Steelseries Arctis 7 Unboxing & Review: Best Wireless Gaming Headset Under $100?
- protonbehz
- Jan 5, 2018
- 4 min read
Overall Thoughts:
I bought the Steelseries Arctis 7 on sale for $100 and it usually retails for $150. The Arctis 7 supports PC's and consoles but when it comes to the Xbox One, you can't use it as a wireless gaming headset and have to use a 3.5mm cable to plug it in your controller which is included in the box. Now this is a very popular headset and even on the box it says "Best Gaming Headset" by PC Gamer and it also claims to have the best mic. So with all of that being said, is it really worth $100 and should you go buy it? Let's find out!
Starting off with the design, it's really sleek and sharp and definitely comes off as a high end premium gaming headset. The ear cups themselves are plastic and it has tactile rubber coating on the surface with the Steelseries logo. The headband is metal and it has a black and gray band that goes around the headset and it really looks unique. Now the band is customizable and you can go on their website and they have different designs that you can choose from for $14.99. For flexibility, the Arctis 7 is pretty flexible and you can stretch them out and twist and turn them in different angles with just a tad bit of resistance. Also, the ear cups can only turn in one direction and are not that flexible.
As far as the buttons, starting off with the left ear cup, it has a mute button, volume slider, mini usb (which has a 3.5mm on the other end of the cable), a 3.5mm input for audio sharing, micro usb for charging, and it has the retractable mic which is also bendy. On the right ear cup, it has a in game and chat volume slider as well as the power button. The wireless transmitter connects to your PC through the USB and it has a pairing button on the side and a line in/out on the back so you can for example plug in your computer speakers and manage your headset. On the front, it has a LED and if it's solid, then that means the connection is good and if it's blinking then that means it either is in sleep mode or not connected.
When it comes to range and you can get around 30ft and still maintain a solid connection. The battery life says 15 hours on the box but there was a firmware update on the Steelseries Engine where it was advertised that you get 24hrs but it's more around 20hrs ish which is still really good. You can indicate the battery life with either the power button blinking meaning it's not fully charged or on the Steelseries Engine which has a little bar indicator. Also, if the battery runs out, you can still continue using these through a wired connection.
When it comes to the comfort, the Steelseries Arctis 7 are pretty comfortable and provide a really nice stable fit with not too much clamping force and can easily wear them for hours. The ear cushions are soft and feel nice but they are not thick enough in my opinion and if it was a little bit thicker, it would of definitely made it even more comfortable. So these are a one size fits all with no height adjustment and the only thing you can adjust is how long or short the band should be so if you have a bigger head, especially with a lot of hair, then you might experience a little bit of discomfort simply because
So let's talk about the sound. The Arctis 7 is very impressive and it has great clarity, detailed mids and highs with a really lean bass and not bass heavy in my opinion and overall produces a really clear neutral sound. On the Steelseries Engine, you have an equalizer where you can adjust the sound based on your preference. On the top, you have the DTS 7.1 Surround Sound and this is how you turn it on and it only supports PC and not consoles simply because you need the software to turn it on. You can also save your settings and then create new profiles and it will save each customization.
Gaming on the Steelseries Arctis 7 is absolutely incredible and creates a nice gaming experience! The sound provides a nice sense of awareness with your environment with lots of clarity and detail. There are two different modes that you can use, stereo and the surround sound mode. The stereo mode provides sound that close to you whereas the surround sound is really spacious and spread out. Stereo mode would be better for first person games because you want to easily hear enemy footsteps once they get near. Surround sound would be better for games like Assassins Creed because it's an open world with sound coming from different areas. Music sounded better with music with instruments and vocals because it has great clarity and sounds crisp and clear. Between stereo and surround sound, there really wasn't a huge difference when it comes to music.
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