LiberNovo Omni Review: Motorized Office Chair
Omni looks nice. It’s a step up from your average office chair design, with a bit of sophistication and a design language on the backrest that has a spine-like appearance. Herman Miller embodies. It comes in midnight black or space gray (creative names), and my unit is the latter. The company says the Omni can support people with up to £300.
I don’t think I’ve ever sat in an office chair with softer padding than the Omni. The multi-density foam cushion material of the seat and backrest is plush without feeling like you’re sinking into it, because it’s not too thick. It’s very comfortable, and the softness of the material is still what surprises me most about the Omni after sitting on it for weeks.
It will be interesting to see how the fabric holds up after more than a year of use. So far, he still looks great after almost a month of sitting, even though he likes to collect hair. Breathability is hard to gauge since we’re now in the colder months, but my back does feel a little warm after a few hours in the chair. If you are in a hot environment, you will likely feel sweaty. It’s not as bad as the leather-covered vegan foam found in most gaming chairs, but it won’t provide the breathability that real mesh does.
The armrests are nothing to write home about – you can move them up or down, forward and backward, and angle them in or out. You can’t push them toward or away from your body like you can on the Embody, but that’s the norm for a chair at this price (which is $1,099 MSRP, though the company seems to have ongoing sales of $848). I appreciate that the arms don’t move or slide easily, which is a common problem with many chairs. The armrest itself isn’t too hard, and the materials are fairly durable.
Battery operated chair
Photo: Julian Chocato
A highlight of the Omni is the Bionic FlexFit backrest, which uses a battery-powered ErgoPulse drive system for configuration. It’s basically an automated way to ensure the backrest is perfectly aligned with your back; No need to mess around with weird lumbar support. There are three buttons on the left armrest. The front two move the backrest support up or down, and the third is the spine massage function, which I’ll get to later.