ASUS - ROG Cetra Open Wireless SpeedNova Open-Ear Gaming Earbuds for PC, iOS, Android, Switch - Black

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• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Almost a masterpiece

  • Tech Insider Network Member

  The ROG Cetra open wireless gaming earbuds is something that answered a lot of my prayers at once. Open ear, check. Ultra-low latency wireless with dongle, check. Bluetooth, check. Hybrid multipoint connection, check. Good battery life, check. App support, check. Equalizer, check. Good quality microphone, check. So if it checks so many boxes, why is it an “almost”, not the “ultimate” masterpiece. I’m glad you asked, so here’s my experience with this unique audio device from Asus ROG from using it extensively (and almost exclusively) for gaming, music & podcast listening, and even for Zoom/Teams call for work over the last few weeks: First, the design. Asus took the recent deluge of earbuds that target “situational awareness” use cases, and put in their own ROG spin to it. The result is an open-ear headphone that does not clog up my ear canal, rather acts like miniature speakers. The design is light-weight, and the RGB lighting adds an extra bit of “gaming” flair to it. Fortunately that lighting can be customized, and also can be turned off completely - making it quite discrete if needed. Ear hooks mounts the earbuds, and there’s a detachable neck strap that provides extra security when a lot of movements are involved. Everything looks rosy, except for me personally, “comfort” was a moving target. Based on how I put on my earhook, the earbuds felt different - if not put on correctly I felt a sharp pain when using this for an extended period of time. However, after some fidgeting around, I could find a good position when it fit perfectly. My guess is this will differ based on the earlobe geometry - my wife tried it out a few times and never complained. Control is via 2 tactile buttons on top of each earbud - no messing around with finicky touch surfaces. The button position took some getting used to, but after a few days my muscle memory developed without issue. Different numbers of pressing did various things, and the fantastic part is Asus makes it easy to remap that via the app. The audio is very very good. I was not expecting much in terms of music, since this is a gaming focused device. It definitely did not blow me away with its sonic performance and fidelity, but it punched above my expectations. It was clear, and the bass was substantial. Open-ear earbuds (or even open-back headphones) in general do not have extreme bass performance, so it was never a fair comparison anyway. But in total, it did quite well, especially when “Phantom Bass” is activated via the app. And even though the target to be more situational aware, it does have an “Immersion Mode” in the app to get rid of consistent low frequency sound out, but I barely noticed any difference. For me awareness is what I wanted anyway. Battery life is quite good, especially in Bluetooth mode. I found when I was using it consistently with the wireless dongle (and using it for Teams meeting), I was losing a lot of charge. However the case, as the standard nowadays, also charges the earbuds when stowed. So in the end it was never a bother. Connectivity is where it shines the best. It supports “hybrid” connectivity, which means it can stay hooked to 2 separate sources simultaneously in various config: either via 2.4 GHz dongle and Bluetooth, or to 2 Bluetooth devices. I haven’t found a way to switch sources, but once playback started on one, the other source stopped automatically. However, I didn’t see the same automatic handoff while getting calls while listening to something from another device. Maybe something that’ll get improved in firmware updates. I had little hiccups with audio, but the 2.4 GHz connection had a shorter distance than Bluetooth. Also, some devices (my old tablet for instance), had audio glitches from time to time when using the USB-C dongle, but worked flawlessly via Bluetooth. So in summary, I’m extremely happy with the Cetra Open Wireless so far. The only downsides I noticed is the fit of the ear hooks which needs some adjustments, and maybe the large case size, but these are minor gripes for me.

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  Jack Posted 8 hours ago