SteelSeries Arctis 7 Review: The Complete Package

Our Verdict

The SteelSeries Arctis seven sets the standard for what a wireless gaming headset should exist: functional, versatile and practical.

For

Bully sound
Comfortable fit
Reasonable cost
Seamless wireless

Confronting

Fine-tuning music takes some work
Roundabout phone and speaker functionality

Tom's Guide Verdict

The SteelSeries Arctis 7 sets the standard for what a wireless gaming headset should exist: functional, versatile and practical.

Pros

+
Great sound
+
Comfortable fit
+
Reasonable price
+
Seamless wireless

Cons

-
Fine-tuning music takes some work
-
Roundabout phone and speaker functionality

UPDATE, 5/17: The SteelSeries Arctis 7 has been effectively replaced by the SteelSeries Arctis 7P/7X. The blueprint and functionality is identical, only 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 than details.

The SteelSeries Arctis has been on our list of the best gaming headsets ever since it showtime launched. The only headset with similar versatility is the SteelSeries Arctis i Wireless. Even so, the Arctis 1 Wireless doesn't have the same comfortable elastic headband or premium audio as the Arctis seven, 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 audio great, of course, but information technology should also be comfortable, work with as many devices as possible and look stylish. The SteelSeries Arctis 7 ($150) achieves all of these aims with flying colors, and at a reasonable price to boot.

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While you'll have to rely on a few abrasive work-arounds to make use of every characteristic, the Arctis 7 sets the standard for what the best gaming headsets should exist: functional, versatile and practical. Read on in our full SteelSeries Arctis 7 review to acquire what nosotros thought.

SteelSeries Arctis vii specs

Compatibility: PS4, Xbox Ane, Switch, mobile, PC| Drivers: 40mm | Frequency Response: 20 Hz - 20 kHz | Wireless: Yes

SteelSeries Arctis 7 price and availability

The SteelSeries Arctis vii usually retails for $150. Information technology's usually piece of cake to discover on both Amazon and Best Buy.

SteelSeries Arctis vii design

As you can come across in our review of the SteelSeries Arctis v, the appearance of the Arctis vii is nearly identical. The headset is sleek and sophisticated, with an elegant, streamlined appearance and an absolutely foolproof adaptable headband. Rather than having to monkey around with rigid extendable rods, yous simply conform two Velcro straps, and the flexible headband will conform to your head'south size and shape.

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Past that, the Arctis 7 comes in either black or white, and there'southward nix in particular to draw the eye. You could hands wear the headset on the subway without getting a second glance, and while the Arctis 7 is a scrap bigger than a standard set of audio headphones, it's nevertheless small plenty that you can toss it in a backpack. You can fifty-fifty rotate the ear cups to brand the device lie flat.

The right ear cup houses a ability button 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 tin can connect to a 3.5mm audio jack for mobile listening. Although the Arctis 7 requires power for wireless and surround-sound functionality, you can mind to whatever yous want with the sound jack, whether or not the device has power.

The headset'south elastic band consistently provides much more reliable and comfortable results than trying to extend two extremely fickle notched arms.

SteelSeries Arctis 7 condolement

As discussed above, the rubberband band makes finding the perfect fit with the Arctis 7 piece of cake. I'g 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 ii extremely fickle notched arms.

The ear cups created a tight seal effectually my ears, only I never felt that the cups pushed down too hard. My merely outcome was that they tended to bounciness effectually while I walked, meaning that they could prove frustrating if you plan to wear them while out and near. Tightening the Velcro strap alleviated this problem, although getting the perfect remainder between comfort and fit involved some trial and fault.

I handed the Arctis 7 off to a co-worker, who generally found them very comfy. He said the ear cups felt too snug at beginning but grew on him afterward nigh half an 60 minutes. He likewise cited the device's lightweight feel equally a benefit — not surprising, considering that the peripheral weighs only 9.nine ounces.

SteelSeries Arctis seven gaming functioning

Like its wired counterpart, the Arctis vii provides stellar gaming options — if you're willing to do some legwork. With both stereo and DTS 7.1 surround sound, as well as a plethora of equalization options, you can become wildly different configurations from the headset, whether you want to listen to music or have a Skype conversation. Luckily, setting up game profiles is pretty uncomplicated.

Surround audio in Overwatch fabricated my foes' footsteps sound immediate and urgent, while using the Immersion setting for The Witcher 3 provided a clean balance amongst dialogue, swordplay and the pounding gale of a storm at sea.

Using the SteelSeries Engine iii software, you can toy around with the surroundings-sound and equalization settings, then 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 meet how the headset tackled multiple genres.

On the Flat equalization option with Stereo audio, everything sounded good, from Captain America's battle cries to the decease screams of Zerg as Terran armies mowed them down. A piddling scrap of tweaking, all the same, made things sound slap-up. Surround sound in Overwatch made my foes' footsteps and my teammates' cries for help audio immediate and urgent, while the Immersion setting in The Witcher 3 provided a clean balance among dialogue, swordplay and the pounding gale of a tempest at sea.

You tin can as well rig upwardly the Arctis 7 with a PS4 or Xbox I by plugging the audio jack into a controller (the PS4 as well works wirelessly with the USB dongle). Although you'll have to sacrifice the surround-sound options, the peripheral all the same provides expert audio, and the mic is splendid for competitive multiplayer matches.

SteelSeries Arctis seven music performance

For music, the Arctis seven doesn't quite live up to its gaming performance. I listened to tracks from Flogging Molly, Old Crow Medicine Show and the Rolling Stones, as well as Yard.F. Handel's "Messiah," and I was pleased by the corking balance among vocals, treble instruments and bass instruments. Surround audio made choral pieces audio 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 rail, I had to open upwardly the Engine 3 software and toy around with information technology earlier I plant the right remainder of surround-sound and equalization options for each genre. Both the surround and stereo modes have Music presets, and they both sound pretty good, most of the fourth dimension. On Flogging Molly's "Salty Canis familiaris," the default modes de-emphasized vocals as well much, while those modes provided i of the all-time renditions of "Let Information technology Bleed" 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 anybody only the about dedicated audiophiles could utilise the Arctis seven as an everyday music headset. Just if there'south one category where this headset just misses height performance, it's in how the device handles music.

SteelSeries Arctis seven features

First 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 lot're good to become. The wireless is crystal clear, and worked from upwards to about 30 feet in my tests.

The Arctis 7 runs on the SteelSeries Engine 3 software, a clean, intuitive and well-designed program that keeps tabs on just about every modern SteelSeries peripheral. In addition to setting upwards sound profiles, yous can also toy around with mic options; otherwise, the program doesn't offer too many bells and whistles for this item 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 own headsets anyway.

One thing in particular that I liked was the program'southward Library sections, where it keeps tabs of all the profiles you've created for various games, and stores every peripheral'southward profile nether the aforementioned heading. If you lot've made a mouse, keyboard and headset profile for The Witcher iii, for example, yous'll run across them all in the same box. This is a very convenient way to sync all of your peripherals, provided they all come from SteelSeries.

You lot can likewise leverage the device's wireless capabilities for a telephone or speaker, although doing then is a little convoluted. By supplying your own sound cable, you lot tin plug a telephone into the amplifier, or the amplifier into a speaker. While this is not equally convenient as having Bluetooth built in, information technology does mean that you can stream wireless audio to and from more than just a calculator and a headset, which is more I expected from a $150 wireless peripheral.

The headset likewise comes with a retractable, flexible mic in the left ear cup. Similar the mic on the Arctis v, it'southward a loftier-end device that captures sound in clear and subtle patterns, although it still goes a fleck heavy on the "p" and "s" sounds. I wouldn't tape a podcast with information technology, but it's more than adequate for competitive gaming or streaming on Twitch.

Other SteelSeries Arctis models

At that place are other varieties of Arctis headset, including the Arctis 3 and the Arctis 5. While the headsets share similar designs and features, the Arctis 3 and the Arctis five are not quite as loftier-finish equally the Arctis 7. The Arctis 3 ($80) connects only via iii.5mm jack, pregnant users can't tweak equalization options. The Arctis 5 ($100) has a USB connection. Neither the 3 nor the v has wireless features, which is the main reason that the Arctis seven costs more.

More recently, SteelSeries debuted the SteelSeries Arctis nine: 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 y'all. Even so, the audio quality is about the same as Arctis 7, so yous're essentially paying an extra $l for Bluetooth functionality. Whether that's worthwhile depends on how much you utilize your telephone for music and games.

SteelSeries Arctis 7 verdict

Considering that wireless headsets can run hundreds of dollars, and PC-axial ones oftentimes leave out important features like 3.5mm jacks, it's refreshing that the Arctis 7 offers the complete package for but $50 more than its wired counterpart. While some of the features require a little legwork from the user, nothing is difficult, and everything works exactly equally it'southward supposed to. Add in bang-up sound — for games more and then than music — and the Arctis 7 is a hard proffer to resist. We haven't arrived at the perfect gaming headset only all the same, only our SteelSeries Arctis 7 review demonstrates that this is about as close as any visitor has come.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom'south Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing groundwork, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on archetype sci-fi.