Steelseries Arctis 9X Xbox One Wireless Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Steelseries Arctis 9X Xbox One Wireless Gaming Headset is available now for around £200. It’s not cheap, but you do get a lot of cool features for your money. However, unless you’re an avid Xbox user and love that dongle free wireless, it’s hard not to consider the equally brilliant Arctis 7, which is a fair bit cheaper right now.

Overview

Why pay the premium for the 9X when you could get the Arctis 7? Well, it’s lots of little things really. You have a longer battery life, a custom EQ feature, you can pair other Bluetooth devices even while paired with your Xbox. Of course, the direct pairing with the Xbox is neat too, as you don’t need a dongle. Well, you can use a Microsoft dongle to use it on PC; I already have one for my Xbox controller on PC, and both pair to the same dongle; that’s a win-win for me.

Flaws

It’s not perfect, but honestly, how many headsets really do everything right. The controls are a little fiddly, but they work well enough, so it’s not a deal breaker. Turning the headset on to use it with my mobile, or my PC, while it was last paired with the Xbox, turns on my Xbox. Then again, my damn Xbox One controller does the same thing, so it’s an issue I’m used to and not a deal breaker. It also supports 3.5mm cables for audio, but they didn’t include one, and I would like to see that included at this price. Again, not a deal breaker, but keep it in mind.

Flawless

The sound quality is fantastic. I’ve seen some snarky reviews on Amazon and legit think people set it up wrong. When configured, and you dial in the EQ, and setup your Xbox properly, you would have to have your ear drums in your nostrils to think it sounded bad. To each their own I guess. The drivers are clear, powerful, and while the built-in 7.1 is OK, I strongly suggest grabbing the Xbox Dolby Atmos app, as it really does sound great (just remember to leave the headset in stereo mode as the Xbox does the virtual processing). Overall, it’s comfortable, has great battery life, and sound superb for movies, music, and gaming. Oh, and let’s not forget the great microphone.