At first we would like to thank SteelSeries for offering the Arctis 5 USB Gaming Headset for testing and reviewing.

 

About SteelSeries:

"From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making high performance gaming gear used by the most demanding, top professional gamers worldwide and peripherals that provide superior quality and a competitive edge to gamers of all skill levels. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!

 

What originally began with two people who recognized the need for superior, high-quality/performance gaming gear that would give gamers a competitive edge, has grown into a global leader in gaming and entertainment gear sought after for their high performance capabilities.

 

Fast-forward to today, and we’ve come a long way since our first glass mousepad. We have global offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing an integrated portfolio of products designed specifically for gaming. Fueling our growth is you, the gamer!

 

While we are proud of our technology and product innovation, we are even more excited about how these products are developed to meet the needs of gamers. Many companies may claim to develop superior gaming products but few actually do. Instead, they spend countless hours with lab engineers trying to force fit a new technology with bells and whistles and mediocre functionality for the end-user.

 

At SteelSeries, we develop our products with a small internal team and a vast network of technology partners, channel partners, game publishers, and gaming communities around the globe. We aren’t afraid of being challenged and implementing new ideas. Our main goal is to always to listen to the collective feedback of our professional gaming community.

 

We won’t bore you with cheeky slogans, trying to underline our authenticity as gamers. We fully acknowledge that the best professional gamers in the world know more about what they want and what will make them better, than we do. We are proud to be working with our partners, but we can’t take credit for their invaluable input and feedback. Instead we tell it like it is: they help us. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. For this reason, SteelSeries creates innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage for all gamers.

 

Critical to our company’s success is also our reinvestment in the gaming communities and the individuals who support them. As a result, our corporate philosophy is to take a substantial portion of our revenue and put it back into the gaming community to help spur industry growth. We support our community in numerous ways, ranging from co-hosting tournaments like Iron Lady and King of the Hill, and supporting gaming competitions of all sizes, to promoting the top and up-and-coming gaming teams/organizations.

 

Put simply, SteelSeries does not claim to invent or reinvent the gaming industry. Nor do we focus on one specific product, copy other companies or follow the crowd.

 

Instead we leave it to you, the gamer, our customer/partner/inspiration, to decide if we are deserving of such declarations and accolades. What we do promise, however, is to remain committed to you. We will continue to work with you and the gaming community to make the best products possible and give you that competitive edge. We will continue to do our best to support the growth of the professional gaming industry and give back to the gaming communities. By doing so, we don’t just talk a good game, we win!"

Product Features:

 

S1 Speaker Drivers + DTS Headphone X

 

The same speaker drivers found in our flagship $300 headsets, the S1 drivers are engineered to deliver a detailed, balanced soundscape with ultra-low distortion.

 

ClearCast Microphone

 

The ClearCast microphone uses an exclusive bidirectional design delivering unmatched voice clarity and background noise cancellation.

 

Ski Goggle Headband

 

The adjustable elastic fabric perfectly contours across your head, evenly distributing the weight, eliminating all pressure points.

 

AirWeave Ear Cushions

 

Inspired by fabrics found in athletic clothing, the incredibly soft AirWeave ear cushions keep you cool, dry, and comfy for hours of gaming.

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

After enjoying the audio quality of the previous SteelSeries headset series, it is time to take a look at the brand new generation from the same manufacturer and one of its members is the Arctis 5. The product does come with RGB lighting while connected on USB, but can also operate on analog stereo in order to be compatible with a wider range of devices.

 

The product does ship inside a medium-sized cardboard enclosure, with an interesting, modern box art:

 

 

 

The manufacturer does advertise the Arctis 5 as a 7.1 surround headset and the reason for that is the inclusion of DTS Headphone:X technology for identifying with ease positional audio, which does include enemy location and environmental cues:

 

 

 

If we do take a look on the bottom area of the box, we will find that the manufacturer has described the main headset components:

 

 

 

The box is sealed in two different places and after we remove these, we can easily lift up the cardboard cover; inside we will locate a similar abstract design box art, along with a transparent plastic layer, which will make sure that the product will not move accidentally during transit:

 

 

 

 

The new model design was thought for offering not only good audio quality, but also optimal comfort even during longer gaming sessions; while our sample has shipped in the back version, there is also one white variant available:

 

 

 

On the exterior of the ear cups we can find the SteelSeries logo, along with a LED ring; both are RGB-enabled, while the central layer does feature a smooth rubber coating:

 

 

 

 

The stock model does ship with Airweave Ear Cushions, which are inspired by fabrics found in athletic coating; with this material, your ears will breathe optimally and will not sweat during intense sessions. For additional customization, SteelSeries can also provide a set of Leather Ear Cushions:

 

 

 

The ear cup hinges are made of good quality plastic and permit rotation up to 90 degrees:

 

 

 

On the side of the left ear cup, we can find some extra interfaces: the Microphone mute button along with the Volume wheel:

 

 

 

Further down, we can spot a connector for the main cable, but also a headphone share jack port for connecting another stereo headset to it in order to listen together with a friend:

 

 

 

The retractable microphone can be ejected only when needed:

 

 

 

The microphone offers very good quality voice pickup (tested via multiple Skype conferences), does have a frequency response between 100Hz and 10000Hz and also features noise cancellation; on its top chassis area, SteelSeries has placed LED lighting (in red color), which turns on when the microphone gets muted:

 

 

 

 

 

One other element of comfort for the Arctis 5 is the Sky Google Headband, which is designed to contour any head shape or size, evenly distributing the weight by eliminating all pressure points that fixed headbands do have:

 

 

 

The suspension band is fully removable and can be manually adjusted thanks to the Velcro material:

 

 

 

 

Different suspension bands are available for replacement, such as the Artist Series: ThankYouX one we have received separately, in a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

The replacement band does come with the same Velcro mounting points, which make the installation and removal a very simple process:

 

 

 

 

The art designs of the custom bands are quite different, so they would match most tastes:

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the headset, we are also receiving a separate cardboard box with the bundle:

 

 

 

 

The bundle is composed of the USB ChatMix Dial, one 4-pole 3.5mm adapter, the main headset cable, but also the necessary documentation:

 

 

 

The main headset cable does have a rubberized coating, while the connectors do come with a custom design:

 

 

 

 

The 4-pole 3.5mm adapter is used together with the main headset cable and allows Arctis 5 to be used together with smartphones, tablets, laptops, console gamepads (stereo interfaces) or other compatible equipment:

 

 

 

The USB ChatMix Dial does allow the user to adjust the volume levels of regular audio content (Game), but is also able to detect voice volume in conference and adjust it separately when needed (Chat):

 

 

 

 

 

 

The product power rating can be also checked out on its back:

 

 

 

The Dial does also come with a custom-design USB connector:

 

 

 

Several Internet resources are described via the supplied leaflet:

 

 

 

 

Inside the Product Information Guide, we will learn of the main Arctis 5 components and how to properly use the product:

 

 

 

After plugging in the headset to a spare USB port, the LED light show will begin; you can see here again the clean design lines that do make the product look quite unique!

 

 

 

In order to benefit from the Arctis 5 advanced features, we need to go ahead and install the latest SteelSeries Engine 3 version; right after running the software, the headset has been detected and we have been warned to install a new firmware version to it, as well as some additional software:

 

 

 

These two processes went smooth and after all has completed, we were prompted to remove and reinsert the headset to the USB port:

 

 

 

The unified Engine 3 firmware does adapt its GUI for each and every compatible peripheral which has been connected; there is no exception for the Arctis 5, where we do get to see the profile selection area on the left, the RGB configuration area in the middle, but also different other settings on the right side. The DTS Headphone:X feature can be enabled or disabled at will for simulating the 3D environment of the audio’s original mixing stage. This feature can be used for movies, music but also games and is incorporated in other devices as well such as smartphones, gaming desktops and tablets:

 

 

 

The DTS Headphone:X 7.1 presets can be switched from the drop-down menu:

 

 

 

Next, we have got the Equalizer that is available on five bands and besides the presets which are offered by the manufacturer, we can create our own settings:

 

 

 

The interface settings also allow Live Mic Preview that was not available with the previous iterations of SE 3/Arctis 5 firmwares, adjust the microphone volume, set up Noise Reduction feature or adjust the Microphone sidetone:

 

 

 

Moving on to the RGB configuration, we can modify the LED lighting system behavior separately, per each cup, or we can link the effects together:

 

 

 

Several illumination options are available for us to work with:

 

 

 

As we have seen with Razer Chroma, some games do also support this platform and adapt the LED lighting system accordingly; also, with Prism Sync we can synchronize the RGB setups across all our connected SteelSeries devices:

 

 

 

 

Custom configurations can be added from the Library section of the SteelSeries Engine 3 GUI:

 

 

 

Arctis 5 takes part of the latest SteelSeries series of gaming headsets and incorporates 7.1 surround sound thanks to the DTX Headphone:X technology. The unit is available in both black and white colors, does pack configurable RGB lighting out the outside cup area and also adds a new level of customization thanks to the replaceable Sky Google Headbands. SteelSeries has reworked the ear cushions too and went with AirWeave material that was inspired by fabrics found in athletic clothing, so your ears won’t sweat during intense gaming sessions.

 

Arctis 5 does pack the same S1 speaker drivers we have learned to enjoy from the previous flagships, which do imply 40mm Neodymium magnets with a frequency response between 20 and 22000Hz, a sensitivity of 98db and an impedance of 32 Ohm. These do sound really great with a decent amount of bass, while the customizable EQ allows us to create a different signature. The incorporated USB ChatMix Dial allows an intelligent volume control, but we do also get a separate volume wheel on the left cup for even more customization. While the product was mainly designed to operate on USB interface (which allows accessing all settings via the SteelSeries Engine 3 software), we can also connect it to analog-Stereo devices with the supplied 3.5mm, 4-pole plug adapter such as tablets, smartphones, laptops, console gamepads and more.

 

The headset does also incorporate a good quality retractable microphone with noise cancellation, which does also feature monitoring and is equipped with a LED in order to signal the Microphone Mute functionality.

 

Besides the multiple Sky Google Headbands we can choose from, the manufacturer also provides us with accessories such as Arctis Leather Ear Cushions, Velour Ear Cushions of the same shape, an Arctis Carrying Bag or even a microphone recording filter.

 

The Arctis 5 USB Gaming Headset can be purchased online for about 115 Euros, which is decent for the overall quality we are getting!

SteelSeries Arctis 5 USB Gaming Headset is Recommended for:

 

 

 

We would like to thank again to SteelSeries for making this review possible!