I don't give five-star reviews of chairs lightly. In fact, over six years of reviewing them, there's only one other office chair that's received the top score. That's the Herman Miller Embody – cutting edge chair design for a wallet-shattering $1,999.
But the Sihoo M18 has forced my hand. It offers comfort, easy cool design, decent ergonomics and all for under $300 – in fact you can get it for as little as $179 direct from Sihoo when they're running their deals. Sihoo is famous for its budget office chairs, and though they can be hit and miss, the company has struck gold with the M18. It's undoubtedly deserving of its spot on our lists of the best office chairs for back pain, and the best budget office chairs too. Let's dig into why...
Comfort & ergonomics
The Sihoo M18 chair is really comfy. Starting with the "W-shaped" seat, as Sihoo markets it – it's a foam seat with indentations shaped for your upper legs. It's nice and wide so you can shuffle about a bit, and having sat on this chair for multiple hours over multiple weeks, I can say that it's never looses its shape and comfort.
The back panel is mesh, and so provided a nice bit of ventilation during the warmer summer days of 2024. It's also responsive to leaning back, with just enough give that – in addition to the head rest – makes you feel fully supported.
Talking about the headrest, it's one of the better ones I've tested. It goes up and down and has rotation to it, as per most headrests. But I suppose it's just the specific curve and design of the headrest that just works! It's also got a nice layer of foam that gives that extra cushioning for your head.
As explored in my interview with ergonomic chair expert Dr Lindsey Migliore, ergonomics is more than just throwing on a lumbar support and calling it a day. That's important, of course, but it needs to be taken in with all adjustability, including arm rests, and how the chair encourages movement in the sitter. Well, the M18 has a decent lumbar support, that you can adjust up and down, and in tension. It also has arm rests that have a long range of movement up and down. They don't move sideways, which would have been nice, but certainly isn't expected at this budget price range.
And as for encouraging movement, with the wide seat of the M18, plus the springiness of the back panel, I feel comfortable moving about in the M18, encouraging blood flow and never feeling static and stagnant. It's done a lot with a little when it comes to ergonomics, focussing on how to make a few features really work well, rather than having a lot of features that don't do much (as some more expensive chairs).
Design & aesthetics
The M18's design is simple and effective. No, there are no over-sized lower back bulging panel, as is the fashion out there for lower and mid-priced chairs (see the Sihoo Doro S100). Instead, Sihoo has lowered costs by providing just a seat and back, arms and lower section. There's no extra fold-out foot support (a personal pet hate – who are they for?!). You just get what you need, and as described the simple support is incredibly comfortable.
And I was pleasantly surprised by the look of the M18. Let's be honest, when you think of a good looking chair, Sihoo is not the brand that usually springs to mind. They offer functional, budget chairs that are made of inexpensive materials with limited design swag... they pretty much all look the same, in fact!
That's why I really love the subtle design notes of the grey back panel being framed by a thin black bezel. The lumbar support is also covered in the same mesh and foam as the headrest – even though it's not on direct display. That kind of design touch shows that the makers of the M18 wanted to make a quality product, even if they were still using the budget standards of plastic and mesh. It's a detail that isn't necessary, that could have easily been left out. Someone clearly turned up to work when designing the M18.
Add to that more colour options of the chair than usual – including blue, pink, white, orange, grey and green – and you have well designed budget chair that is actually fun to have in your home office. Gone is the burden of budget!
Specs
Assembly
There's nothing new with the M18 when it comes to assembly. More specifically, Sihoo assembly. The Chinese company has long offered fantastic price points for the chairs, and a big part of that is that there are a lot of parts to put together with your new Sihoo chair.
As you can see from the above photo, that also includes putting together the multi-spoked wheel base. And though most chairs will come with that part of the chair complete, I am seeing a lot of mid-priced chairs with similar amounts of assembling these days.
It took me about 25 minutes to put the M18 chair together by myself, although for an extra $50 you can get the chair assembled for you when buying through Amazon... but that's a third of the price of the chair, which seems crazy!
The way I look at it, is that it would be lovely if the M18 came fully assembled, like all the Herman Miller chairs. But they don't, they never did, and you get to spend less money – a lot less money – because of it. Basically this is not enough for me to take off even half a star from the M18's score. If you despise assembling chairs, be my guest and take a star off in your mind.
Price
This is where Sihoo has shone for many years: the price point. They clearly have a streamlined business model, as all Sihoo's chairs are reasonably priced, but especially their budget models... actually, I've reviewed their more mid-range, and even high-range chairs, and the price to quality ratio goes out of whack very quickly.
The M18 is one of the cheapest chairs that Sihoo offers and, to my mind, is one of its best. It just so happens that it costs a fraction of many of the other best chairs out there.
Right now the Sihoo website has the M18 as a retail price of $300, but with current deals, the price they are asking for is actually $179. That is a absolute bargain. No other word for it.
Should I buy the Sihoo M18?
If you've got this far in the review, I'd say yes, absolutely. It's just such a great chair in all respects. It's comfortable, it's ergonomic, it looks great (in grey), and it's really, really cheap. What's not to like?!
Well, there is the assembling of the chair. And you won't have the dead-cool, ultra-designed aesthetic of, say, a Herman Miller chair. But then the M18 is literally a fraction of the price of those chairs. So unless modern aesthetics are most important to you – and that's fair enough if they are – I just don't see the M18 disappointing. It's a new classic budget chair, and I love it.
