SUNMER Padded Camping Chairs: The Hidden Phone Holder That Most Buyers Discover By Accident

The Listing Promises 120kg. The Reviewers Test It At 110kg.

SUNMER prints a 120kg load rating on the bullet points, which works out to roughly 18.9 stone. The most useful real-world test comes from a buyer who weighs in at 110kg and reports the chair had no problem supporting his weight across a three-hour sit. That is the highest weight directly tested in the 100 most-recent reviews.

What the 120kg figure does not tell you is how the chair fits a larger body. One 5ft 10in reviewer (top-heavy build, slim legs) found the side supports and front seat edge dug into the back of his legs within five minutes. He suggests the rating should be closer to 90kg in practice. A second taller reviewer with chunky thighs at 5ft 11in says the front edge pressed in and he felt slightly wedged, though he kept the chairs anyway.

The frame itself is reinforced steel and the flat-foot design has earned praise for staying put on uneven grass and sand. So the 120kg rating is probably accurate as a structural load. The seat geometry, on the other hand, is where you might run out of room before you run out of weight allowance.

The Phone Holder The Listing Forgets To Mention

The product photos show a cup holder on one armrest and a side magazine pocket. They do not show, and the bullet points do not mention, the second pocket built into the opposite armrest that holds a mobile phone.

Reviewer reactions are consistent. One buyer who watched her granddaughter play rugby for the England women's team across five hours said the phone holder pushed her review to a 10 out of 10. A left-handed reviewer noticed the cup holder is on the left arm, which works in his favour. A few report the phone holder could be a touch deeper because phones with cases poke out the top.

One more underclaimed detail: some reviewers describe a third pocket. The numbers add up, two on the arms (cup, phone) and one down the side (magazine or paperback), so when one reviewer wrote 'love it comes with three pockets' that is what they meant.

None of this is a reason to buy the chairs on its own. But if you have been comparing them against cheaper Amazon options on the basis of the photos alone, this is one feature that meaningfully shifts the comparison in SUNMER's favour.

Who Is Buying These, And It Isn't Just Campers

Strip out the trip type from the reviews and a pattern emerges. The buyers split roughly into five camps:

• Touchline parents. Multiple reviewers bought these for their son's football matches, replacing older uncomfortable chairs. The high back and the lightweight frame are the deciders.
• Caravan owners. Several caravanners keep them for awning seating, with one buyer planning to buy a second pair to keep at home for garden overflow.
• Beach users. The flat-foot base stops the chair sinking into sand, and the high headrest lets you doze without your head rolling sideways.
• Festival-goers. One buyer hauled the pair across festival fields each day and reported the family fought over the seat when she stood up.
• Garden chair-chasers. A reviewer at 5ft 5in described using them to follow the sun around the garden without pulling the covers off the proper garden furniture.

Notice what is missing from that list. Almost no one is using these for backpacking or wild camping. At 3.3kg per chair (6.6kg for the pair) they are too heavy for that, and the folded length of 99cm is awkward to lash to a rucksack. SUNMER calls them lightweight, and they are, relative to a deck chair, not a backpacking stool.

Are They Padded? The Reviews Disagree Cleanly.

This is the most contested claim on the listing. SUNMER calls them deluxe fully padded with a high-density foam-filled seat and backrest. Several reviewers second that and use the word 'comfy' so often it stops registering. The five-star count in the 100-review sample is 77, and 'comfortable' or 'comfy' appears in dozens of those.

But the dissent is loud and specific. One 2-star reviewer wrote 'I didn't think these were padded, the padding is so thin, not much different from the £7 ones at the supermarket.' A 4-star buyer hoped for more padding and noted the chair back was not high enough to rest a head. A 1-star buyer said there is no padding in the back and the material at the top crumples when you push your head against it.

Reading the disagreement carefully, two factors seem to predict which camp you land in. First, what you are comparing against. Buyers replacing a basic Argos folding chair rate the padding well. Buyers stepping down from a Gelert Executive or similar high-end chair feel the padding is thin. Second, your seating duration. Three hours appears to be the comfort cliff for several reviewers, after which the front edge becomes the problem regardless of padding.

The Carry Bag Is The Single Most Common Complaint

If there is one bit of feedback the SUNMER team should act on, it is the carry bag. The 100-review sample contains at least six separate complaints about it, and the words are blunt: 'rubbish', 'so thin', 'rips easily', 'torn after three or four uses', 'ripped taking them out for the first time'.

The chairs themselves often hold up well; the bag is what falls apart. One 4-star reviewer explicitly downgraded his rating because of the bag. Another did home repairs on a bag that arrived with an open seam.

There is a glimmer of better news. A reviewer from May 2025 said previous reviews had complained about the bag being tight, but the version she received was now spacious. So SUNMER may have widened the bag at some point. The thinness complaints, however, were still arriving in September 2025 and beyond, so it is not a fully solved problem.

Practical workaround: if you plan to keep the chairs in the boot of a car or in a garage with a draughty floor, transfer them to a sturdier holdall or simply leave them un-bagged. The chairs stand up on their own when folded, which several reviewers point out approvingly.

Height And Build: A Quick Buyer's Filter

Pull together every height and weight reference in the reviews and a clear pattern emerges. Use this as a rough pre-purchase check.

• 5ft 3in to 5ft 5in: Reviewers in this band rate the high back enthusiastically. Heads rest properly. Comfort scores are five-star.
• 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in (average build): Generally comfortable, occasional notes that the headrest could be a touch higher.
• 5ft 11in and above: One buyer at 5ft 11in with longer legs felt the front seat edge digging in. An over-six-foot husband reported the neck rest was not quite where he needed it. The chairs work, but they are not optimised for taller adults.
• Weight 90kg to 110kg: Confirmed to support up to 110kg comfortably for a three-hour sit. Beyond that, you are relying on the 120kg rating without direct review evidence.
• Top-heavy or chunky-thighed builds: Front-edge wedging is a real complaint. The seat is not generously wide at the front.

If you are under 5ft 8in and under 90kg, you will probably love these. If you are over 6ft and the chair will be your main seat for a long camping day, look for a chair with a longer seat pan and consider the Gelert Executive class instead.

Quality Control: The Bad Apples In The Sample

The 100-review sample contains five 1-star ratings. Reading them gives a fair picture of the failure modes:

• A snapped arm on first opening, with one reviewer requesting a refund.
• Rusty metal legs on a chair that arrived in that condition.
• Stitching coming away after the first use, a week outside the returns window.
• Arrived dirty.
• No padding in the back of the head area, which is more a fit complaint than a defect.

Two further 2-star reviews echo the stitching complaint or the padding thinness. So in the 100-review sample, about three or four chairs out of two hundred (remember each order is a pair) had a real manufacturing defect. That is not a catastrophic failure rate for a £49.99 set of two chairs sold on Amazon, but it does mean checking the carry bag and the stitching on arrival is worth your time, and noting Amazon's 30-day returns window if anything looks off.

Folding Back Up: The Other Common Gripe

Several reviewers report that getting the chair back into its bag is harder than getting it out. A 4-star buyer described it as 'a big challenge'. Another noted there is no strap to cinch the folded chair tight before sliding it into the sleeve. The carry bag opening is not always wide enough to swallow the folded chair back without coaxing.

None of this is a deal-breaker, but if you are planning to move the chairs in and out of a car boot every weekend, expect a small daily faff. The good news is that the chairs collapse fast once you have the technique; the bad news is that the technique takes a few goes to learn.

Two practical tips from the reviews. First, fold the chair and hold the top frame together with one hand while you slide it in. Second, if you are keeping these in a car or caravan permanently, ditch the bag entirely and use a tie strap.

What You Actually Get For £49.99

At £49.99 for the pair, the per-chair cost lands at around £25. That puts SUNMER in the upper mid-range of Amazon camping chairs, well above the basic £7 to £15 supermarket folders, well below a Helinox or Outwell premium model.

For that price, you are getting:

• Two padded folding chairs in black and grey.
• A reinforced steel frame rated to 120kg.
• A high back with light padding (taller users may want a head cushion).
• A cup holder on the left armrest.
• A phone holder on the opposite armrest (not in the listing photos).
• A side pocket suitable for a paperback or magazine.
• A flat-foot base that resists sinking on sand or soft grass.
• Two carry bags of contested durability.

Assembled dimensions are 60cm wide, 58cm deep, 110cm tall. Folded down they sit at 99cm by 15cm by 14cm, which is long but slim, so they slide flat along the floor of a boot or down the side of a hatchback rather than stacking. Weight per chair is 3.3kg.

Final Word, And A Buyer's Shortcut

The SUNMER set is not for everyone, but it is a clearer buy than its scattered reviews suggest. Here is the short version.

Buy them if: you are under 6ft, under about 100kg, and you want a comfortable second chair for the touchline, the beach, the festival queue, the caravan awning, or the corner of the garden when the proper furniture is still under its winter cover. The phone holder is a small but real upgrade over the £15 chairs. The high back makes a real difference if you want to doze.

Look elsewhere if: you are 6ft 2in or taller and want the chair as your main seat for a six-hour camping day, you carry a lot of weight up top with slimmer legs, or you need a backpacking-weight chair. The seat pan is not deep enough, the back edge of the seat is not soft enough, and 3.3kg per chair is too heavy to strap to a pack.

And whichever camp you are in, check the carry bag the moment it arrives. The chair itself is the bit you came for; the bag is the bit you might end up replacing.