There are plenty of companies making excellent office chairs, but many of the top ones cost an arm and a leg. One company, however, that offers excellent value for money for an office chair, is Singapore-based Marvable – the makers of the ErgoTune Supreme, my pick of the best office chairs in Australia and Singapore. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if you’ve never heard of the manufacturer or the ErgoTune brand – it was established in 2017 and it says something about the company that it already has an excellent chair in its catalogue.
The ErgoTune Joobie, despite its strange name, is the spiritual successor to the Supreme, taking a lot of its design and adjustability cues from the latter. Marvable, however, also takes user feedback very seriously and has leveraged that to improve its offerings, which makes the Joobie a better and more comfortable chair than the Supreme. And it has done so at no extra cost.
The balance between price, features and ergonomics makes the ErgoTune Joobie a strong contender for the best office chair overall, which would relegate the Supreme to second place. With 15 adjustment points, high-quality materials, an easy assembly process and availability in three height options and six colourways, I think this chair gives you no reason to become a slouch.
ErgoTune Joobie review: price & availability
While the ErgoTune brand does have a presence in the US, it’s not available in the UK. At the time of writing, the ErgoTune Joobie is only available in Australia and Singapore. It will set you back AU$799 (about $500 / £400) if you’re Down Under, or SG$599 in its home country of Singapore. Neither market incurs any extra shipping cost when shopping directly from the ErgoTune brand website, and it comes with a 6-year warranty.
The only optional add-on for the Joobie is a footpad and it won’t cost you too much to add on. In both Australia and Singapore, the footpad will set you back an additional AU$50/SG$50.
The Joobie and the Supreme are currently being sold for the same price which, given the improvements made on the former, represents excellent value for money. That’s even more so when you can pick it up at a slightly discounted price, which happens during major sales.
ErgoTune Joobie review: Unboxing & first impressions
I expected the ErgoTune Joobie to be quite similar to the Supreme – a chair I still use at home and did in the office too until late 2024 – so I wasn’t surprised that it arrived in a similarly sized box as its predecessor. Thankfully, though, assembling the Joobie was a lot easier than my experience with the Supreme. While the number of individual parts didn’t seem to be all that different, they felt lighter and, thus, easier to handle. The only parts that’s near identical to the Supreme are the two armrests.
Assembly instructions are clear in one large chart, and can be done solo but, as with all furniture setup, having help is always a good thing. My assembly also included the optional footpad as well, which meant an extra part to add in, and this was the only bit that gave me trouble. It requires a screw to be loosened, then tightened after the footpad is slid into place. However, the placement of that screw isn’t ideal and needs small hands to get into the tight space it’s housed in.
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Once put together, the chair – which is the grey colourway for this review – looks really nice. The rounded corners make it look more modern than the Supreme and stand apart a little in a very crowded market. It looked so inviting immediately after assembly that I had several colleagues lining up to try it, especially the footpad.
First impressions from pretty much everyone who tried it was that it was really comfortable. The mesh felt good and the lumbar support was immediately effective, eliciting some oohs and aahs. The footpad, however, was the headline act – one of my colleagues likened it to a La-Z-Boy recliner without the cushions, while another called it a dentist’s chair without the anxiety.
For me, personally, the first thing I noticed was the lumbar support not being as deeply curved as on the Supreme, making the Joobie feel a lot less harsh and easier to fall in love with.
ErgoTune Joobie review: Design & build quality
The fully-assembled Joobie is easily recognisable as an ErgoTune chair despite being very different from the Supreme. While the corners of the seat and the backrest are rounded on the Joobie, the armrests are identical to what is on the Supreme. The levers and knobs under the Joobie are also very similar to what I’ve seen on the Supreme, but the overall design, in my opinion, is more modern on the newer chair.
Key specs
Material: High-quality mesh
Colours: 6 (Green, beige, grey, red, blue, black)
Weight limit: 130kg
User height range: 145cm and taller
Adjustability: 15 points (headrest, backrest, seat, lumbar, armrest, footpad, height)
Warranty: 6 years
Like the Supreme, though, the Joobie is very well built, starting from the solid five-castor base to the mesh seat and backrest. And, as already mentioned, it’s available in three different heights, which essentially means the pneumatic stem comes in three heights. These are Small (140cm – 159cm), Medium (160cm – 179cm) and Large (180cm – 210cm). Given I’m just five feet tall at 153cm, I was sent the Small option for this review. Another point of difference between the Joobie and the Supreme is that the former now comes in more colour options, which adds a pop of personality to the chair.
Where the Supreme only had 11 points of adjustment – which, at the time, I thought was a lot – the Joobie now has 15 and this makes a world of difference to both ergonomics and comfort. Alongside the usual backrest recline, height adjustments and the pivoting armrests, the lumbar support is now independently adjustable, the seat pan can be slid back and forth, and the backrest has four height adjustments as well.
While the design of the adjustment levers are similar to the Supreme, there’s just one lockable lever under the Joobie’s seat, which now only controls the backrest’s resistance. The other under-seat controls are smaller flip levers: two on the right to adjust the seat’s height and depth, and one on the left to adjust the backrest’s recline angle. I’ve usually had problems with reaching under-seat controls on most office chairs because of my height (or rather my shorter arms), but the placement of the flip levers on the Joobie is ideal for me where I don’t even need to bend to reach them – that in itself is a big tick in my books.
Another headline act that I appreciate on the Joobie is the newly designed lumbar support. Not only is the curvature less harsh than on the Supreme, but it can be moved up or down to suit a wider range of heights.
In addition to the better lumbar support, ErgoTune has added what is called a VerteSync Recline feature that adds an extended range of motion to the backrest as you lean back. According to ErgoTune, this feature is meant to make the ergonomics of the backrest more dynamic, but I found it superfluous as it takes some strength when leaning back to activate it. This, however, is more an observation rather than a complaint as the chair is fantastic without this feature and, for one, won’t really miss it if it’s removed from future ErgoTune chairs.
As on the Supreme, there’s a removable headrest that most users would love but, for me, I’ve always found the ErgoTune headrest uncomfortable. I can never get it to sit exactly where I need it to, so I’ve left it off the Joobie and am quite happy without it. There’s an optional footpad you can add and, while I don’t see too many people needing it, I ended up finding it very useful.
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During my testing of the Joobie, I had an injured ankle that needed raising to keep the swelling down – cue the footpad. It’s easy to install, requiring just a single screw, and it slides back and folds under the seat pan when not in use. Even when sitting upright at a desk I found it comfortable to have my feet off the ground; recline the backrest to its maximum capability and you’ve got a veritable La-Z-Boy sans the plush cushioning.
The only complaint I have is with the armrests. While I like the fact the pads pivot a full 360º, there’s a rather big gap at the back where your elbows might end up dangling. Again, this may not happen to everyone as we all sit differently, but some of my colleagues who tried this chair did have this problem and I concur that the arm pads need to be extended a little more.
ErgoTune Joobie review: In use
It’s probably already obvious that I love the Joobie and find it very comfortable indeed. I’d used it for about three months at the time of publication and, unlike the Supreme, it was easy to adjust to its ergonomics on day one.
And, needless to say, opting to have the footpad during that time was the best decision I made. Not only did it help me elevate my injured ankle, but it was nice to have when I wanted to relax a little with the backrest inclined. In fact, most of my colleagues loved this aspect of the Joobie – the ability to relax when you don’t have to type or write at the desk. The footpad, however, may not suit tall people – a colleague who is 198cm found that the footpad ended at his calf muscles, letting his ankles dangle, which wasn’t particularly comfortable.
As someone who has lower back problems, I’m always keen on good lumbar support, because of which I loved the Supreme. Despite having a harsher curvature that dug into my spine and took a few days to get used to, it lessened a lot of my discomfort over time. The Joobie, even with its less harsh lumbar support, does exactly the same thing and, this time, it’s designed to be more universally comfortable, especially since its height can be adjusted to suit different people.
Importantly, making the many adjustments on the chair is a lot easier than on the Supreme, or any other office chair that I’ve tried for that matter. The main flip levers are within reach under the seat pan even if you’re short, and some adjustments don’t even need a dedicated control. For example, the backrest height adjustment just requires you to reach back and move it up or down, and it’s a similar mechanism for the lumbar support and headrest too.
The increased number of adjustments means the Joobie would suit most users, although I still wish the seat was a little wider to accommodate more broader-built people. This issue, however, isn’t unique to the ErgoTune chairs – most brands have a standard seat-pan width and I’ve always found that to be a little confining even though I fit into all of them easily enough.
I also can’t complain about the mesh build – it’s so breathable that, when the office air conditioning was playing silly buggers in the middle of Sydney’s humid summer, the Joobie didn’t make me feel clammier than I already was.
Long story short, this is arguably the best mesh office chair I’ve tried and it doesn’t cost as much as many of the other bigger brands we tend to opt for.
ErgoTune Joobie review: final verdict
It’s extremely easy to recommend the Joobie: it’s well built and will go the distance, plus there’s a six-year warranty for some peace of mind. For an office chair, the Joobie is highly adjustable with excellent ergonomics to help maintain posture and, even though it takes a lot of its cues from the Supreme, it’s not as harsh as its predecessor and I think anyone would be comfortable in it from day one. It’s also not as difficult to assemble as the Supreme.
Importantly, it balances price and features very well indeed. Despite its improvements, ErgoTune is selling the Joobie at exactly the same price as the Supreme, and if I were asked to choose between the two, I’d happily recommend the former. Although if you do need more stringent back support, I think the Supreme would be more ideal.
ErgoTune also offers discounts regularly on its own site and via Amazon in both Australia and Singapore – if you can pick it up for even 10% to 15% off, it represents excellent value for money. This combination of price, comfort and ergonomics means the Joobie can easily find itself competing to be one of the best office chairs in Australia and Singapore.
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sharmishta.sarkar@futurenet.com (Sharmishta Sarkar)
