A Closer Look & Performance
The headset comes with everything you need to get you rocking on your chosen hardware. There’s a USB-C dongle, all the audio and charging cables, and the ClearCast microphone.
The dongle is superb cool, and designed to hook right into a mobile device, Nintendo Switch, etc.
Remember to switch it to Xbox mode or PC USB mode as required.
The microphone is really nice quality, and the same one we’ve seen on previous high-end SteelSeries headsets, so I know it’ll be decent.
It uses a built-in pop filter and has a flexible boom.
The charging cable, audio cable and dongle cable. Yes, dongle cable, it’ll allow you to connect the Dongle to a standard USB port.
Build Quality
Right away, it’s easy for me to tell this is a quality product. It’s actually very similar to the rest of the Arctis range, and they haven’t tinkered with the ergonomics and materials much, if at all really. This design has been with us since their £250-300 flagship models from
The drivers use a close back design, which will help lock in the sound and also block out a lot of ambient noise too.
It uses the more breathable memory foam and fabric design, so it won’t completely block out noise but at least you won’t get sweaty ears. It’s tremendously comfortable though.
When it comes to ergonomics, the headset scores top marks. The ear cups can be turned completely inwards to help with comfort when worn around your neck. Of course, a little wiggle in each direction allows for a cleaner fit around your ears too.
I love how flush the headband mount is too, with a C shaped mound that blends into the top and sides of the ear cups. It much leaner and cooler than most headsets.
Down the side of the headset, you’ll find a microphone mute/unmute switch, so you can tell your friends what you really think of their gameplay and have them hear your or not… however you prefer. There’s a master volume wheel here too, as well as the 3.5mm jack and USB C port.
It’s such an easy headset to setup. The dongle is easily the best way, and gives the freedom of the wireless features. It plugs right into the Nintendo switch and you don’t have to tinker with anything, it just works. I used it on my S20+ to play some xCloud. Honestly, it was pretty fantastic. Given SteelSeries make a great Xbox controller and a mobile game for your phone, you can get your whole SteelSeries ecosystem rocking easily enough.
The drivers are familiar to me, as I’ve tested them in previous SteelSeries models. However, they were first introduced a couple of years ago on a model that was £200+, then last year on a model that was £150+ and now here we are at under £100! They’re extremely clean sounding, with plenty of volume and a fairly balanced sound overall. They handle an EQ well, and there’s a decent range of profiles built into the SteelSeries Engine software, but honestly, just using them as a plug and play headset, they sound great.
It doesn’t look or feel like a “gaming” headset, and I really like that. They feel and sound like good quality headphones. So if you’re wearing them on the bus, a long flight, even in the office, you should look or feel out of place. It sounds great in wired mode too, just hook up the cable and you can use the headset on basically anything with a 3.5mm output.
Their microphone design is certainly a big step up from the usual ones we tested. It’s got a larger head on it, and it use a bi-directional design with built-in noise cancellation. There’s side-tone monitoring via the software too, but overall, it does sound very natural and balanced.
