SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Review

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

The Arctis Pro Wireless may be the most comfortable and best sounding wireless headset on the market.

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Every so often I like to step back from the barrage of storage and networking and look at products that don't get much traffic here at TweakTown. Audio for us has been one of the topics, but today we just couldn't pass up the opportunity to check out the latest from SteelSeries, the Arctis Pro Wireless.

For any that have been around for a minute, it's easy to see the Arctis Pro Wireless is taking over where the Siberia H Wireless left off. That said the H wireless pushed the market forward in a time where most gaming headsets were wired, offering near audiophile performance in a set of battery powered cans. Improvements have been made moving to the Arctis lineup which now covers everything from entry-level with the Arctis 3 to midrange Arctis 5, and top tier offerings of Arctis 7, Pro and Pro Wireless.

For the Pro Wireless, we have improvements in design and comfort with a more ergonomic frame and softer materials for the cups, 40mm neodymium drivers with a 32ohm impedance and frequency response of 10-40Khz. The 2.4GHz Wireless Base Station has been reconfigured to take advantage of Optical audio in and out, along with 3.5mm Analog and standard USB setup for PC, range is offered at 40ft or 12 meters. Additionally, the Arctis Pro Wireless does support Bluetooth A2DP, HFP and HSP audio profiles.

Compatibility includes PC over USB and PS4 and PS4 Pro over Optical and USB. MSRP of the Arctis Pro Wireless comes in at $329.99 with a one-year warranty.

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Packaging offers a good amount of detail along the bottom with support for PS4/PC Dolby Audio and DTS X. We have an image of the headset and base station on the front and mention of dual wireless above.

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Unboxing, we have the headset and base packed tightly in plastic.

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Included in the box we have a full array of cables, batteries and the optical cable. Up top, we have the base and headset.

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Having used the Siberia 800/840/H in the past, the Arctis appears to have a more natural oval shape to the cups, softer plastics on the outside and a more ridged exposed headband. The left outside cover does come off to replace the battery.

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On the left cup, we have volume controls and mic controls to the right while the left has 3.5mm input next to USB.

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The right cup offers both power for base station hookup on the right and Bluetooth to the left.

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The earcups are much more comfortable with the Arctis, taking advantage of an athletic dry fit type material that for me, stopped my ears from getting so hot.

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The base station offers a full charge port for your secondary battery on the side. On the front, we have a mostly glossy LCD screen with a tactile knob for selecting on screen items and doubles as a push in OK button.

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The base station rear I/O has been updated only slightly with a change to the functionality of the two left side ports. What was once analog input and chat out in now simply line in line out.

Right off the bat, the Arctis Pro Wireless exudes a much better build quality than that of the 800,840 or H Series. The metal headband is much more flexible, and ear cups a level up in comfort. That said the base station hasn't changed all too much in the last five years not that it's a bad thing, its still damn good with multiple inputs, Dolby and DTS capability and 40ft range.

Audio quality on this headset is fantastic, certainly on par with high-end wired and much more clarity over my A40, Kraken Pro or RIG800LX. PC functionality works flawlessly with a single cable, controls on both the headset and base station.

I didn't have a chance to use this headset on PS4 but was able to confirm it works on One X via Optical, minus chat audio. However, I do think chat audio would work using a 3.5mm cable from controller to headset, defeating the purpose of wireless but alas Xbox hasn't been the friendliest with peripherals. Battery life in my short time has been fantastic, getting a good 9 hours playing in sessions of RDR2.

Overall, the Arctis Pro Wireless is certainly my top pick at this point for its substantial lead in audio fidelity and comfort.

Tyler's Test System Specifications

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370 (buy from Amazon)
• CPU: Intel Core i3 8350K (buy from Amazon)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB 4x8GB DDR4 3200 (buy from Amazon)
• Cooler: Corsair Hydro H115i (buy from Amazon)
• Case: Corsair Air 540 (buy from Amazon)
• OS Storage: Samsung 960 EVO 250GB (buy from Amazon)
• Power Supply: Corsair RM850x (buy from Amazon)
• OS: Microsoft Windows 10 (buy from Amazon)
• Wi-Fi NIC: ASUS PCE-AC88 (buy from Amazon)
• 10Gbe NIC: ASUS XG-C100C (buy from Amazon)
• Thunderbolt 3: ASUS Thunderbolt EX3 (buy from Amazon)