Patriot Viper V360 PC Gaming Headset Review

Peter Donnell / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The RRP on this headset is around £40, and I’ve seen a few retailers shipping it for around £45, which is a fair enough price for what you get. However, a quick bit of Google-Fu will find you one for closer to £30, and that’s pretty good value for money overall, especially given the durable build quality and clean design of the V360.

Overview

The first headset from Patriot isn’t the greatest headset on the market today, but it was never really intended to be anyway. It’s not without its flaws, such as the fact it doesn’t seem to sit flush to your ears at the bottom of the ear cups if you have a fairly large head; a common problem with auto-adjusting headband designs. That being said, the headband is quite stiff, especially compared to the forgiving spring mechanism used on the similarly designed headband of the SteelSeries Siberia headsets, which fit me perfectly. Also, the bass mode does add a good bit of thump to the sound, but also a little reverb, likely as a side effect of the vibration that it adds to the headset; you might like this, you might not, either way, at least you can turn it on and off at will.

The overall build quality on this headset is rock solid, by far some of the best you’ll find at this price. It’ll stand up to quite a few hard knocks and bumps with little or no concern and I’m certain that it’ll last a long time. The thick and braided cable is a welcome touch too, as it’s durable while also looking pretty stylish. The matte finish rubber coating on the headset not only looks great, highlighting the red accents nicely, but is also quite resistant to scratches and easy to clean too.

The built-in and fold-away microphone is a nice touch, as I don’t use a microphone often and remembering where I put my detachable one can often be a pain. However, having this one that folds up into the ear cup where you can’t see it is a welcome bonus, and it’s always in easy reach when you need it. It’s quite a short boom, but it picks up your voice nice and clear and works perfectly well for calls and gaming at your desktop.

Overall, a pretty good headset with decent sounding drivers, a few nice bonus features, and a durable design; which is about all you could hope for at this price range. If Patriot can up their game a little in the next version, tightening up the bass without the need for the UBR mode, and improving the fit, I’ll happily give their next headset our Editors Choice Award, but for today, this is still a good value for money budget headset, just look for a more forgiving design if you have a large head.

Pros

Durable build quality
On-headset controls
LED lighting
UBR mode adds extra kick to the bass
Thick braided cable
Built-in USB sound card
Retractable microphone
Affordable price
Virtual surround mode

Cons

Bass (without UBR enabled) could be improved
Headband is quite stiff, making it unsuitable for those with larger heads
Slight reverb caused by UBR

“Patriot may be a leading memory manufacturer, but their first move into the world of gaming peripherals is a promising start. It’s not the best headset in the world, but it has a good range of features, build quality and performance that are most welcome at such an affordable price.”