Steelcase Think Review

The Steelcase Think is a well-made chair that's as easy to assemble as snapping two components together. And while we tested a few models that were more comfortable, this chair fared impressively well with our picky panel of judges.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

The Think does well here, providing comfort for eight to ten-hour days and checking all the boxes. It has adjustable lumbar support, tilt stop, and firm cushions, but it still doesn't quite measure up to some of the more expensive options in our test suite. However, for its price, we were more than happy with the overall performance.

The first click of the tilt resistance on the backrest of the Think goes too far back. This encourages the user to sit upright but negatively affects the overall comfort and makes it difficult to relax (i.e., slouch) when posture becomes less of a priority. The aggressive lumbar support is great for those who have an aggressive curvature in their back, but it is not particularly versatile, even though its location is adjustable.

The seat is somewhat average. The cushion is firm and supportive, but you may want to explore other options if you are looking for something overly soft. The stable armrests are rather large, which is fine for taller people — shorter folks found them a little less accommodating. In fact, our shorter testers reported less overall comfort in the Think than taller testers.

Adjustability

Here we focused on how much movement the backrest, armrests, and seat offer, as well as the comfort and usability of the back tilt. It scored reasonably well and hovered just above average.

The Think gets off to a great start with a uniquely adjustable seat and completely customizable armrests. We are used to adjustable lumbar support and height, but the adjustable pan depth is a cool feature we didn't experience on most of the chairs in our test suite. We also loved the high level of armrest adjustability. You can move these puppies up, down, forward, backward, inward, and outward and they also swivel.

The back of the seat is another story. We were disappointed at the lack of a reclining resistance adjustment — the four stock settings are quite flimsy, and they make reclining a little too easy. There is no in-between. You are either fully lounging in the reclined position or sitting up so straight that you could balance a glass of water on your head.

The lumbar support is easily adjustable as far as its placement. However, the level of support is not adjustable. Despite that, it is still quite easy to get the Think set up for most people so as to conform to ergonomic seating guidelines and best practices.

Durability

Our durability metric isn't weighted very heavily as we test for months and not years, but these chairs can be pricey, so it is still something we find to be important. In this category, we paid special attention to how much wear and tear the chairs showed during our hands-on time with them, as well as any bits that may be vulnerable to breaking in the future. We deeply explored user experiences across different sources, seeking common complaints and issues. We are happy to announce that the Think performed exceptionally well in this category.

We didn't notice any signs of damage throughout our testing process. The only potential problem we could see is that there is a significant overhang when the armrests are turned all the way in. This makes them more susceptible to being broken if they were to be heavily weighted. However, we haven't found any mention of this happening, so it seems like this chair is sturdy enough to handle whatever you throw at it in normal use.

Ease of Assembly

Once a chair is set up, it's good to go, but assembling furniture can be frustrating. We ranked each chair on how long it took us to assemble and the clarity of the instructions. The Think shows up pretty much completely built, rendering directions unnecessary and earning it top marks for this category.

Value

The Think offers pretty great value for the price tag. It falls close to the middle of the most and least expensive options in our test suite and doesn't fall too far behind our top performers in its overall score. It is important to note that our shorter testers found this chair was not as comfortable as our taller testers, which can weigh heavily on the overall value.

Conclusion