The Boulies Ninja Pro boasts some nice overall aesthetics and excellent comfort levels while at the same time bringing a few hassles into the mix by way of an annoying assembly process and some unusual design decisions that may make cleaning it a little more trouble. But if you can look past those things, you may find this to be an affordable offering worth a look.
Our Boulies Ninja Pro review will help you decide if this is the best gaming chair for you or if it’s worth spending a bit more on something else instead.
Boulies Ninja Pro review: Price and availability
The Boulies Ninja Pro lands at $399 and is available for purchase on the Boulies website. It only comes in black PU leather with four accent color options: black, teal, red, and white. There is no fabric version of the chair at this time and doesn’t appear to be in the cards for the future.
While the Boulies Ninja Pro is an attractive chair, there are various other options within the same price range that provide more color and style choices alongside better features and easier assembly. For instance, we’d highly recommend the DXRacer Craft for only $50 more, which provides you with better build quality, adjustable lumbar support, and a wide selection of visual themes.
Boulies Ninja Pro review: Design, comfort, and safety
Despite its limited color designs and lack of a fabric option, the Boulies Ninja Pro is a visually appealing gaming chair that nails the design it’s going for. It manages to avoid being too flashy to come across as loud, but that doesn’t mean it’s boring, either. It’s straightforward and sleek in equal measure, and I really like that about it.
The Boulies Ninja Pro sports PU leather across most of its body while employing microfiber suede accents throughout to give it a slightly higher-end look. Meanwhile, it doesn’t go too heavy-handed on the branding like many gaming chairs, keeping things simple with the brand logo on the headrest and “Ninja Pro” stitched elegantly into the upper right side of the back of the chair.
The seat cushion provides ample support and is quite comfortable for long periods of sitting, which means I’ve yet to have any numbness or pain in the many hours I’ve spent in the chair. If anything, I’d argue it’s among the more instantly comfortable gaming chairs I’ve sat in during my many years of using them, meaning it didn’t require breaking in to reach its comfort potential.
Weirdly, however, the middle portion of the cushion (the part you actually sit on) is a piece unto itself that remains unconnected to the traditional rounded-up edges gaming chairs are known for. Because of this, there’s a gap between these sections that I suspect will lend itself to gathering dust and other unwanted debris over a long enough timeline. It’s a rather odd design decision that seems destined to make any routine cleanings more problematic, but your mileage will vary in how much of an issue that ultimately becomes.
Elsewhere, the included headrest and lumbar pillows are quite comfortable and strap on effortlessly. The latter is especially helpful considering that the Boulies Ninja Pro doesn’t come with any other type of support for your back. A lack of adjustable lumbar support isn’t entirely uncommon at this price point, but it’d have been nice to see given the otherwise above-average structure of the chair.
The 4D armrests are a little firm but haven’t given me any discomfort in multi-hour work or gaming sessions. What I love, however, is that they’re so quiet to operate, unlike those on something like the (otherwise great) AndaSeat Kaiser 3. Not waking my wife up at 2am adjusting an armrest is a real boon, as far as I’m concerned.
I do think it’s worth noting that the Boulies Ninja Pro comes out of the box with an aggressive chemical smell due to the materials used in manufacturing. This is due to a process known as off-gassing, and it’s not uncommon in some PU leather gaming chairs or memory foam-based products — but it can be a bit unpleasant while it persists.
These chemical odors tend to either be nearly imperceptible or dissipate within a few days in other chairs, but in my case with the Boulies Ninja Pro, it has continued to be mildly odorous well over a week after unboxing it. It’s not so intense that it irritates my sinuses anymore, but it’s enough to notice. If you’re especially sensitive to strong scents or have severe allergies, it might be a good idea to give the chair a while to air out in another room before using it.
Boulies Ninja Pro review: What’s adjustable
The Boulies Ninja Pro comes with a lot of the normal stuff you should expect out of a $400 gaming chair. You’re getting the basics, such as the ability to recline quite far back or lock the back of the chair in place for better posture control, as well as a height adjustable seat to ensure you can align your eyes with whatever screen you’re using.
Of course, we can’t overlook the standard 4D armrests that, as I mentioned above, are surprisingly quiet. You can adjust these armrests in and out or up and down, giving you plenty of choices to best suit your height and weight needs.
Sadly, the Boulies Ninja Pro doesn’t come with adjustable lumbar support, which could’ve really rounded out its feature set beautifully. It does, however, come with a lumbar pillow that can be strapped onto the chair — just like its cozy headrest pillow — and offers enough comfort to be considered a worthwhile consolation prize.
Boulies Ninja Pro review: Assembly
As gaming chairs have grown in popularity and accessibility, so has the ease of assembling them in recent years. It’s disappointing, then, that the Boulies Ninja Pro requires a bit more effort to assemble than most chairs in its price range, and I found the entire process really made me appreciate how many other manufacturers have streamlined this whole experience.
Assembling the Boulies Ninja Pro as a solo endeavor is especially frustrating if, like me, you’ve become accustomed to things like pre-installed armrests and secure slide-in brackets that make connecting the back of the chair to the seat pan a breeze. You won’t find any of those efficiencies here.
The armrests attach to the seat pan at an awkward angle that feels cumbersome to work around — which if you’re not super careful, could cause the screws to go in at a slight angle and risk stripping them. And you’ll have better luck with a second person helping you hold up the back of the chair so you can kind of guess at how to align the screw holes to attach it to the seat pan.
Speaking of attaching the seat pan, my chair came with misaligned holes and a connection bracket that was tilted from the get-go, making the entire assembly of this part of the chair a nightmare that took me at least half an hour of finagling to fix. I’m not sure if this was a defect with my unit or a widespread issue, but it definitely wasn’t fun to work around.
Meanwhile, the included instructions get the important info across, but some of the photos are shockingly low-resolution and pixelated. It’s a mid-range chair, so it makes sense that it doesn’t come packing a premium assembly experience, but everything here from unboxing to completion is needlessly troublesome even when compared to various other chairs that cost considerably less.
On a positive note, the Boulies Ninja Pro feels like a chair that will stand the test of time thanks to sturdy materials and excellent overall build quality. I just wish getting to that point wasn’t so unenjoyable.
Boulies Ninja Pro review: Verdict
The Boulies Ninja Pro is very comfortable and handsome, features a solid build that seems likely to stand up to years of use, and has the type of features the average gaming enthusiast will be seeking. It does lack adjustable lumbar support, though, and its clunky assembly experience, quirky seat pan design, and lingering chemical odor are disappointing blemishes. This is a decent choice, particularly if you can find it on sale, but there are simply better options available at this price point.