Positive Posture Brio Plus Massage Chair Review

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Last week we looked at the Positive Posture Sol: a compact massage chair which has gained a solid reputation over the years as a reliable, cost-effective option that is able to still deliver an effective massage.

Now I should preface all of our discussion by saying that I have never reviewed the original Brio – it’s on my list of chairs to review but just haven’t gotten to it yet.

From what I am seeing, the Brio Plus is very much an improved extension of the original. If you’re wondering about specific differences, don’t worry as I plan on talking about these in much more detail later on in the post!

For now, let’s look at what the Brio Plus is capable of!

Before we get into the 5 features, I wanted to share an initial impression.

When it comes to massage chair technology, there are 3 different roller types – 2D, 3D, and 4D. 4D is the most advanced in roller technology and that’s because it’s able to offer about as close to the “human touch” as possible. The intensity range on a 4D chair is far more varied, the roller control far more sensitive, and the motion much more than on 2D/3D systems.

#1 4D Rollers Mounted On An L-Track—The Key To Brio Plus’ Success!

I touched on this briefly above, and so here I’ll go in more detail.

Right, what are 4D rollers anyways? And before that….what are rollers!?

Do you currently own a car? If you do, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the primary/integral component is the engine – without an engine, there’s no combustion, and without combustion you ain’t going anywhere!

There are 3 types of rollers you can find on massage chairs – 2D, 3D, or 4D where “D” stands for dimensional. Here’s a quick and dirty summary of each one!

2D Rollers

2-dimensional therefore you should think 2 types of motion. In this system, the rollers can traverse vertically along the spine, and horizontally from one side of the back to the other. Up/down, and side to side movement is what you can expect.

3D Rollers

Exact same as 2D rollers with one major difference: 3D rollers can also protrude in/out, and in case you didn’t realize, this is a massive thing. Why? Because it allows so much more variation in massage intensity – from a milder massage to deep tissue.

4D Rollers

Just like 3D was an upgrade to 2D, 4D is an upgrade to 3D. Again, it’s the same as 3D with one added element: speed control is automatic and adjusts by itself depending on the massage technique being employed at that given moment in time.

#2 56 Air Cells Equipped & Designed To Deliver A Total Compression Massage!

This is another feature that had me pleasantly surprised.

What do I mean by this? Having a good roller system is paramount, but also very important is that a chair should be designed and equipped with a sufficient number of compression air cells/bags. It should also have some means/mechanism to massage the lower parts of the body such as the calves, and feet.

That being said, it’s very impressive to see that the Brio Plus has a total of 56 individual air cells, from the shoulder area, down to the arms and hands, all the way down to the calves and feet.

Image below shows you the approximate air cell locations.

While air cells are definitely important for a number of reasons (delivering compression massage, and holding the body in place), they are definitely not the “be all end all” so to speak. Important to keep that in mind as you search and compare massage chairs.

#3 10 Carefully Choreographed Auto Modes To Pick From

Auto modes keep things easy – especially when you’re as lazy as I am! I just wanna hop into my chair, push a few buttons and then let the chair do its thing!

The Brio Plus comes loaded with 10 preset auto modes which I’m told have been very meticulously designed and choreographed by the development team over at Positive Posture.

I think the latter is often overlooked by most massage chair manufacturers. Kudos to Positive Posture for actually taking the effort to make sure that the end user enjoys the experience!

What are the 10 auto modes? Quick, meditate, low back, relax, refresh, stretch, neck & shoulders, full body, feet & calves, and full body air massage function. If you want to check out a short description of what each one of these modes does, click here to check it out in the user manual.

#4 A Comprehensive Heat Therapy System!

Heat therapy, or I should say effective heat therapy is integral to a good massage.

Why is this? Application of heat to the muscles and tissues does a lot of things – most importantly it helps loosen up the tight and rigid muscles/tissues thereby priming the body for receiving massage.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t expecting this. I’d have been a tad disappointed if the Brio Plus didn’t have this feature, because I have seen other 4D chairs (more on these later) that have the same heated roller technology.

In addition to heated rollers, there are also heating pads/elements located in the lower back, calves, and feet region. Again, really cool stuff from Positive Posture here. I’m really liking what I’m seeing thus far!

#5 No Calf Rollers, But Shiatsu Pads Are Pretty Useful!

Okay, I am a little disappointed to not see the Brio Plus come with calf rollers, but….

Positive Posture has improvised a little and instead decided to include these shiatsu pads – one pad per leg. Below is what these pads look like.

Okay so the way these are supposed to work is that with every calf air cell pulsation, these pads will dig into the calves and be more effective at loosening up and breaking fascia and tension, compared to what the air cell alone would be able to do.

Some calf rollers (not all!) are designed to stay in place in one position of the calf and simply “rotate and roll” in that single position. Because of this, the calf massage you would receive is limited/focused to one particular area. These shiatsu pads might be able to offer more….just my theory though, but who knows!

(Note: This is an affiliate link.)

(Note: This is an affiliate link.)

To give you a fair and honest answer, I think it’s important for us to go through a comparison to see how the Brio Plus stacks up against other 4D chairs of similar capabilities. We’ll be comparing the Brio Plus with 2 really solid 4D chairs – Osaki’s 4D Escape, and the OHCO M.8.

I’ll tell you what I would pick: OHCO M.8 hands down! I mean the thing has doors for crying out loud, which other massage chair have you seen that has doors!? Doors aside, it’s a beast right from the roller tech all the way right down to the auto modes, and 48 airbag system.

Taking this into account and factoring the price, the Brio Plus looks like a pretty darn good chair – for all that it’s able to offer in terms of features and technology.

My final recommendation is as follows: get the M.8 if you can afford to do so, you won’t be disappointed. Otherwise, the Brio Plus is a fantastic choice at a reasonable price tag!

You’ll recall earlier in the post I briefly touched on the Brio? In case you didn’t know, the Brio is the original chair, and the Brio Plus is a revamped version of the original. But what are the differences between both chairs anyways? Let’s look at this some more!

#1 Difference In Roller Technology

While both the original Brio and Brio Plus boast 4D L-Track rollers, the newer Brio Plus has larger rollers with newer and better software.

#2 Auto Modes & How They Have Been Choreographed

Another significant difference between the Brio and Brio Plus is the difference in auto modes. Both chairs have 10 auto modes so there is no difference in the number of modes.

The development team at Positive Posture have taken a lot of time to make sure that all the auto modes on the Brio Plus are super enjoyable to the user, of course while maintaining the massage effectiveness.

#3 Air Massage—Improved Design

Another area where the Brio Plus outdoes its younger brother is air massage.

The additional airbag numbers on the Plus have meant a more improved massage experience in the foot/calf region – something that was slightly lacking on the original.

These are the main key differences between the original Brio and the new and improved Brio Plus. The Brio Plus also has a USB charging port, something that the original doesn’t. I don’t consider this to be super important, so I didn’t talk about it in much detail above.

Last but not least, the Brio original is discontinued so you probably won’t have much luck finding it. I’d be surprised if you did, but anything is possible these days!

I think we’ve covered all we can about the Brio Plus. All in all, it’s a fantastic chair that has garnered some solid reputation and that really doesn’t surprise me!

Last but not least, drop a comment and let’s talk! What are you looking for? How can I help? Maybe there are some questions you may have, and I can certainly help wherever I can. I love hearing from you guys!

Ciao for now, and we’ll see you next time!