Steelseries Arctis 5 Rgb Illuminated Gaming Headset Review
Our Verdict
The Arctis 5 offers dandy sound that you can fine-melody to your liking, a comfortable design and an impressive mic at a reasonable price.
For
- Extremely comfortable
- Sleek aesthetics
- Nifty sound
- Sensible software
Against
- And then-and then surround sound
- Long, convoluted cables
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Arctis 5 offers great sound that y'all can fine-tune to your liking, a comfortable design and an impressive mic at a reasonable price.
Pros
- +
Extremely comfortable
- +
Sleek aesthetics
- +
Not bad audio
- +
Sensible software
Cons
- -
And then-then surround sound
- -
Long, convoluted cables
UPDATE, half dozen/7/nineteen: The SteelSeries Arctis v has had a few pocket-size upgrades since launch, and is nonetheless very competitive with the residue of the best gaming headsets available today.
In terms of raw technology, gaming headsets have never been better. They audio neat, and their microphones provide a distinct advantage for competitive players. For overall user feel, though, they leave a lot to be desired. The SteelSeries Arctis 5 ($100) provides a promising remedy for the problems facing its ofttimes garish and uncomfortable competitors, maintaining a sleek pattern that'due south article of clothing for hours on end.
Amend nevertheless, the Arctis 5 offers great audio that you can fine-tune to your liking and an impressive mic. Managing cables can be a scrap of a pain, and the surround sound could be better, but the Arctis 5 is one of the best gaming headsets you can get for the toll.
Design
SteelSeries wanted to reimagine the gaming headset with the Arctis 5, and for my money, the result is an unqualified success. Neither bulky nor overdesigned, the Arctis 5 is a sleek black (or white) peripheral with smooth, over-the-ear cups and a flexible Velcro headband. You don't have to suit ii rigid, expandable rods to get a perfect fit; you just put the headset on, and it fits perfectly.
Although the Arctis 5 is somewhat large, it lacks a single extraneous crash-land or bend. This elegant peripheral would look equally at habitation in a gaming nook or on a crowded subway, and not many gaming headsets could make that claim.
Beyond that, there's a bendable, retractable microphone in the left ear cup, as well as a volume cycle and mic-mute push around the dorsum. Everything is like shooting fish in a barrel to achieve without fumbling effectually too much.
My only real complaint — and information technology'due south non an insignificant 1 — is that cable direction is a mess. The Arctis 5 connects via USB or three.5mm audio jack, but either way, you take to plug a proprietary jack into an adapter. The USB adapter goes through an amp that controls conversation volume, which is pretty useless if you lot're engaged in a unmarried-player game. Likewise, the amp is too light to sit down comfortably on a desk, and the actress-long wire tends to get in the way of everything. The adapter for the three.5 mm jack is tiny and piece of cake to lose.
SteelSeries has generally put other headset manufacturers to shame when information technology comes to comfort, and the Arctis 5 is no exception.
You can definitely make the Arctis 5 work with your setup, although doing so will require some creative cable management and a lot of actress space. A shorter cable without the chat amp would have worked wonders.
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Condolement
SteelSeries has generally put other headset manufacturers to shame when information technology comes to condolement, and the Arctis 5 is no exception. Not only does the elastic headband instantly conform to your caput, but also, if it's even slightly off, yous can just accommodate the Velcro straps. This is a offset for a SteelSeries headset, or any gaming headset as far as I know. The ear cups feel costly and breathable, but never button down hard, even for folks (like myself) with glasses and a lot of hair.
In case the default, blackness-and-white headband isn't to your taste, you lot tin also purchase alternate designs, starting at $20 a popular. To my mind, that's a little expensive for a pocket-sized, thin piece of fabric, but it'due south purely aesthetic, so the pick is yours.
Not simply could I hear each footstep and weapon discharge from my opponents in Overwatch, but I was besides able to pinpoint tranquility pockets.
I handed the Arctis 5 off to a co-worker who agreed with my assessment that the headset was comfortable, light and like shooting fish in a barrel to manipulate for a perfect fit. He said that it failed to make a tight seal effectually the lesser of his ears, nevertheless.
Gaming Performance
The Arctis v has more potential configurations than you can milk shake a joystick at, so finding the ideal settings for a game can exist both satisfying and tedious. (We'll talk more about this in a later department.) For example, I wanted to requite The Witcher three: Wild Hunt a shot first to see how the organisation handled an immersive, single-player run a risk.
I selected the DTS 7.1 surround sound with the Game preset, and the Immersion equalization pick. I apace discovered, though, that while the music and audio furnishings sounded gorgeous, everyone'southward dialogue seemed similar it was coming from the bottom of a well. Only disabling the surround audio set everything correct again, at the expense of a little richness.
On the other mitt, the environment sound was the perfect complement to Overwatch, a competitive commencement-person shooter that relies heavily on directional noises. Non just could I hear each step and weapon discharge from my opponents, but I was too able to pinpoint quiet locations. This turned out to exist incredibly of import in finding safe approaches to game-winning objectives.
Not every gamer volition want to tinker with audio settings, though. I also tested StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops and Marvel Heroes without any audio tweaking to see if I could still hear what was going on. In both cases, I was very impressed with the Arctis 5's default audio. Music, vox piece of work and audio furnishings existed in perfect harmony with each other. The sound had enough immediacy to exist exciting and enough depth to exist satisfying.
A little equalization can go a long style, only if you lot don't want to fine-tune each game y'all play, the default settings are fine.
It'due south worth pointing out that the Arctis 5 as well works with the PS4 and Xbox 1 thank you to the headset's 3.5mm audio-jack adapter. The sound isn't as adept using the adapter, but is perfectly functional. Bank check out the next section for a more than thorough evaluation.
Music Performance
If you lot already own a set of decent headphones for music, the Arctis 5 probably won't supercede them. The headset delivers perfectly competent sound via its 3.5mm jack, complete with articulate vocals, strong treble, and a surprising amount of punch from bass and percussion. On the other hand, yous tin can't toy around with the equalization options, then all genres tend to sound somewhat alike, and simply a fiddling muffled.
On the other manus, if y'all want an everyday headset for your estimator, the Arctis v can work wonders for both music and video. The SteelSeries Engine 3 software offers presets for both music and movies, and both piece of work extremely well, with or without surround sound. "The Hand of John L. Sullivan" by Flogging Molly came through loud and clear, especially the lively accordion and the steady bass line. An episode of Black Mirror was similarly immersive, giving equal weight to the impassioned voice work and the eerie music.
As with the games, everything sounded fine fifty-fifty if you lot choose not to tweak the equalization options. But doing and so is incredibly like shooting fish in a barrel and tin can make virtually whatsoever piece of media sound bully rather than just good.
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Features
Like other SteelSeries peripherals, the Arctis 5 runs on the SteelSeries Engine iii software. SteelSeries has made great strides with its software in the past few years, taking Engine from a buggy "me-too" product to something that's well-nigh as polished as the offerings from Razer and Logitech.
As stated above, yous tin use the software to activate and conciliate surround sound, select equalization options (Immersion, Functioning, Entertainment, Music and Vocalization are just a few of the useful choices), and customize a ton of mic options, including side tone (how well you lot can hear your ain vocalisation during chat) and noise reduction. There are more options hither than I recall the average user volition want to play with, but it's better to accept besides much control over a production than too little.
Y'all tin also control the RGB lighting on the ear cups (a feature that I still call up is somewhat useless on a headset, but at to the lowest degree information technology looks pretty) and set up individual profiles for games and other programs. If you're willing to accept an 60 minutes or so to determine audio settings for your favorite apps and link them up, you could find yourself listening to your PC in a whole new way. Setting the Arctis 5 to Immersion for Witcher 3, to Functioning for Overwatch and to Voice for Skype, for instance, eliminates a lot of legwork and makes programs sound noticeably better.
SteelSeries has also made much of the mic, promising that this peripheral would revolutionize vocalization chat by providing something on par with loftier-end, stand-solitary mics. After testing the mic out with Windows Phonation Recorder, I can state that the company has succeeded, although success comes with a few caveats.
The mic does indeed produce clear and gorgeous sound, but similar whatsoever high-finish mic, information technology has an unfortunate tendency to overemphasize consonants, especially "S" and "T." This is why high-end mics need pop filters; there's no such pick with a mic this small. You'll have to indicate information technology a little away from your mouth for maximum clarity, at which indicate information technology'due south notwithstanding ameliorate than a standard mic, just not quite to the night-and-day extent the company promised.
The Arctis Family unit
SteelSeries has released three Arctis models, and it'south worth quickly pointing out the differences among them.
The less expensive Arctis 3 ($eighty) comes with only a iii.5mm media jack, suitable for console play, but not able to connect with the Engine 3 software on PCs. The Arctis v presents a middle footing, with a conversation audio amp, a USB connectedness and RGB lighting on the ear cups. The Arctis 7 ($150) does everything the 5 does, only also adds a wireless USB dongle into the mix, suitable for either consoles or PCs.
Bottom Line
The Arctis 5 is an excellent production overall, boasting refined sound, comfortable design and sensible software. Information technology'south also a frustrating product, because a few minor tweaks could accept made information technology that much better. The cords are besides long and unwieldy; the environment audio doesn't play nice with every genre, and the amp gets in the way for nigh games.
Still, if yous tin live with a few modest annoyances, it's hard non to recommend the Arctis 5.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/steelseries-arctis-5,review-3974.html