“I was so surprised how well it’s built and the packaging is awesome as I got two and it came with a bag. Very comfy chairs and sleek design.” The REI Co-op Flexlite Camp Chair and the Flexlite Air (its featherweight sibling) are lighter than any other chairs in their category, but they felt less steady. We blame the crossbar design, which runs front to back rather than side to side; this creates a lot of wobble from right to left, especially if the chair is not on perfectly even ground. Its base design is the same as for other variations, the Flexlite Camp Dreamer and Flexlite Camp Boss. The Dual Lock seat’s name comes from a locking mechanism that secures the chair when it’s folded or expanded—releasing the lock is a matter of pushing a button on one of the legs.
Several Wirecutter staffers have owned the Coleman chair for years, using it on camping trips, in backyards, and at sporting events. For the most part, it’s held up well, but one common quibble is that the seat bottom begins to sag after several years of use. If you’re looking for highly specialized or ultra-lightweight chairs for backpacking, our recommendations are probably not for you. We also don’t have suggestions for couch-style or loveseat chairs (we’d like to look at those someday, though). Closed sides keep the wind from blowing through. Each arm rest has a built-in insulated hand rest.
After years of intermittently using the Renetto chair, one staffer said it has held up great. Another said it’s been an essential chair in their life and that it is still going strong after countless soccer games, birthday parties, beach trips, and school events. This chair costs slightly more than the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair, but it’s still a budget-friendly option. It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs.
This durable yet lightweight chair features a flat-folding extra-wide steel frame easily stowable in a closet or car trunk. It also has a padded seat, armrests, and a maximum weight capacity of 600 lbs. Although not luxurious, we appreciate how simple and functional the chair is and this makes it a perfect option for those on a budget who don’t want to break the bank but want a reliable and versatile outdoor chair. It’s sturdy build, combined with a generous weight capacity and a longer back panel for extra support, make this a solid option for all age groups as it’s simple to set up and fairly portable.
It’s durable and comfortable for a range of campers. The Coleman Cooler Quad has been our pick since 2016, through numerous camping trips and several testing sessions. That’s because it’s among the most durable and comfortable ozark trail canopy chairs we’ve tested. It’s large enough to accommodate a wide range of body types, and its steel frame supports up to 325 pounds. Upgrade comfort and convenience with a lawn chair or camping chair from SCHEELS.
It’s the lightest, most portable chair that is still comfortable. The Helinox Chair One weighs about 2 pounds, compresses smaller than a 2-liter bottle of soda, and is our most lightweight pick. Other chairs we tested sacrificed too much comfort in order to shave mere ounces off of their weights, and we don’t think the trade-off was worth it. Keep in mind that lightweight chairs won’t ozark trail chair be nearly as comfortable as traditional camping chairs, so take the word comfortable with a grain of salt. Most of our testers found the REI Co-op Skyward Chair to be one of the least comfortable chairs in our testing pool. People who did like it tended to have smaller body types, so if you find that other camping chairs are too big for you, the Skyward might be a good fit.
It can hold a lot of supplies, and it’s easy to carry and set up. The King Kong chair has two cupholders and intuitively placed storage pouches under each armrest; unlike the Coleman chair, though, this one doesn’t have a cooler pouch. There’s also a mesh pocket behind the backrest, to hold things you don’t need to access quickly. This chair comes with a sturdy carrying case, with an over-the-shoulder strap, and it’s simple to expand and fold up accordion-style. It has the highest weight capacity and largest seat of any chair we tested. Out of all the chairs we tested, this chair’s capacity—800 pounds—is the highest (the next-highest weight limit is 500 pounds).
The REI Co-op chair’s polyester seat material feels both more forgiving and more durable than the thinner material on many other kids’ chairs. Compared with cheaper chairs of its kind (like those from Walmart), the REI Co-op chair functions better and will last much longer. Senior editor Kalee Thompson, who wrote a previous version of this guide, has been regularly using the Coleman ozark trail chair chair she originally tested in 2016. Aside from the color fading and the cooler pouch deteriorating, her chair has held up to years of backyard hangs and camping trips. In summer 2023, she bought a newer Coleman Cooler Quad Chair to compare to her 2016 model, and she found them to be more or less the same. Living in the south, spending time outside is practically second nature.
This chair’s big canopy provides ample sun protection at a campsite or sporting event, and it doubles as a backpack-strap-equipped carrying case. After new testing, we still love the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair for most outdoors situations. But we also have picks offering better support, higher weight capacity, and greater portability.