Despite being largely unchanged since its launch four years ago, the $549 Secretlab Titan Evo remains one of our favorite gaming chairs. At a glance, the Titan Evo NanoGen Edition appears to be just another upholstery choice, but the new chair has a few structural upgrades as well. The big changes are its NanoGen faux leather (softer and sturdier than the standard Neo leatherette), redesigned seat, and improved armrests. Those extras bump the NanoGen Edition's price to a hefty $799, within close range of the $895 Herman Miller Vantum. So, while the NanoGen's upgrades are undeniably nice, we think most people will be fully satisfied paying $250 less for the standard version.
Design: Just a Few Options
While the base leather Titan Evo has four plain color options and several dozen licensed styles, and the fabric Titan Evo has eight colors and seven licensed styles, the NanoGen Edition only comes in black or white. You can add flair with one of 25 optional fabric skins ($169 each), but this negates the NanoGen Edition's main benefit—the faux leather. At least it's some form of choice; the Napa leather Titan Evo only comes in black.
The Titan Evo NanoGen Edition comes in Regular and XL sizes. The Regular version is designed for people 5'7" to 6'2" in height and weighing up to 220 pounds; the XL version is for people 5'11" to 6'9" and 175 to 395 pounds. This is standard across Titan Evo models, though the NanoGen Edition lacks a Small size (for people less than 5'6" and 200 pounds) like the Neo has.
Like Secretlab's other chairs, the NanoGen Edition has a three-year warranty that you can extend to five years by sharing a picture of your chair on social media. It’s an unnecessary hoop to jump through, but the chair is covered longer than most gaming and office chairs, which typically have one- to three-year warranties.
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The assembly process is mostly standard for a gaming chair, with a few touches that make it pleasantly easy. The casters and gas cylinder are placed in the base, the chair back is attached to the seat, the tilt mechanism is bolted to the bottom of the seat, and the assembled chair top is set on the gas cylinder. Secretlab preinstalls the arms, eliminating one of the more annoying steps.
NanoGen: Almost Pet-Proof Leatherette
Secretlab claims its Nanogen Edition hybrid leatherette is 14 times more durable than standard PU leather, a step up from the claimed 12-fold durability of Secretlab's Neo faux leather (while being even more soft). It is certainly a bit softer than the Neo material; it's smooth and supple. It still has a leatherlike grain, which is noticeably finer than the Neo's.
I used the chair for a few months, and the NanoGen held up nicely. I noticed no cracks or rubbing on the chair, either. More impressive? I found only two small claw marks from my cat, Pixel, pictured above in two spots on the lower part of the chair's back. Pixel has savaged the backs of several chairs in the past, including an earlier Secretlab chair featuring the company’s Prime 2.0 leatherette (which claimed to be four times stronger than regular PU leather). This means the NanoGen Edition is a valid fabric alternative for cat households. Previously, I’d exclusively recommend non-leatherette materials for pet owners.
I discovered one specific discoloration risk that Secretlab notes, which comes from the flat Lumbar Pillow Pro accessory packaged with my Titan Evo Lite chair. The pillow is a wide, tall memory cushion with a textured black rubber back that keeps it securely in place. I used it with the NanoGen Edition and discovered two small rows of light gray marks in the chair's material, though they were barely noticeable.
Other Upgrades: A Better Seat and Armrests
Besides its upholstery, the NanoGen Edition has two more advantages over the other Titan Evo models. This newer version incorporates NanoFoam Composite, a soft microfoam layer on top of the dense, cold-cure foam that makes up most of the seat. It offers a little more cushiony give without making the chair feel less supportive; the rest of the seat is still a solid block of dense, sculpted foam with no apparent hollows. The chair back is standard across the Titan Evo line, with the cold-cure foam filling the sides and offering generous back padding.
Finally, the NanoGen Edition's armrests also received an upgrade. They're PlushCell memory foam armrests with a soft, felt-like cover rather than the standard, solid foam. These cushions have the same CloudSwap magnetic mounts, can be swapped out for other colors or materials like Secretlab's cushier, unupholstered $89 TechnoGel tops, and are available separately as an optional $79 accessory for the standard Titan Evo. Besides the top sections, the armrests' support arms are heavy-duty versions exclusive to the NanoGel Edition, slightly thicker, and offering 50% more vertical adjustment range.
The included cooling gel and memory foam head pillow resemble the other Titan Evo models. The plush pillow attaches securely to the chair's top with magnets.
The adjustable lumbar support built into the chair back works well. You turn the right dial to make the support firmer or softer and turn the left dial to shift the supportive section higher or lower to best hit your lumbar. It lets you tweak how the chair feels against your lower back without dealing with a separate cushion, though you can optionally buy a lumbar pillow that fits against the chair for $59 to $89, depending on the style. The cheaper memory foam pillow blocks the effectiveness of the chair’s adjustable support. However, the more expensive Lumbar Pillow Pro is flatter and conveys some of the firmness and positioning you get using the dials.
Verdict: A Costly Upgrade to an Already Excellent Chair
The Titan Evo NanoGen Edition is another excellent Secretlab chair. It’s supportive, well-made, and should last a long time. The NanoGen faux leather is a little nicer than the less expensive Neo leatherette Secretlab uses for other chairs, the seat is a bit softer, and the armrests move higher. Whether those changes are worth the extra $250 over the standard version depends on your budget. It’s priced within swinging distance of the excellent Herman Miller Vantum, a minimalist model that comes with a 12-year warranty and lacks the bulk of the Titan Evo; both are strong options if you're looking for a high-end chair that's priced accordingly. If you're looking to spend less, we heartily recommend the standard Titan Evo, which remains an Editors' Choice winner.
Secretlab's Titan EVO NanoGen Edition gaming chair features new material and a few design tweaks over the standard Titan EVO, though it comes with a substantial increase in price.
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