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Wireless Computer gaming headphones It is a necessity for me. Wired gaming headsets are very restrictive, tying you to your desk and restricting your movements during intense gaming sessions. However, there’s a big trade-off with wireless gaming headsets that I’ve always struggled with: battery life. Most gaming headsets simply don’t last long and require charging every day.
Lovingly stolen from my wife, SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite The headset breaks that standard with endless battery life. At $600, they are the most expensive pair Headphones I’ve used it before, but after months of use, I haven’t regretted the switch.
Pros:
- Effective active noise cancellation
- Two hot-swappable batteries, so I never run out of power
- A handy hub is included for equalizer, volume control and battery charging
- Comfortable fit and ear cups for hours of use
- Works across PC, PS5, Xbox, and mobile phones
Cons:
- SteelSeries software can be overwhelming
- Spatial audio is extraneous
- Expensive at $600
Worrying about battery is real with wireless gaming headsets. If it doesn’t come with a docking station (most affordable and mid-range models don’t), you need to actively remember to charge it; Otherwise, you’ll get an unpleasant surprise when you launch a game to find that your headset is broken.
This is not a problem with the Nova Elite. It comes with a removable and replaceable battery in the earcup, with a second battery available that can be kept on a constant charge in the included GameHub (essentially a digital audio adapter that acts as a battery charging station). When the headphone battery runs out, it’s simply a matter of removing the magnetic cover of the ear cup, removing the fully charged battery from the center and swapping in the new pack. Smooth and easy, exactly what I look for in a gaming headset.
The Nova Elite battery is removable and replaceable after taking off the earbud cover.
On paper, each battery lasts around 30 hours, giving you around 60 hours of continuous use – although in practice, that’s infinite as long as you charge the backup battery.
For some reason, if you don’t have access to a base station, you can also use USB-C fast charging by opening the cover of the other earpiece, allowing you to plug them in directly. I found that the SteelSeries’ fast charging feature—15 minutes of charging for up to four hours of use—lives up to its claim.
The Nova Elite’s battery is easy to remove. All you have to do next is remove the charged device from the dock and insert it.
With other gaming headsets I’ve used, e.g Dell Alienware Pro WirelessI usually have to charge them every two days. Battery life varies greatly based on my usage. the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless He performed much better. It’s rated for 300 hours of use, I don’t know if you’ve actually reached that, but I usually charge it once a month. However, with HyperX, I found that sometimes the auto power off wouldn’t work, and the battery would drain unexpectedly.
It’s also worth noting that the batteries in the Alienware and HyperX headsets are built-in, which means they will degrade over time; You won’t get the same amount of battery life as you did when it was new. I expect the Nova Elite to last longer because if the batteries stop fully charging, I can simply buy new ones.
Excellent audio capabilities and packed with features
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite features active noise cancellation, and it does a great job of countering most distracting background noise, including the clatter of the dryer we keep in my office, not to mention the sound of air purifiers, fans, and my three cats running around.
The Alienware Pro Wireless has slightly better noise cancellation, at least for voices, but it’s not enough to move the needle one way or another. Also, you’ll probably get better noise-canceling technology on Bluetooth headphones like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra, but for all my gaming needs, the Nova Elite is more than enough to let me hear voice and voice chat.
The Nova Elite features powerful noise cancellation and a built-in slide-out microphone for voice chats.
SteelSeries says the Nova Elite are the world’s first gaming headsets with high-resolution audio, featuring 96kHz/24-bit audio processing and support for low-latency codecs. With the caveat that I’m not an audiophile, the sound quality is impressive.
To give you some context, I dabbled briefly in some of the best wired headphones, like the AKG K7XX and Sennheiser HD650, before deciding it was just an expensive hobby. But for what it’s worth, the Nova Elite sounds great with Spotify’s new lossless audio setting.
I’m someone who prefers bass-heavy music, and my equalizer settings reflect this. The headphones sound great, deep and thunderous with my usual collection of metal favorites (Sabaton, Hammerfall, Stormwarrior, Iron Maiden, Powerwolf). I also play a lot of RPGs, strategy games, and some co-op games with my wife. The audio across different game types is excellent.
Since I love playing games and listening to music loudly, it’s also great to use over-ear headphones to help protect my hearing. My colleague Anna Gragert recently She wrote about her hearing loss And the benefits of using over-ear headphones like these.
The headphones are comfortable to install, and the one I have comes in a dark green color.
What’s worth noting is that while the Nova Elite headphones are very comfortable for me thanks to the plush ear cups and comfortable fit on the headband, not all headphones are created equal and won’t work well for everyone. My colleague, Tyler Lacoma, has several recommendations for tweaking Your headphones For all-day comfort.
The GameHub, which also doubles as a volume control and battery charger, provides a great central place to display audio resolution, L/R balance, volume, battery life, and the USB-C input in use. It has three USB-C ports in total, with support for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, and 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. It’s a solid set of connectivity options and saves you having to buy different headsets for different platforms.
The program is highly customizable, but it has some complications
If there’s any downside, it’s the SteelSeries software, which needs to run in the background most of the time for features, like custom EQ settings for gaming or music, to work. However, the software offers preset profiles for a wide range of games you can choose from, though most of the time I stick with my preferred Deep Bass setting.
I don’t find the SteelSeries software to be particularly easy to use, as it has too many panels and too few settings and toggles. It’s a nice set of customization options if you’re really interested in tweaking the EQ settings, but 9 out of 10 times, the simple bass boost option works great for me.
The Nova Elite comes with a DAC/base station that gives you access to volume controls and connected devices and also acts as a battery charging dock.
I’ll also add that I never use sonar, which is spatial audio meant to emulate a home theater experience. It can also be used in games to hear things like footsteps behind you or to help locate an enemy.
Since I don’t play a lot of competitive shooters where this would be useful, and I don’t like feeling like I’m only hearing sound from one earpiece, I find it more distracting than anything else. Enabling it also reduces overall sound quality and clarity.
The most expensive gaming headset I’ve ever used, but well worth it
At $600, the Nova Elite isn’t cheap, but the features help make up for it.
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite is certainly pricey at $600, but it has a lot to make it worth it to me, including high-quality sound, powerful ANC technology, swappable batteries, and cross-platform compatibility.
However, SteelSeries offers a less expensive option at $380 Arctic Nova Pro Wireless. These headphones also come with a GameHub and two sets of interchangeable batteries, but they have a limited set of dock connectivity options and a slightly lower build quality. You still get most of the other key features, including ANC.
You can also find other affordable options on our list of the best Computer gaming headphones. I don’t have anything bad to say about the Cloud Alpha Wireless — CNET named it the longest battery life on a single charge. However, if price is no object, I’d recommend the Nova Elite every time.