SteelSeries Arctis 7 Review: The Complete Package
Our Verdict
The SteelSeries Arctis vii sets the standard for what a wireless gaming headset should exist: functional, versatile and practical.
For
- Great sound
- Comfortable fit
- Reasonable price
- Seamless wireless
Confronting
- Fine-tuning music takes some work
- Roundabout phone and speaker functionality
Tom's Guide Verdict
The SteelSeries Arctis vii sets the standard for what a wireless gaming headset should be: functional, versatile and practical.
Pros
- +
Neat audio
- +
Comfortable fit
- +
Reasonable price
- +
Seamless wireless
Cons
- -
Fine-tuning music takes some piece of work
- -
Roundabout phone and speaker functionality
UPDATE, 5/17: The SteelSeries Arctis vii has been effectively replaced by the SteelSeries Arctis 7P/7X. The design and functionality is identical, but the 7P/7X uses a USB-C adapter to facilitate wireless connections with a greater range of devices. Consult our SteelSeries Arctis 7P/7X review for more details.
The SteelSeries Arctis has been on our list of the all-time gaming headsets ever since information technology first launched. The simply headset with similar versatility is the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless. However, the Arctis 1 Wireless doesn't take the same comfortable elastic headband or premium sound as the Arctis 7, making the Arctis 7 a better overall investment for the PC and the PS4.
If you're going to pay a premium for a wireless gaming headset, it should sound great, of course, but it should likewise exist comfortable, work with equally many devices as possible and look stylish. The SteelSeries Arctis 7 ($150) achieves all of these aims with flight colors, and at a reasonable toll to kicking.
- SteelSeries Arctis 9 review
- Logitech G733 review
- Turtle Embankment Stealth 600 Gen 2 review
While you'll have to rely on a few annoying work-arounds to brand utilise of every feature, the Arctis seven sets the standard for what the all-time gaming headsets should be: functional, versatile and practical. Read on in our full SteelSeries Arctis vii review to learn what we thought.
SteelSeries Arctis 7 specs
Compatibility: PS4, Xbox 1, Switch, mobile, PC| Drivers: 40mm | Frequency Response: 20 Hz - 20 kHz | Wireless: Yes
SteelSeries Arctis 7 price and availability
The SteelSeries Arctis 7 normally retails for $150. It's usually like shooting fish in a barrel to observe on both Amazon and Best Buy.
SteelSeries Arctis 7 design
As you tin encounter in our review of the SteelSeries Arctis 5, the advent of the Arctis vii is nearly identical. The headset is sleek and sophisticated, with an elegant, streamlined advent and an absolutely foolproof adjustable headband. Rather than having to monkey around with rigid extendable rods, you just adjust 2 Velcro straps, and the flexible headband will conform to your head'southward size and shape.
- The all-time gaming mouse
- Too consider the best gaming keyboards
Past that, the Arctis 7 comes in either black or white, and there's nothing in particular to draw the middle. Y'all could easily clothing the headset on the subway without getting a second glance, and while the Arctis seven is a bit bigger than a standard gear up of audio headphones, it'south still small-scale enough that you can toss it in a backpack. You can even rotate the ear cups to make the device prevarication flat.
The right ear cup houses a power push and a chat volume slider. A regular volume slider resides on the left ear cup, along with a micro USB port for charging and a proprietary port that can connect to a 3.5mm audio jack for mobile listening. Although the Arctis 7 requires power for wireless and surround-sound functionality, yous can listen to any you lot want with the audio jack, whether or not the device has power.
The headset's elastic ring consistently provides much more reliable and comfortable results than trying to extend 2 extremely fickle notched arms.
SteelSeries Arctis seven comfort
As discussed above, the elastic ring makes finding the perfect fit with the Arctis 7 easy. I'm constantly surprised that of all the major headset manufacturers, only SteelSeries has embraced this approach, which consistently provides much more reliable and comfortable results than trying to extend two extremely fickle notched arms.
The ear cups created a tight seal effectually my ears, but I never felt that the cups pushed down likewise hard. My only issue was that they tended to bounce around while I walked, meaning that they could prove frustrating if you plan to wear them while out and about. Tightening the Velcro strap alleviated this problem, although getting the perfect residual between comfort and fit involved some trial and mistake.
I handed the Arctis 7 off to a co-worker, who generally found them very comfy. He said the ear cups felt likewise snug at first just grew on him after well-nigh half an hour. He also cited the device'due south lightweight experience as a do good — not surprising, considering that the peripheral weighs just 9.nine ounces.
SteelSeries Arctis 7 gaming performance
Similar its wired counterpart, the Arctis 7 provides stellar gaming options — if yous're willing to do some legwork. With both stereo and DTS 7.1 surround sound, too as a plethora of equalization options, you can get wildly different configurations from the headset, whether you want to heed to music or have a Skype chat. Luckily, setting up game profiles is pretty simple.
Environs sound in Overwatch made my foes' footsteps audio immediate and urgent, while using the Immersion setting for The Witcher 3 provided a clean balance among dialogue, swordplay and the pounding gale of a storm at body of water.
Using the SteelSeries Engine 3 software, y'all can toy around with the environs-audio and equalization settings, so create profiles and link them to individual games and programs. I tested sound profiles with Overwatch, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops and Marvel Heroes to see how the headset tackled multiple genres.
On the Apartment equalization option with Stereo sound, everything sounded proficient, from Captain America's boxing cries to the death screams of Zerg every bit Terran armies mowed them down. A niggling chip of tweaking, however, made things audio great. Environment sound in Overwatch made my foes' footsteps and my teammates' cries for assistance sound immediate and urgent, while the Immersion setting in The Witcher three provided a clean residuum among dialogue, swordplay and the pounding gale of a storm at bounding main.
You can as well rig upwardly the Arctis 7 with a PS4 or Xbox One by plugging the audio jack into a controller (the PS4 also works wirelessly with the USB dongle). Although you'll have to sacrifice the surround-audio options, the peripheral still provides good audio, and the mic is excellent for competitive multiplayer matches.
SteelSeries Arctis 7 music operation
For music, the Arctis 7 doesn't quite live up to its gaming functioning. I listened to tracks from Flogging Molly, Old Crow Medicine Show and the Rolling Stones, as well every bit G.F. Handel's "Messiah," and I was pleased by the neat balance among vocals, treble instruments and bass instruments. Surround sound made choral pieces sound like I was sitting in a cathedral, while stereo sufficed for all my favorite rock and punk hits.
On the other hand, for each new track, I had to open the Engine 3 software and toy around with information technology before I found the right balance of surroundings-sound and equalization options for each genre. Both the environs and stereo modes have Music presets, and they both sound pretty good, near of the time. On Flogging Molly's "Salty Canis familiaris," the default modes de-emphasized vocals too much, while those modes provided 1 of the best renditions of "Permit It Drain" by the Rolling Stones I'd ever heard.
That the music options are inconsistent on a gaming headset is unsurprising and somewhat forgivable. Music sounds good, and everyone simply the virtually dedicated audiophiles could use the Arctis 7 as an everyday music headset. But if there'due south 1 category where this headset but misses top operation, information technology's in how the device handles music.
SteelSeries Arctis 7 features
Outset and foremost, the Arctis 7 is a wireless headset. Simply plug in a wireless amplifier to a USB port on your computer, pair that amplifier with the headset, and you're good to become. The wireless is crystal clear, and worked from upwards to almost 30 anxiety in my tests.
The Arctis 7 runs on the SteelSeries Engine three software, a clean, intuitive and well-designed program that keeps tabs on just about every modern SteelSeries peripheral. In addition to setting upward sound profiles, y'all can also toy around with mic options; otherwise, the plan doesn't offer too many bells and whistles for this particular peripheral. Dissimilar on the Arctis 5, there are no colored RGB lights on the ear cups. In my opinion, this is a negligible loss, as users can't see colored lights on their ain headsets anyway.
1 thing in particular that I liked was the programme's Library sections, where it keeps tabs of all the profiles you lot've created for diverse games, and stores every peripheral's profile under the aforementioned heading. If y'all've made a mouse, keyboard and headset profile for The Witcher 3, for case, yous'll come across them all in the same box. This is a very convenient way to sync all of your peripherals, provided they all come up from SteelSeries.
Y'all can also leverage the device's wireless capabilities for a phone or speaker, although doing so is a petty convoluted. By supplying your own audio cable, y'all can plug a phone into the amplifier, or the amplifier into a speaker. While this is not as user-friendly equally having Bluetooth built in, it does hateful that you can stream wireless audio to and from more than than but a computer and a headset, which is more than I expected from a $150 wireless peripheral.
The headset also comes with a retractable, flexible mic in the left ear cup. Like the mic on the Arctis 5, information technology'due south a high-end device that captures audio in articulate and subtle patterns, although information technology still goes a bit heavy on the "p" and "s" sounds. I wouldn't record a podcast with it, but information technology's more than than adequate for competitive gaming or streaming on Twitch.
Other SteelSeries Arctis models
There are other varieties of Arctis headset, including the Arctis 3 and the Arctis v. While the headsets share similar designs and features, the Arctis iii and the Arctis 5 are not quite as high-end equally the Arctis 7. The Arctis 3 ($eighty) connects simply via 3.5mm jack, meaning users can't tweak equalization options. The Arctis five ($100) has a USB connectedness. Neither the 3 nor the 5 has wireless features, which is the primary reason that the Arctis seven costs more than.
More recently, SteelSeries debuted the SteelSeries Arctis 9: a $200 wireless headset with Bluetooth features. If you wished the SteelSeries Arctis seven had wireless compatibility with mobile devices, this is probably the gadget for you. Even so, the sound quality is about the aforementioned every bit Arctis 7, then you lot're essentially paying an extra $50 for Bluetooth functionality. Whether that'southward worthwhile depends on how much you apply your phone for music and games.
SteelSeries Arctis vii verdict
Considering that wireless headsets tin can run hundreds of dollars, and PC-centric ones often leave out of import features like 3.5mm jacks, it's refreshing that the Arctis 7 offers the complete package for only $fifty more than its wired counterpart. While some of the features require a footling legwork from the user, nothing is difficult, and everything works exactly as it's supposed to. Add in swell audio — for games more so than music — and the Arctis 7 is a hard suggestion to resist. We haven't arrived at the perfect gaming headset just yet, but our SteelSeries Arctis 7 review demonstrates that this is about as close as any visitor has come.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/steelseries-arctis-7,review-4140.html
Posted by: gilmanskiner.blogspot.com
0 Response to "SteelSeries Arctis 7 Review: The Complete Package"
Post a Comment