SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Headset
$199.99
$329.99
39% off
Reference Price
Condition: New
Color: Black
Top positive review
8 people found this helpful
Very good gaming headset on par, probably better than Astro A50
By Drawring Simon on Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2019
I've had this for a couple months now on my PS4 and am quite satisfied. I'm coming from a Gen 1 A50 that I've used for a very long time. The main reason I purchased is for the battery life and swapping feature. I typically go days without swapping, but if for some reason I forgot to swap, I can do so quickly and continue gaming. With A50's you need to plug in to charge. My old A50's battery life was a couple hours at most even after a new battery replacement. Granted, I know the new A50's get much better battery life, on par with the Arctis, but it's a plus nevertheless. I really appreciate never having to be tethered. BTW, swapping batteries on Astros are not easy, so that's another benefit of swappable batteries - you can just buy new ones if they eventually run out of charges. The sound quality is different than the Astros. Astros were definitely more bass heavy, but I quickly got used to the tighter sound on the Arctis. They definitely sound more crisp. Another difference is that the earcups on the Arctis are much more isolating. Again, it's different, not better or worse. However, while talking, you can still hear your own voice with the Sidetone feature that let's you set how much of your own voice you want to hear through your headset. I set mine very low, but you can turn off altogether if you want. Supposedly the mic quality on the Arctis is better than the Astros from what I read, but I don't really care since I don't listen to myself. Everyone heard me fine with both. One feature I really do miss is the flip up mic on the A50's. This is a tactile, binary mute indicator. I always knew I was muted with it flipped up. On the Arctis, there is a red light on the mic that indicates mute, but I have to actually look at a reflection to visually confirm its muted. On the plus side, it's nice to completely retract the mic so it's not even there on the Arctis. Not as crisp a design as the flip up/mute mic though. As far as comfort, they both felt good, neither stood out more than the other. For build quality, I prefer the Arctis surprisingly. The buttons and wheels just feel crisper. It seems like a more durable design at the key weak points as well. The two headsets are pretty close in all ways, just different. Aside from the battery swap which I think is the best, most practical feature for a wireless headset, there are a couple other things that made me choose this one over the A50 gen 3. The customizability of sound in the easy to reach mixer is nice but I don't change settings much myself. I heard the charging stand for the A50 is inconsistent and fussy, which makes total sense if you are trying to line up charging points. Also, it's a 3 year old headset at this point. Maybe gen 4 will blow us all away, but I needed a new one now. Another thing that's a plus on the Arctis is the bluetooth capability. I thought I would use it more, but haven't had the need yet in my setup. I have a dedicated BT headset and I just swap when I need to make a call. It could be useful if you don't have multiple headsets though. Overall, I am very satisfied with the headset. Sounds great, comfortable, and battery for days (recreational gamer), and quick swapping if you run out. But I would probably also be almost as satisfied with an updated A50.
Top critical review
14 people found this helpful
Features are cool but it's disappointed me from the beginning.
By Sam I Am on Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2023
The main chink in this Headset's armor is in the construction. The plastic that attaches the ear cups to each side of the metal headband has been designed poorly and can crack while taking the headset on and off your head. Especially it can be an issue if you have a big head . Mine Cracked. You think SteelSeries would cover it under warranty? WRONG! I tried to have SteelSeries perform a warranty for the defect and they told me no. They dont warranty that. On a 300$+ headset this is just unacceptable. And it gets worse. The drivers for the headset seem to be made so cheaply that the material crinkles when experiencing any pressure applied from taking the headsets on or off your head. Or even just pushing them down onto your ears. It was THE FIRST thing i noticed when i pulled them out of the box. For a High-fidelity headset - just why? The sidetone has also been a problem from the beginning. I went from using a simple 50$ Sony PS4 wireless headset to this and I expected the sidetone to just "work". With this headset, the sidetone was either really quiet or distorted. Their customer support was equally unhelpful with this. I think later they added a side tone control slider in the settings of the DAC... but for most of this headset's life, i've dealt with distorted sidetone (which by the way was NOT distorted to the users in game experiencing my microphone. So cool - only make me miserable. got it) The DAC that came with it also connects with a mini-USB cable. Doesnt SteelSeries know that USB-C is a thing? or at least Micro-USB. (of course they do. it's in their arctis nova pro wireless. but cmon. I bought this in 2020!) What if i need a long cable? Here i am buying a 10 ft USB-A to Micro-USB in 2020 To never be used again. if it were USB-C, I could at least repurpose the cable for other uses once i retire the headset. It's just insult to injury for an already expensive headset. The DAC also uses an OLED display. Hooray, right? Wrong! They didn't originally program a screen timeout function so if this was plugged into constant power (which it was), the volume level is constantly on display and incidentally BURNS itself into the screen. What else. OH! for some reason, the headset's software, SteelSeries GG, doesnt identify the headset in macOS so anything you wanted to do in-software, forget it. So if you want to have one headset that you use for both your Macbook PRO for work and gaming PC for home, you're out to lunch. This is still a thing with the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless as well! it's sort of detecting it, but any time you launch the configuration for the headset, it gives you sync up errors and closes the software. Nice one SteelSeries. As for the good, it allows you to connect to multiple devices. You can connect to say your PS5 and PC. Cool. not many headsets do that. It ALSO allows you to pair the headset via bluetooth whilst connected to those sources. Have you ever been on your phone in a Discord call while playing with your friend on PC from your PS4/5 feeling like you have to chose between hearing the game audio or your friend. It's a thing of the past. Have you ever had your partner call in the middle of a gaming session where now you're scrambling to find the mute button on your tv/receiver/soundbar just so you can pickup the call and talk to them? What if you could still hear your game AND talk to your partner? That's a thing. it's amazing. Has your headset ever died in the middle of team play banishing you from being able to talk to them until the headset charges up? or maybe pushing you to have to go wired? This headset has a backup battery that charges in the DAC so you can hot-swap. Great! Do i recommend this headset though? HELLL NO. Buy the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. DO NOT waste your time with this headset. And trust me, I feel really conflicted telling you to buy their newest headset instead of telling you to avoid the brand entirely based on my experience; However, they seemed to have fixed MOST (not all) of the design flaws from this headset in the newest iteration: - They've redesigned the headband system so the weak-link plastic is no more. - They've improved the material in the Drivers so the crinkling has mostly gone away. Sidetone is improved! - They've added Noise Cancelling (which for some users is bad because of how they chose to implement it essentially adding a microphone inside the earcup. It sticks out and pokes some unfortunate user's ears. This can be mitigated by getting 3rd party, larger ear cups) - It comes with two USB-C Ports which is a huge improvement (which still has issues because of the whole xbox/ps5 versions thing) **TLDR... XBOX has it's own, proprietary transmission protocol for their headsets so you have to get an XBOX version of the headset which hobbles one of the USB-C Ports on the back to only be fully compatible with xbox. not great if you want to be able to in the future use it for anything else other than an xbox and something else. Dont say I didnt warn you** They have, however, unfixed the oled display timeout fix on their DAC. Currently there is no way to time-out the display to prevent screen burn-in. WHY? As i mentioned before the GG Client doesnt really work on apple silicone with this headset. The transparency mode is okaaay. Happy it's here. Wish it was better. Cant speak to whether they've improved their customer experience. Fingers crossed i'll never have to call them. Thanks for listening. Good Luck!
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