Despite the extremely upright position, I found that the seating position was very comfortable for typing, gaming, or any productivity tasks. My wife did point out that this very straight up seating position might not be the most comfortable lower back position for women who are more… umm… blessed.
One other item of note is that the reclining mechanism does not go back as far as most of your typical gaming chairs. I personally have a bad habit of raising my chair up, reclining back, putting my feet on my desk and listening to music or watching a movie, or YouTube, or sports. The Refine really is neither suitable for such a use case nor designed for it. In the user’s guide, Fractal even warns against leaning back with all your weight on the backrest.
An issue I have encountered on my sample is a very audible popping coming from the recline mechanism. I’ve attempted to determine where this is coming from and it seems to be coming from the lumbar mechanism, which could be shifting as I recline. Much like the arm issue I mentioned earlier, this could simply be a problem with my review sample. Of course, many of the $1000+ chairs from Steelcase and Herman Miller exhibit noise during recline, and I have never used a “gaming chair” that didn’t have some sort of creaking or popping sounds.
I do slightly regret the choice of mesh when I was asked for a preference for the review sample. It is not that the mesh is bad. It is very supportive and breathes well, and in normal circumstances, it is comfortable. It is just that when I am at home working, or gaming, I’m generally wearing tennis shorts, and the mesh fabric used doesn’t feel particularly great against the bare skin on the backs of my legs. My wife had the same issue when she was in a skirt or shorts. If you’re always in longer pants (or dresses) then this shouldn’t present an issue, but it was part of my experience, so I felt I should report on it.
Finally, the last item of note with the Refine is that I discovered that while the 65mm hubless wheels rolled smoothly and almost silently on a hard surface, or a chair mat, they did not like to roll on carpeting. Granted, if you are using an office chair in a carpeted room, you really should get a mat to avoid destroying the carpet.
Overall, when being used like a normal person uses a chair at their computer, the adjustability and comfort of the Refine were top notch. Fractal claims a user height range of 5’2” to 6’6” (1.65m-2.0m) and I believe it. Every part of the Refine chair has enough adjustability to fit just about everybody comfortably.