I tested the space-age LiberNovo Omni office chair and its motorized lumbar support has been a dream come true for my back

The LiberNovo Omni is a premium office chair that aims to combine ergonomics with comfort and surprisingly manages to do both, all with a futuristic design that’s sure to turn heads. Part office chair, part gaming chair, the Omni aims to do it all and the company behind this one-of-a-kind seat also wants to do the impossible by taking on the Herman Miller Aeron with its first product.

I’ve been using the LiberNovo Omni as my daily driver for two months now and despite this being a brand new design from a newcomer, I’m thoroughly impressed. From just how comfortable it is to sit in right out of the box with its cloud-like cushioning to the unique design of its Bionic FlexFit Backrest that instantly wrapped around the curve of my spine, there’s a whole lot to like about the Omni at first glance. However, the motorized system that allows you to adjust its lumbar depth or even stretch out your spine is the real icing on the cake. Still, its $1,099 premium price tag from a newcomer in the space means the Omni isn’t without its shortcomings.

My LiberNovo Omni review will help you decide if this is the best office chair for your workflow and your back or if it’s worth spending your hard-earned cash on a tested and proven chair from the biggest brands in the business instead.

LiberNovo Omni: Cheat Sheet

• What is it? A dynamic, highly adjustable ergonomic chair with a unique motorized backrest.
• Who is it for? People who spend long hours working in their office chair who want excellent ergonomics combined with ultimate comfort.
• What does it cost? The LiberNovo Omni costs $1,099 by itself or you can buy it together with a footrest in a bundle for $1,297.
• What do we like? The chair's highly engineered backrest, the motorized lumbar adjustment system, the built-in spinal stretch functionality, the deeply comfortable fabric-covered foam cushioning, and the straightforward assembly process.
• What don’t we like? The premium $1,000+ price, the 2-year limited warranty on electronics and how the footrest is an optional accessory.

LiberNovo Omni: Specs

LiberNovo Omni: The ups

The LiberNovo Omni is one of the rare office chairs that takes comfort as seriously as it does ergonomics. However, it’s the way all the parts from its Bionic FlexFit Backrest to its Dynamic Support System and its ErgoPulse Motor System work together as one that truly makes this chair shine.

Space-age ergonomics

At first glance, the LiberNovo Omni looks a lot like your standard office chair but it’s when you look closer that you start to see what makes it different. Unlike the other office chairs I’ve tested and reviewed, the Omni uses a stretchy elastic fabric wrapped over specialized foam for the headrest, backrest and seat. This immediately gives it a much more comfy look than some of the stiff designs you often see in other ergonomic chairs.

Spinning the Omni around though reveals why it just might be the chair to finally save your bad back and fix your posture. Its Bionic FlexFit Backrest is made up of eight flexible panels that are held together by 14 connection points with 16 pivot points that allow the backrest to flex and respond to your body’s movements. This design reminds me of the backrest in the Haworth Fern but with more flexibility overall.

Besides being extremely comfortable to sit in, the Omni’s seat cushion is also designed in such a way that it adjusts with your body as you shift positions throughout the day. While an all-mesh chair like the Branch Aire Chair will keep you cooler, the Omni follows in the footsteps of the Herman Miller Vantum, BodyBilt Classic 2500 Series and other, more ergonomic chairs that have a heavily cushioned seat to help relieve pressure in your hips and legs.

As this is a premium chair after all, you also get 4D armrests that can move forward or backward as well as to either side. One thing I really like about the Omni though is that it has synchronous armrests that move with the chair’s backrest as you recline, ensuring constant elbow support. The Omni has one last ergonomic trick up its sleeve, but given its unique motorized implementation, that feature deserves its own section.

Push-button lumbar support

Although you can’t raise or lower the position of the Omni’s lumbar support, you can do the next best thing in the most futuristic way possible. Between the chair’s frame and its backrest, there’s a small motorized linear actuator that’s attached to the backrest which allows you to bring the part where it meets the small of your back closer or farther away from you. This is ideal for ergonomics as your chair can perfectly align with your spine’s natural S-curve.

Known as adjustable lumbar depth, I first tried out this feature at CES a few years ago with the Razer Iskur V2 and was immediately impressed. This feature can also be found in other gaming chairs like the Secretlab Titan Evo.

The biggest difference with the Omni’s adjustable lumbar depth however is that you don’t have to manually turn a knob to dial in the perfect lumbar depth. Instead, you can fine-tune the position of the chair’s lumbar support using the buttons integrated into the side of the left armrest. If, like me, you often lean forward in your chair while focusing on a particular task, this feature is a game changer as your back is still fully supported even when you’re not sitting perfectly straight.

Normally, I’d be a bit apprehensive about a motorized office chair but the Omni is powered by a small rechargeable battery. It slips into a slot on the left underside of the chair and conveniently recharges via USB-C, unlike the optional Elemax cooling, heat & massage unit on the X-Chair X3 which uses a barrel-port style connector. The true peak of the Omni's engineering though isn't just about pushing a button to adjust lumbar depth; it’s reserved for when you lean all the way back.

Cloud-like comfort

From the way its stretchy elastic fabric wraps around my body and feels beneath my clothes to just how soft yet firm the multi-density seat cushion feels when I sit down, I really just can’t get enough of using this chair. Likewise, I really appreciate the synchronized headrest that moves with my head when I turn my neck which works well both when upright and when reclining.

Speaking of reclining, this is one area where the Omni has almost every other office chair I’ve tried yet beat. For instance, even though it comes with a pull-out footrest, the Hinomi X1 only lets you recline up to 135 degrees. The Omni on the other hand reclines all the way back to 160 degrees. Speaking of which, I decided to build a rollable reclining workstation out of an IKEA cart after testing the X1 but once I tried LiberNovo’s new chair, I ended up exclusively using the Omni with it to work on my laptop while lying almost horizontally.

A max recline of 160 degrees is almost unheard of but I appreciate how the Omni has a lever on the right underside that lets you switch between four different angles. Cleverly, the position of the lever mimics how far you can lean back in the chair. So when it’s vertical, the chair’s backrest is at 105 degrees in what LiberNovo calls Deep Focus mode. Then there’s the Solo Work, Soft Recline and Spine Flow modes at 120°, 135° and 160° respectively.

I found switching between the different recline modes really helped me switch from working during the day and gaming at night. However, I did use the fully reclined Spine Flow mode when I wanted to take a quick break during my workday. While you can activate the chair’s OmniStretch spinal massage by pressing a button on the left armrest and use it any of these modes, I found it worked best when fully reclined.

I also enjoyed using the optional massage functionality when testing the X-Chair X3 but LiberNovo’s OmniStretch is a completely different experience. It uses that same motor for the Omni’s adjustable lumbar depth to slowly lift your spine up and lower it down repeatedly for five minutes to relieve tension in your back and straighten things out in a similar way that a trip to a chiropractor would.

LiberNovo Omni: The downs

The LiberNovo Omni does quite a lot differently than the other office chairs I’ve reviewed and all of its different features manage to work together almost seamlessly. However, it’s not without its downsides which include its high starting price and the fact that I don’t know how well it will hold up over time given this is a brand new chair from a newcomer in the industry.

Starting at a premium

Even though LiberNovo is offering the Omni at a discounted sale price after its successful Kickstarter campaign, this is by no means a budget or mid-range office chair. And with a full price of $1,099 which will kick in once this pre-sale promotion ends, that puts the Omni right up there with the premium Steelcase Karman and almost within spitting distance of the Herman Miller Aeron. While I wouldn’t recommend the Omni or any of those models as a starter chair, they all do make for great upgrades for those who have been working from home for a while or spend a lot of time seated while either gaming or streaming.

You do get a lot of bang for your buck with the Omni but I do wish that higher $1,099 price included the optional footrest too. Not only does it match the look and feel of the chair but I found using it, both while seated upright and while reclining, really improved my experience with the Omni.

Ultimately, the question isn't just about whether the Omni is worth its premium price, but whether it can justify that price without a proven track record. This is a brand new chair from a newcomer afterall. While LiberNovo’s founder and CEO Alex Yan is new to the home office furniture space, he does have years of experience at both DJI and Narwal, during which time he struggled with chronic back pain and this eventually led to him starting his own company in order to come up with a solution for it.

Untested longevity

Although I really like the elastic fabric covering the Omni, it got me thinking about how well this novel material will hold up over time. It was then that I took a look at the chair’s warranty which gave me pause.

While some office chairs like Autonomous ErgoChair Ultra 2 come with a short two-year warranty, you usually get anywhere from a five to seven-year warranty with most mid-range chairs. Then when you move up to premium office chairs like those from Steelcase and Herman Miller, you’re looking at a much longer twelve-year warranty which makes sense given the higher price of those chairs.

Now with the Omni, you do get a five-year warranty for the chair’s frame which is good but not great. However, with the electronic components — like the battery, the actuator and the wiring used to connect everything — you only get a 2-year warranty. Given that the Omni’s adjustable lumbar depth and its OmniStretch feature (which are two of its biggest features) rely on these electronic components to function, you could end up with a chair that’s missing features several years down the line and this isn’t ideal.

Still, as I mentioned before, this is a brand new chair that hasn’t been tested long term yet, so we really don’t know how well these electronic components will hold up over time. My concern could be unwarranted or it could end up being a deal breaker but only time will tell.

LiberNovo Omni: Verdict

The LiberNovo Omni is a welcome addition in an already crowded space. It does things a bit differently and doesn’t just feel like yet another Herman Miller Aeron clone. I also really like how well it manages to combine comfort with ergonomics and get this right without sacrificing one for the other.

Even if you don’t often fully recline in your office chair, it’s great that with the Omni, you have the option to do so if you want. Likewise, the various recline angle settings and modes are well-thought out and easy to switch between. Well I wish you could raise or lower the position of the Omni’s lumbar support, the backrest provides enough support overall that I didn’t miss having this option. Being able to adjust the depth of the lumbar support by pressing a button made the chair feel very futuristic and you don’t often see this level of adjustability in a lot of other office chairs. If LiberNovo can back this technology with the long-term warranty offered by industry leaders, they will have a true winner.

Having tried the first chair from LiberNovo, I’m excited to see what the company does next. While the Omni’s $1,099 price tag is certainly a premium for a newcomer, its unique features and undeniable comfort prove that the gamble is well worth the payoff.