I’ve sat my big British butt down on quite a few Boulies chairs now. We get a lot of Boulies’ stuff in for review here at the Tom’s Guide U.K. testing lab, and I’ve built almost every single one that’s come through our doors.
Usually, my team loves Boulies chairs. They’re almost always comfortable, supportive and fairly affordable relative to their features. Humble heroes, you might say. I’ve used the Boulies EP460 for around 18 months in my home office and have no complaints yet.
But this one, the EP500, which I’ve been testing for around four months now, is a little more complicated. Ostensibly, it offers many of the typical Boulies boons: comfort, support, and surprisingly premium features for a reasonable price.
Unfortunately, undermining all that are some baffling design choices. Think arm rests that don’t adjust downwards (so when you recline, your arms stick bolt upright in the air like a zombie) and a lack of adjustable lumbar support.
So, is this one of the best office chairs around? Nah. But if you want to find out more, keep reading my full Boulies EP500 review.
Boulies EP500 review: Cheat sheet
- What is it? A reasonably-priced full mesh office chair
- What does it cost? $389 / £349
- What's good? The price, the comfortable full mesh design, plus a recline function and footrest
- What's not? The arm rests pivot with the back, making recline uncomfortable, and the lumbar cushion lacks adjustment
Boulies EP500 review: Specs
Price |
|
Maximum user height |
5’5” - 6’3” |
Maximum load |
276 lbs |
Seat height |
19-22 inches |
Backrest height |
31-33 inches |
Material |
Airy Chenille Hybrid Mesh fabric |
Warranty |
2 years |
Boulies EP500 review: The ups
Given its price, the Boulies EP500 has some seriously impressive features on paper: a mesh seat and backrest, lumbar support, recline and a foot rest. It’s comfortable, and not a bad looker, either.
Comfortable, supportive mesh design
The Boulies EP500 features a mesh backrest, seat, lumbar pad, head rest and foot rest. This is what sets it apart from the Boulies EP460, a chair I reviewed in late 2024 and since have continued using in my home office: the EP460 is mostly mesh, but its folding foot rest uses hard plastic, which is way less comfortable.
The full mesh design gives the EP500 a premium look, as it’s something we see on super expensive rivals like the Herman Miller Aeron. The primary benefit is comfort, though. My previous chair, the Autonomous ErgoChair Pro, only used a half mesh design with a conventional foam padded seat. Foam is great at first, but tends to flatten over time, causing discomfort.
The EP500’s mesh seat suspends your butt in mid air — it’s like being on a trampoline (or is it a Tramampoline?! Trombopoline?!) — providing plenty of natural, ergonomic support with no firm plastic base underneath to dig in and cause discomfort. The same is true for the back rest and other mesh components. The result is a highly supportive and comfortable chair, even during long working days.
I have a type of immuno-arthritis, which affects my back and joints. I’ve found the EP500 perfectly comfortable… mostly. I say “mostly” because there’s one thing kinda letting the show down, which is the lumbar support pad. More on that later.
Premium features, attractive price
One of the things we always love about Boulies chairs are the premium features they provide for reasonable prices. You can spend a lot of money to get things like full mesh, lumbar support, a head rest and a foot rest.
The EP500 provides all of those. There’s a flip out foot rest for full reclining comfort, and a head rest to keep your neck supported. There’s lumbar support and, as I mentioned above, full mesh.
Yet the price is extremely reasonable! Officially, the MSRP is $389 / £349. But Boulies keeps most of its stock virtually perma-reduced and you can pick the EP500 up as I write this for $309 / £289. I’m no fan of fake MSRPs/discounts as a sales tactic, but the fact remains that this is a very reasonably priced chair.
Well-packaged and straightforward(-ish) to build
Like all Boulies chairs I’ve built, the EP500 came very well packaged, with no damage to the box and plenty of padding inside. Nothing was missing from the box and there were clear instructions with all the components/bolts labelled.
It took me around 40 minutes to assemble the chair. That’s not as quick as the Boulies OP180, which took me just 10 minutes to construct. However, the EP500 is a much more complicated chair, so it makes sense for the build to take longer.
Despite taking some time, the assembly was very straightforward. The only difficult bit was lifting the heavy backrest into the base — I did this on my own, but it’s definitely more of a two-person job if you don't want to risk an injury. If you're in an office that'll probably be fine, but it could be an issue if building solo at home.
My only other issue was the hex key that Boulies supplied to build the chair. It’s unnecessarily long, making some of the harder-to-reach bolts virtually impossible to tighten as the key didn’t have space to rotate. I had to switch to a more compact hex key.
Boulies EP500 review: The downs
Unfortunately, Boulies has made some truly baffling design choices that undermine the EP500’s strengths. Who thought it was a good idea to link the arm rests to the reclining back? And why is there so little lumbar adjustment?
Stupid arm rests
While I love a recline function, I hate reclining on the EP500 — which is a shame given its high level of comfort, support and the mesh foot rest. It’d be the perfect place for a mid-work nap.
But why? The arm rests. For some reason, Boulies’s design department attached them to the chair back, which means the two move in tandem. Now, Boulies claims the arms pivot “up and down,” but they don’t. They go from flat to up. There’s no downward movement possible.
The result is that, when you recline, the arm rests point upwards. It’s like you’re in a hospital bed with both arms plaster-casted and outstretched. Or you’re a zombie. Or you’re riding a chopper. It’s so stupid, and not at all comfortable.
It didn’t have to be this way, either. The Boulies EP460 has a similar recline function, but its arm rests are decoupled from the back and attached to the base instead. This means they stay flat (and you can lower them), letting you use the arm rests while reclined.
Intrusive lumbar support
I’m glad the EP500 has lumbar support — many chairs don’t. I’m no fan of the EP500’s lumbar cushion though. It’s very large, sticking too far into my back and making me arch my spine if I want my shoulders and neck to touch the back/head rest.
Again, the lumbar cushion is supposedly adjustable, but by such a small amount that it may as well not be. I hate to be constantly banging the EP460 drum, but the lumbar cushion on that chair offered better adjustment, proving way more comfortable.
Boulies EP500 review: Verdict
Alas: so close, yet so far. The Boulies EP500 ticked all the boxes on paper, with its full mesh design and other premium features. Oh, and the usual Boulies affordability, of course.
Unfortunately, the comfort it offers is undermined by a lack of adjustment in the lumbar cushion. The reclining function, meanwhile, is similarly subverted by the ridiculous arm rests, which have you lying arms-up like a Thriller backing dancer.
It’s not a terrible chair, but the EP500 nowhere near reaches its potential. Seriously, did nobody at Boulies sit on this thing?
