SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless Headset

Okay, I should preface this review by saying I’m not a pro gamer and have very little experience with headphones—none with purpose-built “gaming” headphones. With that said, I’ve used these pretty extensively for the past several weeks and have developed some definite “likes” and “dislikes”. Here’s my two cents: - - - Things I DON’T like - - - THE POWER BUTTON The power button is small and hard to find. On that very small button is a tiny little bump that lets you know it’s the power button, since it’s literally right next to the Bluetooth button. For me and my hands, it’s so small, I can barely feel it. When the power button is pressed to turn on the headset, it makes a single beep sound. That’s supposed to tell you it’s turned on, but there is no recorded voice inside that says “power on”, and you get the same sound when you push it again to “power off”. I have a much cheaper pair of wireless headphones that DO give that audible message, so maybe I’m just spoiled. The only way to discern “power on” from “power off” (besides noise in your ears if you’re listening to something) is that the dongle light gets brighter when powered on. But if it’s plugged into the back of your PC, that’s not going to be any help. THE DONGLE The dongle seems to work fine on my PC, after I made sure the tiny switch on it was in the “USB” position (it shipped in the “Xbox” position). I haven’t tested how far I can get away from it, because I only use it at my desk, and my PC is literally on the desk next to me. But here’s the bad thing about the dongle: it’s so wide that there’s no way to plug it into my machine—in front, or back on the MOBO—without using the included extension cord. It would have been nice if the engineers had designed it so that it was either skinnier, like a thumb drive, or at least had a little longer neck, so you could plug it in next to other plugs. CHATMIX VOLUME MIXER I love the concept, and I do appreciate a way to turn up or down (or off) the team chatter, while increasing or decreasing the actual game sounds. But the wheel used for that is very loose and has very little resistance. There is a tactile “notch” when the wheel is in the very center, indicating equal chat and game sounds, but it would be nice to have more resistance, and an easier-to-feel notch when centered. REMAINING POWER The primary way to know how much power is remaining in your headphones is to remove them and look at the slowly flashing light next to the power button. Green is 100–50%, Yellow is 49–15%, Red is 14–5%, and fast-blinking Red is 4-1%. The only other way is to open the GG software, and then near the bottom there is “Engine”. Click on that, then under the “Gear” category tab, you will see your headset with a remaining power indication in percentage, which is much more accurate than guessing where you are based on the green indicating 50 to 100%. It would really be nice to have an audible “low power” indication in the headset to warn me, as well as a percentage of remaining power upon startup. But from what I can tell, there is none. If there is, I haven’t heard it, and it’s not listed in the very minimal “user manual” or the manufacturer’s website. THE STAND There is no stand that comes with the headphones, but I did find a really nice one here that works great for me. It’s magnetic, inexpensive, and folds up. SOFTWARE If you choose to download the GG software, you’ll have some more options to tweak the headphones. But I still can’t get the mic recording and playback testing functions to work in the software. Clicking the record button does nothing. No biggie, I’m able to use the Windows device test, but that part of the software is definitely a fail, despite removing and re-installing the program. Also, I was confused about many of the settings; for example, should I use the clearcast AI noise cancellation, or the more tweakable noise reduction settings? I couldn’t tell any difference at all, but if you’re someone who likes to fiddle with settings, this is for you. DEVICE CONFUSION When the GG Sonar software is installed, it generates a half dozen different ‘devices’ in the device list, and you have to switch to one of them to turn on the headphones. And there is no information anywhere to tell you which of these devices to switch to. Most of them will let you hear through the headphones, but which do you choose? Will one or more activate the GG Sonar software, while others will not? It’s infuriating to spend $200 on a pair of gaming headphones but have no information on how to properly use them. There is no way to have your PC automatically switch to the headphones when you turn them on, nor is there a way to have your PC switch back to the default speakers when you power them off. Again, this should not be hard to do. The last nitpicky thing I can whine about is that there are no L and R indicators anywhere. So when you pick up the headphones, you need to search for the little retracted mic, which goes on the left side. It might have been nice to print a big L and R in the headphone, so I wouldn’t have to scrutinize it before putting it on. Yeah, I know that’s being really picky, but I’m trying to relay everything. +++ Things I DO like +++ COMFORT The headset is very comfortable, and it doesn’t squeeze my head. I have an average-sized brain bucket, size 7¼, so those with a bigger noggin might feel differently. The ear cup pillows are fabric-covered foam (not memory foam, just regular foam), so my ears don’t get hot and sweat like some leatherette ones do. But that comfort comes at a cost, which is that the outside noise pretty much just comes right in. My PC is on my desk next to me, and I can hear my CPU and GPU fans screaming right through the headphones. My much cheaper headphones with active noise cancellation and leatherette pillow seals block out 100% of that noise, while these block out about 40%. THE MIC I do like the mic, and how it retracts. It comes out pretty easily, is easy to adjust, and stays where you put it. Although it’s not going to beat a dedicated studio mic, it sounds pretty good. There’s an easy-to-find button on the back of the left ear cup about halfway up that mutes the mic. The button pops out when muted, and a light comes on at the end of the mic that is easy to see, but not obnoxious. INTEROPERABILITY I absolutely love that these 7x headphones can be used on just about any device. Between the ‘tooth capability and the Wi-Fi dongle, you can use these on the PS5, Xbox, Switch, cell phone (Android or iOS), PC, Mac, or pretty much any other Bluetooth device. They even come with a 3.5mm cable, which adds even more possibilities. I am not aware of any other headphones that are as versatile as these. BOTTOM LINE Although I listed a lot of dislikes, overall I do like the headphones, so I kept them. But honestly, I have a much less expensive set of headphones with ‘tooth and Wi-Fi, as well as ANC, that are just as comfortable and sound just as good to me. For those and the above reasons, these Arctis Nova 7x headphones get an average score of three stars. I hope some of this helps!