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Razer is a fairly large gaming company these days, and probably the most well-known gaming company when it comes to peripherals like mice, keyboards, and gaming headphones for PCs and consoles.
In my personal opinion, there is one thing Razer knows really, really well. Above all the other things it makes now, and that’s gaming mice. That doesn’t mean that any of the other stuff isn’t made well, or that it doesn’t do other product categories well.
I just think that Razer gaming mice are the company’s best offering. With that aside, let’s talk about one of Razer’s newest products. The Hammerhead True Wireless Earbuds. These are the latest set of earbuds that are geared towards mobile devices and Razer’s first crack at the true wireless market.
It already has the Hammerhead BT, which are also Bluetooth and launched about two years ago, but they have the connecting wire between the left and right earbud. The Hammerhead True are completely wire-free much like the Galaxy Buds or any of the other hundreds of pairs that are now available.
At first glance the Hammerhead True look to be a quality-made pair of truly wireless earbuds. Are they? Yes. How do they pan out though? Are they worth the $99 that Razer is asking for them? We aim to answer those questions in this review, and hopefully this can help you make an informed decision as to whether these are right for you.
First things first, the fit
For me, the first thing that comes to mind with a pair of truly wireless earbuds is, “how do they fit?” More than the style, more than the audio quality, or the battery life, I want to know how they fit in my ear because, well, the earbuds are wireless and it would be a real shame if you lost one or both because they didn’t fit well and fell out.
Granted, in many cases if an earbud fell out you’d notice, and could just as easily pick it up, provided you could find it.
After pulling these out of the box for the first time and putting them in my ears, I was happy to find out that they actually fit pretty well. They were quite comfortable too. However, I also found that it took me a few minutes or more of messing with these to get them to fit just right.
The design of these is different from any other pair of truly wireless earbuds I’ve ever tried (they’re very similar to the AirPods design), so the fit was a little different from those in regards to how they sat in my ear. After I narrowed down how you’re supposed to wear them, I was quite satisfied.
It also helps if you put on the rubber ear tips before inserting them into your ears. This doesn’t seem to be required, but it adds a thin layer of comfort compared to the hard plastic and seems to help them fit a little more securely. Some people may find this to be less comfortable, and may prefer to wear them without the tips.
Overall, the fit was great and I never really had to worry about them falling out. Though, I did notice that they seemed to loosen a bit if I wearing them while I was eating. The constant movement from my jaw opening and closing seemed to displace them just a little, though not enough to prevent them from staying in my ears.
They fit well, but are they comfortable?
In short, yes. They’re pretty comfortable to wear and didn’t really give me too much trouble with irritation.
This might not be the case for everybody, because everyone’s ears are different, but the majority of consumers who decide to test these out will probably feel like these were comfortable to wear.
There was one exception to this for me and that was wearing them for extended periods of time. Whenever I would wear these until the battery died, which is about three and half hours, I’d pop them back into the case and charge them up for a bit, then pop them back in my ears.
On average during my longer sessions I would wear them for about three hours, charge them for 30-45 minutes then put them in again. And then wear them to play games or listen to music until the battery was once again depleted.
Save for the 30 or so minute break, I had these in for the better part of five hours. It was at this point that they began to feel a little bit uncomfortable and I wanted to take them out. To be clear, they were never painful to wear. They just aren’t something I’d recommend wearing for more than a few hours at a time.
This is where they will differ greatly from a pair of over-the-ear headphones, such as the ones that Razer makes. For example, I have a pair of the Razer Kraken V2 headphones that I could easily wear for six or seven hours without taking them off and my ears never feel uncomfortable.
That being said, as long as you’re not trying to keep these in your ears all day, you should be more than fine.
They deliver surprisingly good audio quality
I was a little shocked at how good these sounded. Whether it was listening to music or playing games on my phone, the audio was crisp, bass was booming just enough, and I never had any skips or dropped audio.
Perhaps the only complaint I could make about the audio is that there is absolutely no noise cancellation at all. This is not the end of the world if you’re in a more quiet environment. If however you wanted to use these for a run, prepare to hear everything else outside.
The ambient noise never really overtook the sound of anything playing so long as I had the volume loud enough, but each time I wore these outside while running or walking I could easily hear traffic in the background. If you’re looking for a pair of truly wireless earbuds that can isolate sound for you, these aren’t it.
If what you want is a pair of truly wireless earbuds that sound great and offer up some gaming-related features, then these are probably perfect. They don’t just work with mobile devices either, and will pair with really anything that has Bluetooth.
So for example, if you want to use these with your laptop or desktop PC, you can. I’ve also found that these are fine to wear in public environments so long as it’s inside, like at an airport or coffee shop, and never had much of an issue with ambient noise.
For the most part it was only outside where it was distracting from what I was trying to listen to. When there were no distractions, sound was pretty great. And better than the audio on some other pairs of truly wireless earbuds. In the end, pretty good sound quality for the price.
Gaming Mode is easily the best feature
This is where I found the earbuds to be more exceptional. While the audio was pretty good with the standard audio mode, the gaming mode is where things really stood out.
I used them for numerous mobile gaming sessions on both the Razer Phone 2 and Pixel 3a XL, and I connected them to the Pixel 3a XL for use with Stadia too. Playing games on the Pixel through Stadia is where I found gaming mode to be the most noticeable.
Whether Destiny 2 with its fast-paced combat and twitch controls for gun play, or the newly released Darksiders Genesis which I spent a solid five hours straight playing the night after it released last week, gaming mode helped with audio immersion.
This made the gaming experience more enjoyable because of the low-latency and things seemed to sync up more than when using other headphones.
I really did notice a difference for playing games when using the gaming compared to when I wasn’t. Which tells me it was a smart move by Razer to add this.
I didn’t notice too much of a difference in battery life when using this compared to when I didn’t either. So there shouldn’t be too much worry about the time for use on a single charge changing drastically.
Activating gaming mode was rather simple as well. Since the Hammerhead True don’t have any external buttons to push, you might think using the different functions would be a hassle. It’s really not though.
A quick few taps on either earbud followed by a short hold on the third tap will activate gaming mode. The same sequence of taps will deactivate it. You also hear an audible “gaming mode” that confirms you enabled it.
That being said, make sure you’re wearing these before you activate it so you can hear that it happens.
In addition to the gaming mode activation the earbuds feature a series of other touch interactions. Like one tap for pause/playing tracks.
Battery life isn’t earth shattering, but it’s on par with the rest
When it comes to wireless earbuds battery life is probably one of the most important factors. This will also change from person to person depending on how they are used.
For the most part though battery life is likely important to most users as it will dictate how long you can listen to music before a recharge.
On average most truly wireless earbuds have battery life that is acceptable but not necessarily ideal. That’s the case here with the Razer Hammerhead True. They don’t come with earth shattering battery life but they do sit at around three to four hours.
At least by my use. That’s relatively on par with most truly wireless earbuds save for a handful that may offer more. The good news with these is that they charge up pretty quickly. Not only that but the case provides a few extra charges so you can use the earbuds around four times before needing to plug them and the case back in.
Since these don’t have any active noise cancellation, they’re not really the best for exercise or other outdoor adventures where you may have the opportunity to use them for longer than the three-four hour battery life mark.
Still, a few hours was just fine for me because I was usually only using them while playing mobile games or listening to music at home. This gave me the opportunity to plug them in if I needed to, and I always had the case handy if something else was already plugged in.
Overall battery life on the Razer Hammerhead True is nothing to be mad about. I you’re looking for the best possible battery life on truly wireless earbuds, then these aren’t for you anyway. But, if you want something with crazy good audio quality and a decent price point, with battery life as a secondary desire, then these might be perfect for you.
Plus, you really can’t argue much about the battery life when it matches up with other earbuds, and only costs $99 but still offers great audio with features like gaming mode and insanely fast pairing and connection.
Should you buy them?
If you’re a huge fan of Razer products and want a pair of truly wireless earbuds, then yeah these are likely to be a good buy for you. Even if you’re not a huge Razer fan but still like the company’s products and want or need a pair of truly wireless earbuds, then yes these are likely a good buy.
If you want a couple of added features, like active noise cancellation for blocking any incoming ambient noise, then you’ll want to look elsewhere as unfortunately Razer doesn’t offer that with these earbuds.
They are great for mobile gaming though and worked great for my own personal use with Stadia when playing on the Pixel 3a XL. That $99 price point isn’t too shabby either.