Patriot Viper V360 PC Gaming Headset Review

A Closer Look

The Viper comes hard-wired with a thick and good quality USB cable. The headset uses a built-in sound card, so you’re good to just plug and play, with no need to rely on your onboard soundcard hardware.

The headset looks pretty stylish, with  a matte black finish on the ear cups, and matching black hardware for the headband. There’s a little touch of red to the switches and the Viper logo, which is quite common for gaming hardware and should match up nicely with a lot of people’s setups.

The controls on the side of the headset are pretty cool, as we’ve got a UBR mode switch for “ultra bass response” that will fire up the secondary sub drivers for extra kick, a master volume wheel and an LED lighting power switch. The mesh section of the ear cups at the back is LED backlit and we’ll see that in action shortly.

The overall shape and size of the headset are aesthetically pleasing and it uses an auto-adjusting headband design to provide an easy and comfortable fit.

The inner headband has some soft padding on the interior but is quite durable overall. The extra wide design is good too, as it helps distribute the weight of the headset more evenly, making it more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

The foam on the drivers is quite tough but large enough to provide an over the ear design. There’s a nice quality fabric covering too, which doesn’t completely block airflow to your ears, preventing them from getting sweaty after long gaming sessions, but that does come at the cost of not blocking as much ambient noise; that’s not a bad thing, it’s just one way of doing it.

Tucked into the side of the left ear cup is a fold up microphone, hidden just out of sight and that’s great for those times you really don’t want to use it.

Simply pull the microphone down when you want to chat and you’re good to go. The microphone is nothing amazing, not that I was expecting it to be at this price range, but it’s bright and clear and we never had any issues without throughout our testing. If you’re using it for team chat, or just a few Skype calls, you’ll be more than happy with it.

The performance is certainly interesting on this headset, with a decent amount of power at maximum volume that’s great for giving your games, movies or music a bit of extra kick. However, the bass is a little low by default, you can up this by enabling the UBR, which gives it a much fuller sound, but to my ears it seems to add a slight reverb to the lower end too. It does add a minor vibration to the headset too, albeit that this is by design to help you “feel” the sound a little more. I quite like the effect, but it may not be to everyone’s liking.

For movies and music, I tend to find that leaving the UBR off gives the best result, but it’s certainly enjoyable while gaming, as it gives everything a bit of more a wow factor. They’re not the most accurate drivers ever, but they’re about on par for this price range and part of the market. Using the downloadable software, you can also dive into the virtual surround mode, which does add a nice dynamic to the sound overall. It gives it a much broader range and certainly works well for gaming. Again though, for movies and music, I found the more direct audio of the stereo mode to be the most satisfying, but your personal taste will of course vary.

The headband does tend to be a little stiff for those with bigger heads and it can take a while for it to break into a more comfortable fit. Not a bad thing, but something worth keeping in mind if you have a fairly big head shape, as this headset isn’t as close-fitting as I would like on me personally, but seemed fine for everyone else in the office.

Firing up the headset and turning on the lights, you get these lovely red backlights on the driver. Of course, they’re purely aesthetic but the do look quite cool overall.