Secretlab InfinitePrecision Armrest review - the pro gaming chair upgrade

Meet the Secretlab InfinitePrecision Armrest, the world's first gaming chair armrest with smooth height adjustment and a digital display to tell you its exact height. Yes, that's its entire premise. No hard stops in its adjustment, and a display to tell you how it's been adjusted. It sounds ridiculous, but Secretlab claims it's the sort of precision coveted by pro players, and it's pitched as part of the firm's new On-Stage Standard, which allows pros to dial in their setup exactly, and which also includes a desk mat with measurements printed all over it.

Compatible with the full Secretlab range of Titan Evo gaming chairs, this pair of armrests fully replaces the ones that come with your chair. As you can see from our Secretlab Titan Evo review, which currently tops our best gaming chair guide, the included armrests are already very adjustable, but Secretlab - and the pros it consulted - believes there's even more potential for precision with the InfinitePrecision Armrest. That's all well and good, but does it deliver? I put it to the test to see if it's a new essential upgrade.

This is an early review of a product that hasn't been fully released yet and is subject to change. It also hasn't been given an official price yet. 

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Included in the box are the two armrests, their mounting plates, bolts for attaching the mounting plates to the arms, hex-key wrenches for the arm assembly bolts, and the bolts for attaching the armrests to the chair. Plus, you also get batteries for the armrest displays.

Assembly is simply a case of attaching the mounting plates to each arm, then bolting the arms to the chair. There's a degree of armrest width adjustment in the way they're mounted to the underside of the chair, if needed. Once attached, you fit the batteries, and the armrests are ready to roll.

The armrests offer height adjustment with a range of ~170mm to 245mm, measured from the top ridge of the bolster padding on the edge of the seat to the top of the armrest padding. Adjustments are made by pulling up on the large red handle on the outer edge of each arm and simply pulling up or pushing down the armrest.

The top pads can also slide in or out for further width adjustment, with a button on the inside edge of the pads unlocking this movement, while a further button towards the front of the pads allows them to twist inwards or outwards, locking in position at either -30, -15, 0, 15, or 30 degrees.

Other than the smooth - and surprisingly stiff - height adjustment, these are the same features as the standard chair pads. Even the top pad material is the same, being a fairly firm foam covered in a durable, flexible plastic. The magnetically attached pads can also be completely removed and swapped for others, such as the plush options included with the Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition.

The real secret sauce to InfinitePrecision Armrests, then, is their digital readout. This is activated by pressing the button just below the screen. It will show the difference in height between the zero point of the armrest and its current position. The electronics will also continue to track the position even when the screen has turned off.

The idea here is that a user can set the height of their desk to their desired level - a task made easier if you also use the Secretlab Magnus Pro desk with its built-in height readout - then you can set the armrest height relative to the desk. Secretlab recommends positioning the armrest pads at a height that just touches the underside of the desk, then holding down the power button to zero the display. From here on, you can know the exact relative height of the armrest, and once you've learned that figure, you can dial in the same setting when you're at a tournament.

It's an interesting idea, but in both principle and execution, it has some flaws. For a start, with my Secretlab Magnus Pro and Titan Evo set at my preferred heights, these armrests simply don't go low enough to even get under the desk, and I'm 6'2″, so it's not like I have the desk at its lowest setting (69.7cm to be precise). In fact, before fitting these armrests, I had actually removed the ones that came with my chair, as I found they just got in the way.

This sense of them getting in the way isn't just restricted to the armrest pads bumping up against your desk. The straight-up-and-down mounting arms are positioned quite far forward, so even if you set the armrest pads to come up over the desk, the uprights still hit your desk, as you can see in the image above.

Compared to the Herman Miller x Logitech Embody and Libernovo Omni, for instance, both of those chairs' armrest mounts sit further back, and at an angle, allowing you to pull in the chair much closer. I measured the gap between the middle of the back of the Libernovo Omni and the desk edge when the chair was pushed as close as possible, and it measured just 150mm. The Secretlab Titan Evo with these armrests is double that, at 300mm.

Another little gripe is that if you slide the armrest pads fully inwards, they cover the digital displays (as shown above), so you have to lean right over to one side to see the display under them.

Those are the more practical, implementation issues, but there are some more fundamental problems, such as the fact that plenty of pros (and competitive home gamers) don't use chair armrests. That can be for a few reasons, but two major ones are that having your arm on a chair armrest means any other movement from your body can disturb your arm.

It's less of an issue for your keyboard hand (or if you use a controller), but it could totally throw off your aim when using a mouse. The other factor is that plenty of pros like to sit very close to their desk, to get close to their screen, and maximize the mouse movement area on their desk. Having armrests on your chair at all just doesn't help in those situations.

Finally, there's the fact that Secretlab hasn't yet released an all-important digital readout for the height of its chairs. If you're aiming for a completely millimeter-precise setup, chair height would seem a fairly crucial part of the equation, especially as the armrest height completely depends on the chair height.

One area where I can absolutely praise the Secretlab InfinitePrecision Armrest, though, is its build quality. Like the rest of the Titan Evo, the arms are seriously well built, with their structure made from thick slabs of steel finished in a luscious, shiny metal coating. Meanwhile, all the plastic parts also feel robust. There's hardly a wobble or creak to the whole lot, and the adjustments feel really precise and strong, while the magnetically swappable pads are a nice touch too.

Verdict

It's great to see a company like Secretlab experimenting in the gaming desk and chair space. The magnetic headrest system of the Titan Evo is brilliant. The Secretlab ergonomic recliner add-on works amazingly well, and its squishy Plushcell armrest pads are great too. However, for the vast, vast majority of gamers, I'm struggling to see the point of the Secretlab InfinitePrecision Armrest.

Its entire premise is that it allows professional gamers to dial in their setup at tournaments, without having to bring their own rulers and tape measures. However, that's a vanishingly small population of gamers. Moreover, many pros don't actively use their armrests. Plus, without a digital readout for seat height, there's still a significant aspect of a setup that's left to guesswork.

The key feature that is likely to appeal to a broader swathe of gamers is simply the ability of these armrests to offer very fine adjustments. The standard Titan Evo armrests have set, notched adjustment points with intervals of around 1.2cm (~1/2-inch), and that lack of granular adjustment can be frustrating. However, only one small aspect of the arms needed to be changed to offer finer control. What's offered here is complete overkill.

Moreover, there are several other aspects of the Titan Evo armrest design that could be greatly improved, but which haven't been addressed here. Being able to drop the armrests far lower would be very welcome, as would having the armrest uprights angled backwards so there's a larger gap between them and your desk.

All told, if you can absolutely identify that these armrests are an essential upgrade for your setup, then the Secretlab InfinitePrecision Armrest does deliver in terms of build quality. However, in their current form, there simply isn't enough here for us to recommend them as an upgrade for most gamers. However, our ultimate recommendation will depend on the price they're given when they're finally released.

For more ways to upgrade your setup, why not check out our best gaming desk guide, which is topped by the Secretlab Magnus Pro.