This $289 budget ergo chair just fixed my posture in a month — here’s why you should buy it

I have a sedentary job which means I spend a majority of my workday sitting and typing away at my desk. To ensure I don’t develop any back problems, I absolutely need one of the best office chairs, and the Boulies OP300 is fit for purpose. I’ve been sitting in this chair for nearly a month now, and I love it.

It’s extremely comfortable with a great level of adjustability. It has a discreet design that helps it fit into any office space too. The best part? It’s competitively priced, and it’s great value for money. However, its lumbar support isn’t adjustable and the backrest height adjustment is finicky.

For the complete breakdown, read my full Boulies OP300 review.

Boulies OP300 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A budget ergonomic chair with plenty of adjustment
• Who is it for? Office workers who want a comfortable chair but don’t want to break the bank
• How much does it cost? The Boulies OP300 is available for $289 / £249
• What do we like? It’s easy to assemble, very comfortable to sit in, and it’s competitively priced
• What don’t we like? The fixed lumbar support and awkward height adjustment

Boulies OP300 review: Specs

Boulies OP300 review: The ups

The Boulies OP300 is a fantastic budget ergonomic chair that’s highly adjustable and comfortable for long periods of time.

Competitively priced

If you want a comfortable office chair but don’t want to spend lots of money on it, I can’t recommend the Boulies OP300 enough. It retails for $289 at Boulies U.S. / £249 at Amazon U.K., making it a great budget option. It’s slightly more expensive than the ProtoArc EC100 ($189) which we rank as one of the best budget office chairs, and priced similarly to the Boulies EP460 ($299). It’s also cheaper than the Branch Aire Chair ($499) but this chair is made entirely of mesh.

While the OP300 isn’t made entirely of mesh like the EP460 and Branch’s offering, it’s still extremely comfortable with plenty of room for adjustment, which I’ll get into next.

Quick and easy assembly

The Boulies OP300 comes well-packaged with all its components individually and securely wrapped, alongside an allen key and a bunch of different-sized screws. You get an assembly manual which lays out the components at the start so you can double-check everything is in the box.

As for the assembly, it’s easy and quick. I timed myself once I’d unboxed everything, and it took me just under 20 minutes to put the OP300 together. I found the instruction manual easy to follow, and all the screws slotted and screwed in effortlessly. The easy assembly is something we praised the EP460 for too, so it’s nice to see Boulies has kept that up with the OP300.

Highly adjustable and comfortable

The Boulies OP300 is highly adjustable so you can tailor it to suit your needs and comfort level. There are a total of four levers: three on the right-hand side and one on the left-hand side. The one on the left lets you move the seat forwards and backwards. You can also adjust the seat’s height, the backrest’s incline and lock the backrest’s free-moving incline via the levers on the right. All four are easy to reach and push/pull.

The OP300’s backrest has five adjustable height settings. As someone who’s just over 5’6”, I found the OP300’s backrest at its lowest level adequate for my height. My head sat comfortably against the curved headrest. My editor, who is 5’11”, also sat in the chair and found the headrest a good height. I’d say this chair will be comfortable for those up to 6’3” and that’s recommended by Boulies too.

The maximum weight the OP300 can handle is 265lbs / 120kg. The backrest has an incline of 85°-113° and I found all these positions comfortable. It was also nice to recline it entirely and have a little power nap at lunch — that’s how comfortable I felt!

Made of padded mesh, the OP300’s headrest is height-adjustable so you can tailor it to your needs. To adjust the height, all you need to do is push the button located on the headrest’s stem and move it up or down. You can’t adjust the tilt angle, though, so you’ll need to get the Boulies EP460 instead if you want that.

The high level of adjustability extends to the OP300’s armrests too, which have three rotation settings, six height levels and seven forward/backward positions. I appreciated being able to adjust the armrests’ height according to my desk or according to my arms’ angle of comfort.

On top of it all, the OP300’s backrest is made of airy and padded mesh and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sitting on it. Boulies’ OP series is designed for professional settings and gaming, and for those who use the chairs for over eight hours a day — as I do when I’m at the office. I can attest to the fact that I haven’t felt any discomfort or fatigue after a full work day — and I’ve been using the chair for nearly a month (at the time of writing).

Discreet design

When Boulies reached out to me about testing the OP300, the brand described it as a gaming chair. I wouldn’t say it screams “gamer” per se, as it is available in all-black only, and looks like a regular office chair. In fact, it looks exactly like the image your mind conjures up when hearing “office chair.”

That said, yes, the OP300 fits right into any work environment, as it doesn’t look out of place amongst the other chairs in our testing lab.

Boulies OP300 review: The downs

The Boulies OP300 isn’t perfect as the lumbar support is fixed and adjusting the backrest’s height is a little awkward.

Fixed lumbar support

While many aspects of the Boulies OP300 are adjustable, its lumbar support is, alas, fixed. Lumbar support, as the name suggests, supports the lumbar region of the spine (towards the tailbone). On some chairs, like the Boulies EP460, you can adjust the lumbar support to suit the curvature of your back, but not on the OP300.

I didn’t find the fixed lumbar support uncomfortable or anything, but it would have been nice to have been able to adjust it. If you want your lower back to be adequately supported, especially if you suffer from back problems, I’d recommend the EP460 instead as its lumbar cushion can be adjusted to suit upright sitting, forward sitting and reclined positions.

The Branch Ergonomic Chair also has adjustable lumbar support but its height can’t be adjusted, making the EP460 the better choice.

Awkward height adjustment

Looks like easy assembly isn’t the only thing the Boulies OP300 has in common with the Boulies EP460, as adjusting both the chairs’ heights is finicky and a little annoying. You see, to adjust the height, you must pull up the backrest and wait for it to lightly click to lock into one of three height settings. Pull it up too far and it resets back to the bottom.

Frustratingly, the manual doesn’t mention this so, at first, I assumed the chair was broken. But after some trial and error, I figured it out. If you experience the same thing, you’ll have to work it out for yourself, use my review as reference, or reach out to Boulies customer support.

We had the same issue and confusion when reviewing the EP460. At the time, Tom’s Guide senior editor Pete Wolinski reached out to Boulies’ representative to confirm whether an explanation of the mechanism would be added to the user manual. Boulies’ representative stated it would be, but clearly this still hasn’t happened.

Boulies OP300 review: Verdict

As ergonomic chairs go, the Boulies OP300 is a fantastic one. Firstly, it’s priced very well, making it a great budget chair. With a high level of adjustability, the OP300 is an extremely comfortable chair to sit in for hours — and it’s designed to be sat in for eight-hour work days.

The OP300 does have a limitation though, and that is the fact that its lumbar support is fixed and can’t be adjusted like on the Boulies EP460. Also, the OP300’s backrest’s height is a bit awkward to adjust.

Despite these drawbacks, the OP300 is still good value for money. It looks low-key, it’s comfortable, and it’s highly adjustable. After a month of use, I’ve already noticed an improvement in my posture!