Xbox Wireless Headset

Gaming

Alonso Ormond

May 19, 2023

Verdict

Offering unbelievable bang on your buck, the Xbox Wireless Headset blends intelligent design with booming efficiency, at a value that’s greater than cheap. From a number of machine help to EQ customisation, intuitive controls and a snug match, there’s loads to like right here.

Pros

Great sound and highly effective bassClever designEasy-to-use controlsIncredible worth

Cons

Plasticky buildMic monitoring may very well be just a little louderNo Active Noise Cancelling

Availability

UKRRP: £89.99
USARRP: $99.99
AustraliaRRP: AU$149.95

Key Features

Wireless help:Offers a seamless wi-fi connection to each Xbox Series S/X and PC

Smart design: Rotating earcups allow you to alter the amount with out groping for buttons

Integrated microphone:The built-in microphone reduces background noise to focus in your voice

Introduction

The Xbox Wireless Headset might simply be dismissed as a daily headset with an Xbox emblem slapped on – nevertheless it’s way over that.

Offering a easy but sturdy construct, the Xbox Wireless Headset units itself aside by way of its super-handy rotating management dials on every earcup, and a bendable growth mic that may be tucked away when not in use, opening up a listening world past mere gaming.

With the flexibility to attach concurrently to your Xbox machine/PC and your cellphone, it brings the flexibleness of multi-listening to the desk, too, with strong audio capabilities as well. Throw in as much as 15 hours of use per cost and help for digital sound tech similar to Windows Spatial Sound, Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone:X, and it guarantees to ship on all fronts, at a value that gained’t make your pockets weep.

Having spent two weeks gaming, chatting and listening to music by way of it, it’s time to learn how I bought on with the Xbox Wireless Headset.

Price and availability

The Xbox Wireless Headset is that can be purchased now for £89.99 / $99.99 / AU$149.95.

However, there look like inventory points proper now, because it presently isn’t that can be purchased from distributors similar to Amazon.

Design

Plain design for the anti-RGB crowdComfortable to put on for lengthy durations of timeMic arm may very well be excellent with a number of tweaks

In a world the place most gaming equipment favour harsh angles and cheesy RGB lighting, it’s good to see a game-centric machine that’s rather less busy for these of us who’ve outgrown the ‘Xtr3me 1337’ part of our lives.

Sporting a easy design and wearing black, the Xbox Wireless Headset is a modern, minimal, engaging little bit of package, regardless of its primarily plastic construct. Sure, it gained’t win a premium design contest in opposition to the likes of the extremely costly, lambskin leather-clad Beoplay Portal, however at this value, it doesn’t need to. Its gaming DNA is subtly revealed by the inexperienced energy button and matching accents on every earcup, together with the versatile growth mic on the left-hand facet.

The mic itself will be positioned at any angle, due to the versatile arm, and will be pushed up all the way in which for these events whenever you’re not utilizing it. It’s a intelligent trick, nevertheless it isn’t fairly as hidden as, for instance, the retractable mics you’ll discover on some premium MetalSeries headsets. It may need been even higher to have the mic itself in a curved, reasonably than cylindrical, housing, in order that it might comply with the curve of the ear cup when closed for maximal invisibility – however that’s simply nitpicking on my finish.

Weighing in at 312g, the Xbox Wireless Headset isn’t the lightest headset round. However, it’s greater than snug for hours of fixed use, due to the froth padding on each the band and ear cushions. The earcups themselves are beneficiant in dimension and simply managed my bigger than common ears, making them a snug match for just about anybody.

Given the dearth of energetic noise cancellation, they do an affordable job of sealing out the worst of environmental noise, though clearly can’t match as much as a pair of correct ANC cans.

Each earcup additionally has a rotating management dial cleverly integrated into the design. They really feel beautiful and tactile, and have definitive min, max, and midway factors. The left dial is used to combine the sport and chat audio, whereas the suitable is for quantity. Compared to tiny buttons or finicky touch-sensitive affairs, these dials are an absolute triumph of type and performance, and are one of many Xbox Wireless Headset’s standout options.

Rounding out the design, you’ll discover a mute button on the again of the left earcup that handily lights up an LED on the entrance of the mic, together with a inexperienced energy/pairing button. The USB-C port is the one factor you’ll discover on the suitable facet. Overall, due to the ingenious earcup controls, the general result’s a clear and minimal headset that works simply as nicely on a day by day commute as it’s going to in your sofa.

Features

Multi-device pairing for added flexibilityXbox Accessories app for customising optionsNo music management shortcuts

One of the Xbox Wireless Headset’s most helpful options is its capability to hook up with your cellphone similtaneously your PC or Xbox console. This is a boon if, like me, you usually play crossplay video games with PC players preferring utilizing Discord above another voice-chat service.

I performed Grounded on the Xbox Series X with a number of buddies who have been on PC, listening to each the in-game audio from the Series X and the Discord voice chat from my Android smartphone, dialling within the excellent combine between sport and chat quantity for a seamless expertise. This twin connectivity additionally means you may seize incoming cellphone calls throughout gaming classes with out having to faff round with pausing and eradicating the headset.

Elsewhere, the Xbox Wireless Headset is full of the choice to tinker and tweak with the settings, all made attainable by way of the Xbox Accessories app on PC and console. The first, and maybe most necessary possibility is the equaliser, which helps you to tweak the degrees of lows, highs, and mids, whereas deciding on (or turning off) bass enhance. This is an important function, and we’ll cowl it extra within the subsequent part.

The app additionally lets you choose the extent of the auto-mute operate – a helpful setting that routinely mutes your mic whenever you’re not speaking. You can alter the sensitivity in keeping with your background noise ranges, and it really works surprisingly nicely, negating the necessity to fiddle round with extra conventional push-to-talk settings, if that’s the way you roll. It works significantly nicely if, say, there’s a crying child within the background, and also you need to save your teammates from their piercing wails.

The subsequent possibility is the mute mild brightness, which helps you to alter the brightness of the mic’s built-in white LED, or flip it off altogether. Somewhat surprisingly, the microphone’s white LED is on when the mic is on, and off when muted, which appears the alternative of what you’d count on. Not solely that, however as a result of shorter nature of the mic arm, it’s fairly onerous to see the LED any approach – though your view could (actually) differ. Either approach, it’s good to have the choice to customize it. Lastly, we now have the mic monitoring part, which helps you to improve or lower how a lot you may hear your individual voice by way of the headset itself.

On the battery life entrance, the Xbox Wireless Headset guarantees as much as 15 hours per cost. I discovered myself having to high up wherever between 12-13.5 hours on common with heavy use and cellphone connections, with the headset getting used as my primary headset for working at my PC, in addition to gaming within the evenings. Overall, it’s a really respectable effort, particularly since a half-hour cost supplies a four-hour enhance. Be warned, although: a full cost takes round three hours, which is able to appear fairly gradual in the event you’re used to smartphones that fast-charge in nicely below an hour.

Sound high quality and microphone

Sounds nice after tinkering with the EQ settingsDolby Atmos breathes life into video games, music and moviesMic high quality is sweet, though monitoring may very well be louder

Straight out of the field, the Xbox Wireless Headset serves up an extremely bass-heavy, muddy listening expertise, and it isn’t significantly nice. I’m unsure why that is the usual tuning that was chosen by the Xbox group, however I can solely assume it’s to feed the bass-hungry youth with buckets of growth on the low-end.

Thankfully, the beforehand talked about equalizer simply saves the day. With minimal effort you may slide issues round in order that the soundscape is way extra balanced, and after a couple of minutes of tinkering, the Xbox Wireless Headset sounded completely very good, particularly given its value.

With issues in steadiness it nonetheless serves up a hefty (however refined) low-end, with clear mids and highs as well. Activate the six-month Dolby Atmos licence that’s included within the field by way of the Dolby Atmos PC/Xbox app, and also you’re in for much more of an auditory deal with.

Atmos opens up the listening expertise, serving to you chop by way of the onslaught of explosions and environmental noises in a shooter similar to Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, letting you select refined queues similar to enemy footsteps, and the route from which they’re approaching. In one thing much less shooty similar to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Atmos shines as soon as once more.

With Atmos off, the sport’s unbelievable soundtrack is type of muddied up, the sound of your skateboard clattering and grinding round varied graffiti-laden areas. Turn Atmos on, although, and the sense of house is way extra obvious, with in-game sounds echoing off distant warehouse partitions, whereas the legendary soundtrack will get even higher with out overpowering the motion.

When it involves mic high quality, the positives proceed. From Zoom calls to Discord, in-game chat and cellphone calls by way of Bluetooth, I’ve no complaints in regards to the high quality of the microphone. If you’re related to a PC or Xbox, you may also activate the mic monitoring possibility within the equipment app, which helps you to hear your individual voice by way of the headset itself – a helpful function to stop you from shouting loudly or monitoring your self in the event you’re streaming or recording.

Monitoring works nicely for probably the most half, though it does additionally imply you’ll be listening to background noises extra typically. I’d wish to see it get just a little louder when cranked to max, and it might be nice in the event you might customise the earcup dials, since mic monitoring would, for instance, be extra helpful to me general than sport audio/chat mixing.

As issues stand, it’s important to go into the Accessories app to regulate the monitoring ranges, which isn’t excellent. On that word, given the Xbox Wireless Headset’s spectacular audio capabilities, it’s a disgrace there aren’t any music playback controls for simply skipping, enjoying and pausing tracks. Customising the performance of the dials would once more repair this concern.

Conclusion

There’s little or no to not like in regards to the Xbox Wireless Headset. It presents a no-nonsense design with some very intelligent and intuitive dial controls. It pairs simply with a number of units, providing flexibility for gaming and work. And – after some fast tinkering – it sounds higher than it has any proper to, particularly in the event you throw Dolby Atmos into the combo.

My solely primary gripes are the dearth of management customisation choices (it might be superb to swap out the performance of the management dials as wanted), together with mic monitoring ranges which can be decrease than I’d wish to see.

Overall, although, you’re getting an enormous quantity of bang on your buck, and in the event you’re courageous sufficient to enterprise out with a barely protruding mic, there’s no cause that the Xbox Wireless Headset can’t double up as your day by day driver both. Nicely finished, Microsoft.

Best Offers

Should you purchase it?

You’re an Xbox or PC gamer in search of worthIf you’re group Xbox and in search of a top quality headset with out destroying your pockets, the Xbox Wireless Headset is a no brainer buy.

You need one thing just a little extra premiumIf you’re pleased to spend the money, you may improve to extra luxurious headsets from the likes of Bang & Olufsen, MetalSeries and Audeze.

Verdict

FAQs

Can I take advantage of a 3.5mm headset cable with the headphones? Unfortunately not. The headset solely works with a wi-fi connection. Does it cost off a USB-C cable? Yes, the Xbox Wireless Headset will be charged by way of the bundled USB-C charger. Does the headset include with a six-month free trial for Dolby Atmos? Yes, the trial begins as quickly as you hyperlink the headset to the Dolby Atmos app.

Full specs

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UK RRP

USA RRP

AUD RRP

Manufacturer

IP score

Battery Hours

Weight

ASIN

Release Date

First Reviewed Date

Driver (s)

Connectivity

Colours

Frequency Range

Headphone Type

Xbox Wireless Headset

£89.99

$99.99

AU$149.95

Microsoft

312 G

B08WJSJT4J

March 2021

19/05/2021

40mm

Bluetooth / Xbox Wireless / USB-C cable

Black

20 20000 – Hz

Over-ear

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