that were too high and they gave me neck and shoulder issues.

I knew that my first impression for this chair wouldn’t be my final one, though, so I didn’t want to write my review right away. I kept sitting and sitting and sitting in it. The firm seat became less noticeable over time, and just became comfortable. And I fell in love with the chair, despite its pink and white color. And now I don’t have to fight with my cat over my chair. He happily sits in the old chair (AKA decoy chair), next to me, while I enjoy the luxury of the Vertagear.

Here are some basic stats:

• Holds up to 240 lbs/110 kg
• Good for people up to 6’2″/188 cm
• Wide seat design (plenty wide for my middle-aged butt with room to spare)
• PUC Synthetic Faux Leather (feels really nice, though)
• Ultra Premium High Resiliency Foam

The Vertagear PL1000 Pink Hero Edition is currently on sale for $299.99 (down from $329.99). They also have a store on Amazon. Would I say it’s three times as nice as the $100 chairs from Costco or IKEA that I’d gotten before? Definitely. Yes. Yesssss. This chair has forever spoiled me (and my middle-aged back), and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to lower-quality chairs. And I was a skeptic to begin with.

Edifier G2 II USB Gaming Headset

I was also sent a Edifier G2 II USB Gaming Headset, also in pink. The model they sent comes with optional cat ears, which are super cute. I was hoping they’d attach with magnets so that you could attach or remove them on a whim, but the ears attach with sticky things, so I refrained. They come with an extra set of sticky things, though, so you can change your mind a couple of times, but after that I guess you’re on your own? My aversion to stickers had me keep the albeit cute cat ears in the box.

These headphones are a lower-end set of headphones, coming in at $40-50. They are lighter than I expected, but come with a detachable boom microphone, which is a non-negotiable these days, so that’s a plus in an affordable pair. The headphones are quite adjustable, going from a fairly small size to pretty darn big. They include over-ear cups that are comfortable for long wear. There is also in-line control for volume, microphone, and lighting effects.

Some stats:

• 360 degree surround sound effect
• Light effects with multiple RGB colors
• 50mm NdFeB unit
• Detachable and flexible omni-directional microphone, with removable spongy end
• Lightweight headband and soft leather earmuffs for comfortable fit
• Frequency response: 20Hz-20KHz
• Impedance: 32 ohms
• Sensitivity: 98dB

The included (very short) guide says that you need to install HECATE software to use the sound effect adjustment software, but we couldn’t make this work. The headphones don’t come with any other instructions.

All in all, the Edifier G2 II Headphones are serviceable, affordable headphones. They aren’t on par with higher-end headphones (I still swear by my V-Moda headphones for my desktop and my Edifier Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones for wireless needs), but if you’re looking for some decent headphones for your teen or an extra pair for yourself, the Edifier G2 II Headset is a good choice.

Note: I received samples for review purposes.