The HT 1650 Human Touch Massage Chair is the only chair on the market with a fully retractable footrest massager. It comes with a host of features and is upholstered in beautiful leather. However, for its expensive price tag it does lack certain features found on other chairs costing the same or less.
I like the HT 1650, I have to admit, but I'm a little disappointed with it as well. I'll start by describing what I like about it and then talk a little on features that I find a little sub par.
First off, the chair looks great. At first glance you'd think you were looking at a big leather armchair - and a very beautiful one at that. It's upholstered in uncorrected, top-grain Anilin-dyed leather that looks sumptuous and inviting. There's no metal rails, mounted control panel, cabling or anything else to give away its secret. Even the full foot and calf massager is retracted fully under the seat and sequestered away.
The remote control is easy to use and allows you to control the Acupoint Detection, massage intensity control, lumbar heaters, electric recline, electric footrest deploy, and countdown timer. There's also an onboard convenience outlet so you plug in your phone, mp3 or whatever. There are 8 massage programs: Sore Muscle Relief, Sports & Back Therapy, Leg/Foot/Hip Therapy, Neck/Shoulders Relief, After Work Stretch, Morning Energize, Night time Soothing, and Auto Demo. There are also a number of manual options.
The lumbar heaters work just fine, the seat padding is made from viscoelastic (memory foam that moulds itself to your exact shape) and there's vibration in the armrests. The chair has a clever Acupoint Detection system that locates your acupressure points and automatically adjusts the roller for a more effect massage. The massage modes are: Kneading, Compression, Percussion, Kneading/Percussion, Rolling full, and Rolling Zone - all come with 2 speed options. There's also an Air Massage in the seat area giving you analogue pressure pointing with pulsing force.
The HT 1650 chair gives a great massage and can claim to be one of the best shiatsu massage chairs on the market today. However, there are some things with it that disappoint.
The massage from the foot massager is below par for me and I would expect better from a chair costing around $4,800. While the massager does have 3 speeds and 2 programs, it uses integrated wave vibration. There are other chairs on the market that offer more than simple air massages for the foot area. Perhaps, being fully retractable necessitated in a simpler form of massage device?
The neck and shoulder relief massage of a chair of this quality and price could be better - it's no match for the GK (grip and knead) roller system you get with a Sanyo massage chair.
In conclusion I think the Human Touch HT 1650 massage chair will appeal to those who want a good shiatsu massage chair that also looks beautiful. However, for those who appreciate function over form, there are other, better models of chairs on offer.
Follow the links for the Human Touch massage chair or another robotic massage chair like the shiatsu massage chair from Inada, Fujikura, Sanyo and others.
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