SteelSeries Arctis 5
Nice design, sound and mic... shame about the feels.
This reviewer is on a quest to find a gaming headset that sounds great, doesn’t overheat her head, doesn’t cost the sun and stars, and actually fits her more-compact dome.
The Arctis 5’s design is quite pleasing — simple, yet with enough flair to hold the attention. The elasticated suspension headband comes in a variety of fabric colours with an intricate geometric pattern. However, while this band can be adjusted, your reviewer’s little head has again fallen outside the designers’ user spectrum.
While the AirWeave ear cushions are pleasantly soft, they don’t provide quite the required depth to stop your ears from touching the thin layer of fabric that covers the hard-plastic drivers. And after extended periods of use, that pressure can result in sore ears. However, other head sizes may differ.
The ‘phones do have a great retractable mic which includes a mute button, and a volume control slider wheel (both on the left can), but no play/pause and next buttons. It also come with an in-line ‘ChatMix dial’, which allows you to tweak the balance of mic audio to game sound on the fly.
So how did they sound? Pretty great, actually. After we tweaked the preferences in the SteelSeries Engine 3 software, we found the balance to be just right while playing music and gaming. They apparently use the same 40mm speaker drivers that SteelSeries has put in their flagship $300 headsets, so it’s no surprise they sound so good. The 7.1-channel surround sound means you hear gunshots from all directions while in-game, enhancing the experience quite well.