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Xbox Wireless Headset review: our new top recommendation for Xbox
Of course, having two connection methods available also provides a great degree of flexibility – I’m using it now, listening to chilled hip-hop beats in the garden while hammering on a mechanical keyboard, and later I’ll be using it to play Rocket League and Tetris Effect in the living room. The actual sound quality is better than I was expecting too, with a boosted low end that’s just right for playing immersive single-player titles or listening to bassier genres of music. This headset could sound even better if it supported wired 3.5mm or a higher-quality Bluetooth codec like apt-X, but this would require added complexity or additional license fees, respectively, so again the capabilities chosen here make sense. The headphones provide reasonable imaging in their stereo mode too, making them a good choice for Call of Duty, Fortnite and other competitive multiplayer titles. The clamping force here is a touch gentler than what I’m used to, so it’s less suitable for active use – say, for working out in the gym or going for a jog, as the headset can slip off easily. Still, given the aggressive price point and the gaming focus, it’s easy to understand why these features didn’t make the cut, and the overall comfort levels are excellent. There’s also an auto-mute function, where the mic is deactivated if it doesn’t detect you speaking, to prevent your family conversations being broadcast to your public Call of Duty lobby. The SteelSeries Arctis 7X provides a more comfortable “ski google” design with a better microphone and slightly better audio, plus PlayStation 5 support, but these headphones do cost more at around £160/$150 and don’t include Bluetooth.
I’d even suggest that this headset is a little unfair for Microsoft’s peripheral partners like SteelSeries and Corsair, who are now facing much stiffer competition than we’ve previously seen from a first-party product. (That’s not to say that, for example, Sony’s Pulse 3D headset is bad, but there are certainly a greater number of good alternatives at a similar price point.) If you’re after a gaming headset that will play well on your Xbox with the versatility to also work on a Windows PC or a smartphone, this is a great choice.
Xbox Wireless Headset review
We’d expect to pay triple the price to experience this sort of sound quality, particularly from a wireless headset, though there is a caveat you need to bear in mind. We found that to get the most out of these headphones, you’ll need to spend time tweaking the EQ in the Xbox Accessories app to dial in exactly how you want them to sound. You’ll probably get a richer, slightly fuller tone from the boom mics found on competing headphones, but the Xbox Wireless Headset’s microphone sounds great, and has clever technology like auto-mute to eliminate background noise when you’re not speaking. The overall design of the headset is also superb, with a premium feel that completely belies the cheaper price point Microsoft has managed to achieve.
The all-black design is embellished with tasteful touches, such as the thin green rings that surround the outside of each earcup and the embossed Xbox logo on the right-hand side. The inside of the earcups, which are handily marked with large ‘L’ and ‘R’ letters, also have a faint green hue that seeps through the mesh, as the driver’s are also coated in Xbox’s familiar brand color. Adjusting volume or balancing game and voice chat is nothing short of a pleasure on the Xbox Wireless Headset thanks to the rubberized dials that we’ve seen in another of Microsoft’s audio products, the Surface Headphones. The Xbox Wireless Headset wasn’t prone to any creaking during our testing, and the overall clamping force was more than reasonable to ensure a comfortable fit.
You can also comfortably crank up the volume with room to spare thanks to the headset’s 32 Ohm impedance, and the speaker response of 20Hz – 20kHz should mean no audio details you’ve come to expect in your go-to games are missed. Too much bass can overpower and muddy the other frequencies that are equally as important, leaving you with a muffled sound that won’t do you any favors in online multiplayer games. We’re used to a flatter soundstage overall, so headed to the Xbox Accessories app to dial back the bass to a point where it could still provide a satisfying thud, but not cannibalize every other frequency as a result. If you don’t own Dolby Atmos, simply connecting the Xbox Wireless Headset will give you six months access for free, so there’s no excuse not to experiment with the wonders of spatial audio.
Despite being a closed back pair of headphones with great noise isolation, we were pleased by how clear and detailed the best Dolby Atmos Xbox Series X games sounded. It’s astonishing to think that you can get this type of audio performance for less than $100, and Microsoft deserves a great deal of credit for including a pair of 40mm drivers that are so responsive to changes from the user. EQs aren’t new after all, but we’ve often found that some headsets can’t really be tweaked to produce positive results, no matter how much we fiddle with certain levels. Xbox, do more Microsoft’s wireless headset not only nails the audio quality and microphone, but it comes with some desirable features that are usually reserved for higher end headphones.
We found that on the high setting the Xbox Wireless Headset did a fine job at isolating the music we were playing off our phone once we stopped speaking.
Microsoft Xbox Wireless Headset review
And if you look closely between the sizeable faux leather ear pads and the dials, you’ll see lines of little sunken holes, which don’t appear to do anything but, again, look nice. They work fantastically well, with the right dial allowing you to precisely adjust the volume, and the left your connected audio feeds (more on that in the next section). Unlike the Surface Headphones, though, you won’t find any touch-sensitive controls here, so there’s no way of play/pausing music or skipping a track, or taking a call on the headset.
Xbox Wireless Headset review: Top sound, affordably priced
(Pocket-lint) – Microsoft has licensed its Xbox brand for many gaming headsets for donkey’s years, including wireless models from the likes of LucidSound, but has never really gone all out with its own dedicated device before. It is comfy, neat and – rather uniquely for a wireless gaming device for any console – doesn’t require a dongle to work. Yes, you look like a Cyberman wearing it and the mic doesn’t detach so you’ll look a little odd if you use it with your smartphone when out and about, but for its main purpose it seems ideal.
As soon as you get the Xbox Wireless Headset out of the box you realise that, while it is light enough for long periods of wear, it is solidly built. We wouldn’t want to throw it out of an aircraft or give it to toddlers to play with, but it feels as if you could chuck it to one side when not in use and there are unlikely to be any cracks or significant damage. For a start, the headset not only supports Microsoft’s own spatial audio format, Windows Sonic, it is compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone:X.
For example, when you switch the audio mode in settings to Dolby Atmos (Windows Sonic is default for headphones) you get a much better experience with supported Netflix content. One word of caution though: both Dolby Atmos and DTS have third-party apps that must be active to get either surround sound format through the headset. In our case, we run the Xbox through a Denon AV receiver with Dolby Atmos and HDMI eARC and have to turn the volume down manually, otherwise we get audio from both. We’d have to test for a lot longer to judge whether that’s fully accurate, but considering the amount of hours we’ve put in so far without any battery drop, we don’t see any reason for that figure to be untrue. In normal gaming situations, such as with the Xbox Series X/S upgrade of Forza Horizon 4, there is superb virtual spacing (using Windows Sonic mainly) and deep enough bass without it impairing clarity. The microphone boom exhibits noise cancellation technology and dual mics, which cleans speech – although don’t expect to podcast standards.
Verdict We are genuinely surprised that Microsoft has taken so long to create its own, dedicated Xbox headset, especially considering the resulting product. This is a big deal for us, considering the USB ports on our Xbox Series X console are completely filled with external hard drives and the like. squirrel_widget_304285 Often touted as the best and most comfortable gaming headset that you can buy – admittedly it’s three times the price and back-ordered for months, given its popularity – if you’ve got the extra cash and want best of best then Audeze is a serious option for serious gamers.
Hands on: Xbox presenteert hagelnieuwe draadloze headset
Vooral bij shooters is het soms een oneerlijk voordeel om er één te dragen omdat je de geluiden van character models kan horen. Daarnaast – zoals eerder gezegd – is het fijn om de player movement van andere characters te horen. Wat deze nieuwe Xbox headset goed of slecht maakt is voor nu nog de grote vraag.
Eén ding kunnen we alvast verklappen en dat is het deze headset direct praat met je Xbox console.
Xbox Wireless Headset: Impressions, best EQ settings, and the power of 3D audio (Dolby Atmos)
After spending a substantial amount of time testing the latest accessory from Microsoft, I’ll be sharing my overall impressions, the best EQ settings for general use and Dolby Atmos, and why this headset might be the ultimate gateway into 3D audio in gaming. Being able to boot up my Xbox Series X by simply turning on the headset is a minor detail at the end of the day, but something I immediately fell in love with. The simple volume and chat balance controls tied to large dials on either side of the headset made it so I never struggled to adjust settings while playing games.
I’m also a huge fan of the minimalistic design of the headset as well, which adds a small bit of flair without diving too far into “elite gamer” territory.
For those of you who’ve picked up the new Xbox Wireless Headset and are working to fine tune your audio, here are some EQ settings I’ve tested for general use and Dolby Atmos that drastically improved the overall sound in the games I’ve played so far. This was a feature I changed frequently depending on the game I was playing, but +5 seems to be a great middle ground that adds weight to explosions and gunfire without distorting the other frequencies. For those interested in experimenting with the impressive capabilities of Dolby Atmos, which is something I would highly recommend with the Xbox Wireless Headset, I also spent a good chunk of time testing several games that support this advanced positional audio, including Gears 5, Borderlands 3, Overwatch, and The Division 2. If you’re playing something like Call of Duty professionally, this might be the best option for you, but I found the Detailed setting in the Intelligent Equalizer delivered far more clarity in games like Gears 5 and The Division 2. I could pinpoint small details like ambient reflections and birds chirping in the distance in a way that stereo and even 7.1 surround sound simply can’t replicate.
Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Headset is a mic-drop moment
Next to the Series X, it looks the part with a touch of glossy green detailing around the ear cup dials, covered in matte black plastic. The little holes in the recessed areas between the faux leather ear pads and the dials seem to be there just for cosmetic reasons, but it looks fantastic nevertheless. And while I wish this model had a bungee-style headband and swiveling ear cups like most SteelSeries headsets, not having these features didn’t equate to comfort issues here.
In addition to how the headset looks, its functionality is similar to the Surface Headphones, with twistable dials on the outside of each ear cup for adjusting elements of the audio.
The left dial acts as a chat and game audio mixer, so you can tune your playmates down a bit during a dialogue-heavy cutscene or vice versa. Most gaming headsets require days of continued use to fully learn their respective button layouts, but this one’s dead simple. During my tests, I listened to Spotify, and the music sounded good enough to stick with this headset instead of automatically reaching for my Sony 1000XM3s. The soundtrack and all of the various hellish sound effects have an adequate amount of crunch and punch, and I was head-banging to the music while I played.
When there’s a lot happening in the mid and high frequencies, the sound can lack clarity if you’re listening closely.
Microsoft claims 15 hours per charge, and both times I ran the non-replaceable battery down during testing, it lasted for about that long. There are three levels (low, medium, and high), and Microsoft says each step up will increase how aggressively the mic mutes things that aren’t your voice. Two other small but cool features in the Xbox Accessories app let you tweak how bright the mute light is, making it easier to see in your peripheral vision.
Up until now, the $150 Razer Kaira Pro was the Xbox-specific headset I told people to get because it’s comfortable, and it supports Bluetooth in addition to the Xbox Wireless protocol. Microsoft’s new Xbox Wireless headset is well ahead of that model in terms of design, ease of use, and functionality — all in a more affordable package. If Microsoft is to be judged compared to Sony on how well it designed a headset to accompany its latest consoles — as it inevitably will be — this one handily edges out the Pulse 3D even though they’re the same price. Sony’s model is comfortable and looks equally dashing next to the console it was made for, and it has a 3.5mm headphone jack and 3D Audio support in its court.
Xbox Wireless Headset Review
The Xbox Wireless Headset is a solid workhorse thanks to a couple of really smart design ideas and better-than-average sound. While it won’t scare any high-end home theater headset rivals, it’s a strong and versatile mid-level pick for day-to-day Xbox use. Fashioned in black molded plastic with just a splash of Xbox green on the cans, the blend of slim, sharp edges on the top band with the not-quite concentric circles of the outer earcups and ear padding create a striking look that’s simultaneously sleek and spacious.
Purchasing Guide The Xbox Wireless Headset will be available for $99.99 starting March 16, 2021, at the Microsoft digital store and other retailers, including Amazon.
Given their positions and shapes, you’d never mistake one control for another once you know where everything should be, which makes them infinitely more useful than the vast majority of onboard headset controls.The microphone, meanwhile, has some ups and downs. Though it mitigates some softer noises, it failed to keep out many of the incidental sounds that might accidentally disrupt playing, even on the highest of three settings.
These kinds of little touches make the headset feel like a more profound upgrade on console than on PC.Battery life is a bit of a weak spot, though. Clean and clearly laid out, the app allows you to adjust the headset’s levels, either using a series of presets or making your own, though you can’t save custom profiles.
You can also activate auto-mute and mic monitoring, or adjust the microphone indicator lighting.Depending on how you approach it, the app is either anemic or a breath of fresh air. Even with a few blatant oversights – for example: if there’s an input test on my Elite: Series 2 controller, shouldn’t there be a microphone sound check for the headset? Like many budget and mid-range headsets, it delivers a bass-heavy soundscape that packs a real punch when the grenades go off and things get explosive in, say, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. In Call of Duty, I could discern the directionality of footsteps, and locate an enemy based on the sound of a bullet sailing past my head.
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