SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Review: Is This the Best Gaming Headset?

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is the next step up from the Arctis Pro Wireless, SteelSeries’ high-end headset that was as heavy on selling points as it was on our wallets. The Nova Pro Wireless for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox is as steeply-priced as its predecessor, but it’s also worth every penny for those in the market for the best gaming headset that money can buy in 2022.

The ultimate competitive gaming headset

The competitive advantage provided by the Arctis Nova Pros cannot be overstated. The headset utilizes spatial audio to allow users to hear noises all around them, meaning that whether opponents are to your right, left, or directly beneath you, you’ll know exactly where they are. This comes in clutch in games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends, and SteelSeries’ Sonar software even provides custom configurations for those games alongside the likes of Fortnite, League of Legends, and Minecraft. The cheaper wired version reportedly provides even higher quality, though I didn’t get a chance to try these out.

The Sonar software is some of the best you’ll find. Its equalizer allows you to thoroughly adjust every facet of your audio experience from sub-bass to highs, along with adjusting bass, voice, and treble. Spatial audio can also be tuned, allowing you to move a slider between high performance and high immersion, and increasing the distance between speakers to draw the audio further in or away. You can even reposition each individual speaker, so you can maneuver the side right speaker further forward, or move around the central speaker. I’m not entirely sure why you’d do this, but the option’s there.

The Nova Pros are also a step up from their predecessor when it comes to their design. The bulky cups of the previous Arctis Pros have been trimmed, while the size of the included rechargeable batteries has also been reduced. Like the previous Pros, the battery sits discreetly behind a detachable panel on the right-hand cup, and to charge it all you need to do is slot it into the included base station. With two batteries provided, you’ll never find yourself with a dead headset given that you can easily swap out these batteries on the fly.

Station to station

The base station doesn’t feature as many customization options as the Sonar software, though it’s still got a bunch of useful features. Your headset connecting to this station rather than your PC allows for 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, letting you freely move around while listening — by comparison, my Razer BlackShark V2s would lose connectivity when at the top of my stairs, while the Nova Pros reach all the way into my garden.

The station also allows you to connect with both your PC and a console, with two USB-C inputs at its rear letting you hook up your desktop alongside your PS4, PS5, Switch, or Xbox (there’s a separate Xbox model of the Nova Pros given Microsoft’s proprietary technology). You can then switch between the two inputs using the base station. Bluetooth connectivity is also available, and you can handily have your headset hooked up to your PC/console and your mobile device via Bluetooth simultaneously. This means that you can listen to music or watch a movie without missing an email or a WhatsApp notification.

You can change the basics like volume and ChatMix from the station’s dial, though you can also access audio options such as gain, increasing or decreasing your sidetone, and accessing transparency mode. This allows you to have noise-canceling active, though to also increase the amount you hear around you at the same time, perfect for music-listening sessions where you also need to keep an ear out for a doorbell.

The noise-canceling is good though not the best I’ve ever heard. Even with it turned all the way up in my office, I could still hear birds chirping from out my office window along with the dull whirring of my fan. If you’re the type of person who wants noise canceling to mean that all ambient noise is removed, then you’ll be disappointed here.

A similar letdown is its built-in microphone, which snugly fits into the headset’s left cup and can be easily pulled out for use at any time. It has a muffled quality that sounds like it belongs on a far cheaper headset, and while it can be improved by tinkering with the mic settings in Sonar, it’s still not up to scratch.

The Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is also absolutely at its best when used with your PC, but this isn’t SteelSeries’ fault. The Sonar software cannot be used with the PlayStation or Xbox, meaning that if you’re planning to exclusively use this for your consoles, you’ll miss out on a bunch of its best features. Its audio quality is still incredible right out of the box, and tinkering with the base station can allow you some degree of customization, though it’s nowhere near as robust as what’s offered with Sonar.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Review: The final verdict

It is difficult to return to a different headset after experiencing the quality of the Arctis Nova Pros. For many, this will be more than enough to justify their high price tag of $349.99. Its spatial audio provides an unparalleled level of immersion for a gaming headset, which is as excellent for watching movies and listening to music as it is tracking your enemy’s whereabouts in an FPS.

For others, that kind of price would require a headset to be nigh-on flawless, and the relatively low-quality microphone and noise cancellation ensure this isn’t the case. It’s also a far better headset for PC gaming than it is for consoles, given its powerful Sonar software that you won’t be able to use on PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch.

All-in-all, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro makes a strong case for being the best gaming headset yet. Their premium cost is matched by their premium quality, and despite a few issues here and there, they provide a level of extreme audio detail that I’ve never before experienced with a gaming headset.