Acer’s back with its newest gaming battlestation, a slightly cheaper version of its Predator Thronos gaming chair called the Thronos Air. The new chair will cost $13,999 and will be available in Q4 of this year. I went hands-on with the device here at IFA in Berlin.

What you lose for that price is the tilt function, though much of the rest of the original Thronos remains. It’s a big steel obelisk with a monitor arm, a chair and a desk, all of which sort of looks like a cockpit. You open the side door and sit in what looks like a regular office char. But really, it's a gaming massage chair. As I played a demo, it gave me a nice massage rotating between my shoulders, upper and lower back, which I really needed after a few busy days of travel.


The chair can be adjusted to 130 degrees inside its cabin. To do this, you have to pull on a lever on the side, like any other gaming chair. To move the monitors (I had one very large one instead of three), you pull on a lever on the monitor arms. All of the impressive hydraulics that made the original Thronos incredible are gone here, but it's understandable to get the price down.


The Thronos Air can support three monitors and has a desk with a keyboard and mouse tray. This doesn’t come with the gaming PC, though; there’s a platform for the gaming rig behind the chair with a built-in cable management systems. If you want a cup holder, camera, seat stabilizer or USB hub, you’ll have to pay a bit extra for upgrades.