Corsair HS80 RGB USB Wired Gaming Headset Review

A Closer Look & Performance

The Corsair range is already packed with impressive hardware, and they certainly have many of the best headsets on the market already! However, it’s clear there was still room for improvement, as this new one looks absolutely stunning! It still has the DNA of the models that came before it, but it just looks even sleeker and more stylish than ever before.

Obviously, I have the white and grey version, and while I have yet to see the black version in person, I don’t think I need to, as I’d choose this version all day long. The two-tone look is really nice, and while it’s a “gamer” headset, if I had to take a work Zoom call while wearing this headset, I don’t think it would look out of place.

The matte finish plastics have a nice “soft” touch to them, it’s more like an extremely hard-wearing rubber than a plastic, but it certainly has a nice smoothness and premium feel to it overall. And so it should, given it’s £110, you would want premium!

The Corsair logo is tastefully done, with a Patrick Bateman worthy business card like font, a far cry from the ol’ Corsair tramp-stamp logo, that’s for damn sure.

I even like the subtle font colour, rather than just a dark black logo.

The stronger outer headband is designed to sit above your head, and just provide overall rigidity to the headset. However, it uses an inner elastic headband to actually rest on your head. You can see the fabric passes through on each side like a belt, and there’s some Velcro on the inner, allowing you to adjust the range to suit your head size.

The side of the headset has a metal mounting arm, with two moving points. The first is at the V-shaped part, allowing for the ear cups to be fully rotated inwards. The second is where it joins the ear cup, and this allows a little wiggle each way to ensure a comfortable fit around your ears.

I love how close the arm is to the ear cups, it follows the shape and keeps things really tight and the overall ergonomics not only feel great, but they look great too.

The headset is packing some pretty potent 50mm drivers, and it all runs off of the hard-wired USB cable, so it’s just plug and play ready on any compatible system. This certainly makes them easy to use, but at this price range, I think not having a fully removable or replaceable cable isn’t ideal for me, and I would like to see Corsair improve this design on future models.

On the plus side, it’s a very nice cable, with a gorgeous white sleeving and a matching white USB header.

The aesthetics of this headset are nice, but again, I’m not a fan of how the cable attaches, it cheapens the design.

Much like the stylish logo on the headband, the product name is tastefully applied here too.

There are two controls on the headset, one for volume, and a mute/profile button. The wheel is an infinite scroll, and it’s easy enough to use while wearing the headset too and the texture makes it easy to index.

The microphone is fixed to the headset, which you may or may not like. I actually rarely use my headsets microphone, so I do prefer a fully removable design myself, but there are some advantages here.

Firstly, you can’t lose it, and honestly, I don’t know where my lovely detachable microphone is half the time… whoops! Plus, it has a flip to mute design, so in this position, you can tell your teammates what you really think of them.

Fold it down and it’ll unmute, meaning you can tell your teammates how much you love them. Corsair says it’s a “Broadcast-Grade Omni-Directional Microphone” and who am I to argue, it sounds gorgeous. Corsair has been equipping its gaming headsets with some of the best microphones in recent years, and that’s certainly still true.

As for the drivers, they’re pretty awesome too. The ear cups are quite large and come with a generous amount of memory foam and fabric padding. While I prefer a leather style ear padding, as it locks the sound in and provides more passive noise isolation in general, the thicker padding here does offer a similar, if a little lesser effect.

The Dolby 7.1 processing is awesome, with some of the better sounding surround processing on the market today. You’ll need the Corsair iCUE software on your computer to take full advantage of it though, but this does mean you have access to a powerful EQ system, as well as the RGB lighting customisation options too. Plus iCUE works with all Corsair hardware, so if you own a Corsair device, you likely already have this software anyway.

The sound is punchy, with exceptional clarity throughout the range. The drivers operate at 20Hz – 40kHz, with a 116 dB sensitivity, and that’s all powered with 24bit/96kHz processing. If you care about high-resolution audio, you’re going to love this headset. Even if you don’t understand all the numbers, the end results can simply be heard. There’s more detail and clarity, and less distortion than you’ll find on most headsets within this price range.

Overall, Corsair has knocked it out of the park with the acoustic performance of the drivers and the microphone, I really can’t fault either of them, they’re fantastic.