DXRacer Martian Pro Red Triangle review: Built for the fans

Screw it, let’s build something sweet. That’s the ethos of the DXRacer Martian Pro — as much as a gaming chair can have one. The moment you lay eyes on the list of features, which includes a built-in massage function, a heated seat, a fan and ventilation system, and fully adjustable electronic lumbar support, you know what you’re in for: This is a gaming chair turned up to 11. It takes DXRacer’s flagship Martian range and pushes it further, adding in just about everything you can cram into a chair for a true halo product.

At $900 and packing features that firmly fall in the “nice to have” category, the Martian Pro was never destined for broad appeal. It’s more expensive than almost all of the chairs in our best gaming chair roundup — and usually by several hundred dollars. But that price is not egregious for what DXRacer is offering, especially considering the Martian Pro is built on the base of an already high-end chair. But this isn’t just a nice chair to plop your butt down in. It’s built for those few that truly want something special.

And it is special. It’s easy to gawk at a gaming chair with a heated seat and built-in massager, but even with my nose stuck up as far as it can go, I still used the features in the Martian Pro constantly. This isn’t a chair for everyone, and it’s not the first that comes to mind for a recommendation. But it’s built for those who have the cash to burn — and, for that crowd, it succeeds.

Assembly

If you’ve assembled one racing-style gaming chair, you’ve assembled them all. The Martian Pro comes in a massive box that measures 34.3 by 30.7 x 15 inches for the XL model and weighs 80.25 pounds. Gaming chairs are heavy, but the Martian Pro is heavier than most; it was a struggle getting it up the stairs not only due to the weight of the base, but also the electronics strung throughout the body.

Opening the box, DXRacer includes a large insert covering the contents that includes a parts list and some basic assembly instructions. On it, there’s a QR code that links to DXRacer’s support page, which includes short assembly instructions in video form, as well as basic warranty information. Even without the large insert, however, you can probably piece together how to put together the Martian Pro on your own.

In the box, DXRacer includes a screwdriver/allen key combo tool, which is all you need for assembly. The heavy bolts used to keep the back and base of the chair together are pre-threaded in the correct spot. That was the best part of assembling the Martian Pro: It doesn’t include a hardware bag, and all of the bolts and screws you need are already inserted where they’re supposed to go, which made the assembly much easier.

That said, assembly is required. It took me about 30 minutes to put the chair together, which is a far cry from something like the Herman Miller x Logitech G Vantum that comes (mostly) pre-assembled. Some of the extra time was devoted to connecting up the electronics. In addition to a battery pack that slots into the back of the chair, there is a series of six-pin connectors to hook up the controls available on each side of the chair. These connectors are numbered — 1 goes to 1, 2 to 2, and so on — so connecting everything up is simple. You need to deal with routing and managing some of the cables, however, which are cut to specific lengths to reduce bulk.

You can assemble the Martian Pro by yourself, at least up until you need to place the top of the chair on the base. Like similar racing-style chairs, the chair itself sits on top of the hydraulic cylinder, and you have to line up the chair with the cylinder and drop it down. I was able to get the chair together myself — but not before dropping it three times, and once on my foot. I recommend getting someone to help you and avoid the hassle, at least for the finishing touches of assembly.

Specs

Design and Construction

DXRacer offers several chairs in its Martian range, fit with multiple color options and even different upholstery (EPU leatherette or woven fabric). However, the Martian Pro only comes in one color with faux leather — the “Red Triangle” colorway. It’s a black chair with red accents, which, as you might have guessed, show up on various triangle patterns on the chair as well as on a central red strip that runs along the lumbar area.

It’s undeniably a gaming chair — if the color didn't tip you off, DXRacer’s heavy handed branding will. There are DXRacer logos on the front and back of the head rest, on the neck cushion, and on both sides of the shoulder rests, not to mention additional illuminated logos next to the controls, and Martian branding on the front of the chair.

It makes sense that DXRacer is only able to offer this one design. Unlike the standard Martian, the EPU leatherette upholstery is perforated on the back and base of the chair, presumably to prevent tears from the built-in back massage, and to provide ventilation for the heating and cooling system in the base. Even after running both dozens of times, the upholstery doesn’t feel worn out, which is a positive sign. However, I do suspect it will wear out faster than a standard Martian chair that doesn't have the massage, heater, and ventilation systems.

I rarely found myself needing the heat, even in the dead of winter with temperatures around me reaching below 0 degrees. The massage function, on the other hand, was something I used almost daily in my testing. It’s static, with the eight zones pressing on different parts of your back in a pre-set list of patterns, but it was still nice to lean back and get the feeling of sitting down on a busted massage recliner in a mall in the early aughts.

The chair itself is built from a steel frame, and although DXRacer says it can support up to 300 pounds, it recommends both the XL and L models for those under 275 pounds. The chair is sturdy, with resilience against slipping for both the height and recline adjustments. The armrests are a bit loose, as is common among this style of chair, but they don’t rotate on their own. The armrests are locked in place with just a bit of play.

With a load of electronics and a steel frame, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Martian Pro is heavy. The L option comes in just shy of 70 pounds (69.4 pounds), while the XL version is slightly heavier at 71.4 pounds. It’s a beefy chair. Part of the weight comes from the 5,000mAh battery that’s strapped onto the back of the chair, which allows you to use the electronic functions away from an outlet.

DXRacer claims the chair lasts up to 360 hours on a full charge. The included barrel charger has a light that shows you the status of the charge; green means the battery is full, and red means it’s still charging. Unfortunately, there’s no other way to check the charge, nor is there a quick release for using the chair while it’s charging. This led to several instances in which I went to sit down in the chair and use the controls, only to find that the battery was dead.

Thankfully, DXRacer makes some efforts to conserve battery life. There’s an automatic standby mode that the chair enters when you aren’t using the various functions that pull from the battery, along with a 10-minute timer on everything else. If you stand up and walk away and forget to turn off the heater, it’ll cut itself off after 10 minutes so you don’t chew through the battery, for example.

Comfort and Adjustments

The Martian Pro has the adjustments you’d expect out of a $900 gaming chair. There’s a good range of height adjustment at just over 3 inches, and I didn’t notice any slipping with the hydraulic base. You can lean the chair back at up to a 135-degree angle, which gets the back nearly parallel to the floor when combined with the reclining base. There are four adjustment points on the arm rests — up/down, left/right, forward/back, and internal/external rotation — and they lock into place. Even the rotation is locked, unlike the Razer Iskur V2, where enough pressure will rotate the armrests.

Height and armrest adjustments are manual, but all other aspects of the Martian Pro are handled electronically. The “4D Lumbar Support” consists of two supports that you can adjust with the directional buttons on the right side of the chair. It allows you to dial in the balance between upper and lower lumbar support in a way that’s more granular than the mechanical knobs you find on similar chairs.

Reclining is handled electronically, as well, which was frustrating. It takes a solid 10 seconds to go from upright to fully reclined, but more importantly, you can’t recline the chair if it doesn’t have a charge. You have more control over the exact angle of the recline rather than slotting into half a dozen pre-determined angles. But I would trade that for the ease of quickly reclining the chair without worrying about how charged the battery is.

One aspect I love about the Martian Pro is the base. With most chairs (and especially this style of racing chair), there are wings on the sides of the base that slant upward, and that’s the case for the Martian Pro. However, these wings have a very shallow slant. It’s enough to let you know where the edges of the chair are, but not so much that you feel like you’re crammed in the center.

Moreover, I’m someone who often sits in the chair with one or both legs crossed, and the wide base and shallow edge slants make sitting this way more comfortable. More aggressive slants, like the one you find on the Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen, push your legs up and make sitting cross-legged much less comfortable.

Unfortunately, the base also has an issue; that’s where the controls for the ventilation and seat warmer are. I accidentally turned them on three times (that I know of) in about a month of using the chair. DXRacer makes an effort to limit accidental activations: The buttons have a concave slope, and they use micro-switches, so you have to press them at a specific angle. In addition, you have to hold the button down for at least two seconds to turn on the warmer or vent. Still, the placement isn’t the best, and I’d like to see them moved to the side of the chair where the other controls are.

For those controls, you get the aforementioned directional buttons for adjusting lumbar support on the right, along with the massage button. You can hold down the message button for two seconds to turn it on or off, as well as press it to cycle through different massage presets. On the left, you just get the recline switch.

For someone who’s 5’10” and 180 pounds and is prone to crossing their legs while working, the Martian Pro was comfortable. I especially like the wide base and the magnetic headrest, the latter of which I was able to position perfectly on my neck. Larger folks might have issues, however. Despite having two models at different sizes, both versions of the Martian Pro top out at 275 pounds. That should accommodate many people, but I was hoping the XL version would scale higher along the lines of the Secret Lab Titan XL.

Bottom Line

The Martian Pro is a comfortable and well-built chair, but you don’t buy the Martian Pro just because it’s comfortable. At $900, it’s definitely priced on the higher end, especially for gaming chairs. Going for a standard Martian, which includes electronic lumbar support but lacks heat, cooling, and the massage function, will save you $200. And if you’re on a strict budget, something like the Razer Iskur V2 X nails the basics without any of the extras for under $300.

For what the Martian Pro offers, it’s not egregiously overpriced. $900 feels fair for what DXRacer is offering here, especially with the built-in massage function. I have some nitpicks, from the lack of charging status on the chair to the placement of the heat and cooling buttons — but they aren’t dealbreakers.

This is a niche chair; if you’re among the few interested in the Martian Pro with the budget to spare, you’ll come out a happy customer. For those on the fence, the extra bells and whistles are nice to have, but you can save a lot of money while still getting a quality chair with other options on the market.