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

Overall these are quite good. The biggest selling points are: 1. Connectivity and 2. Comfort I think this product is good partially because there is so limited competition or comparable products with these specific features. I have a wide variety of earbuds and headphones and like these for a few specific reasons. I've tried other gaming earbuds like the Steel Series gaming buds and also have the ASUS Rog Cetra (non-open back). The Steel Series was awful. The original Rog Cetra are good at the right price point, but they hurt my ears if I wear them longer than 45 minutes. The USB-C dongle is one of the biggest selling points for me because bluetooth remains so unstable for so many devices. Apple wants to only connect to Apple devices and Windows Bluetooth is a nightmare. The USB-C dongle is Not only for gaming & low latency, but simply for ease-of-use if you need to use your headphones on multiple devices. The Bluetooth 6.0 on these makes connectivity better than some other earbuds. I was able to connect easily to a variety of devices, including my iphone, Macbook Pro, my alienware PC, galaxy z fold (work phone), and Apple TV. Most other headphones struggle with hopping beyond just 1 phone and 1 other device. And then you have the USB-C dongle in case there is any issue. The "multipoint" feature - where you can "connect multiple devices at once" - is something that can be confusing. In some premium headphones, you can play both music from your phone AND play music from your PC at the same time. They call that feature "simultaneous playback" apparently, where this "multipoint" can only play 1 audio source at once, but it is just connected to both devices for "rapid switching." The simultaneous playback feature is awesome, but I've only found it on headphones like the Steel Series Elite and Razer Kraken v4 Pro --- I haven't found earbuds that do this. I also wanted these "open" style headphones because they are more comfortable for longer usage. I never thought that "open" style headphones would be something that I wanted, but after I tried the Bose Open Earbuds I completely changed my mind. However, those don't have the connectivity with the USB-C dongle and were exceptionally bad with Windows Bluetooth connectivity. Regardless, these open-back headphones are quite comfortable as well. Also, I'm trying to protect my ears and I always find myself getting ear fatigue with any noise-canceling earbuds both because of volume but also because they are jammed in my ear canals. I can wear these for very long periods of time and they are very comfortable. I also sometimes wear glasses and it's not a problem. For sound quality, I definitely had to tweak the sound settings via the Gear Link app to adjust the EQ to get it to sound right for me. I believe it will be the same for most people as the default sound settings were incredibly dull and I was initially nervous I got a dud. However, after tweaking the EQ settings I found the sound quality good. I also change the EQ sound settings if I'm gaming versus listening to music because there is a big difference for me. It's simply impossible for open ear style buds like this to pump a lot of base in comparison to like the Technics 100. But also that is damaging to your ears and a lot less comfortable. If you listen to podcasts, these sound the exact same in quality. If your use-case is "gaming only" the big advantage is obviously latency but also the mic is built-in as well. But if your primary or only use-case is gaming, and the sound quality is your highest priority, I would do a wired headset like the Asus ROG Kithara. I bought those and they are incredible for gaming. But they are also something I just use at my desk. If you're looking for the highest audio quality on a single phone or computer, then I would look at Technics 100, Airpods Pro or Bowers & Wilkins P8. But overall, I'm pleased with these and think people will either immediately love them or there will be some that feel like they miss the traditional "in-ear" buds that most people are used to.

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless really impress. They sound good in gaming and music and are all-day comfortable with battery life to match. Unboxing: The box contains the earbuds, a 2.4 GHz USB-C dongle, the charging case, and a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging. There is also a handy wire neck strap with a reflective covering. It is unobtrusive, holds the earbuds securely, and it adds a layer of confidence that I won’t inadvertently lose one during activity. The charging case is nearly double the size of other earbuds I possess. The increased size is necessary to accommodate the larger form factor of the behind-ear design and the included USB-C dongle. The earbuds rest horizontally in the case, and my first thought was, if these were vertical, they’d take up a lot less space. Then I returned the earbuds to the case and immediately recognized why the horizontal orientation was chosen: Just drop them in their respective side. A magnet guides each earbud into position and ensures positive contact with the charging connection. No fiddling to get things “just right.” The earbud case construction and plastic material are simply good enough. The hinge functions fine but opens almost too easily. I prefer a little resistance and a detent upon reaching the open position. The plastic used is thin and lightweight; nice for carrying in a bag, but it feels a little cheap. Also, I have my doubts about the durability of the matte finish on the plastic. I am afraid that over time it will show every scratch, scrape, or ding. Charging and battery life: Fresh out of the box, it took two hours to fully charge the case and earbuds. After about two hours of testing with games, podcasts, and different music genres at various volumes, charge had dropped from 100% to 80%. It’s an unscientific test, but it suggests a run time of at least 10 hours. Documentation states up to 16 hours of playback with an additional 48 hours to be had from the charging case. Connection: I first tested the USB-C dongle. When plugged into an available port on my PC, the wireless connection is automatic and immediate. On PC, I was prompted to open the Gear Link web app. It opens in your browser and provides easy access to all settings including Audio/EQ, lighting (they’re full RGB!), and hybrid multipoint to manage connections among devices, e.g., PC and phone, and dongle/Bluetooth connections. Connectivity is very versatile. The Gear Link web app is where I was told a firmware update was available; installation was painless. Just download and run the executable. It only took a few minutes to upload to the earbuds. Easy. Bluetooth connection was just as straightforward and seemed slightly louder than the dongle volume at the same setting. Audio quality was indistinguishable from the USB-C dongle connection. One interesting observation: with the dongle connected to my Android phone, Spotify identifies the headphones connection as wired. I could use “Lossless” audio, but the improvement would be lost on this open design. Like I said, just an observation. My phone is in a case, and the dongle fits without issue. The USB-C connector has sufficient length to plug in unobstructed. Multipoint connection: This is outstanding. The ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds support multipoint connection. They are currently connected to my PC via USB-C dongle and Android phone via Bluetooth. This is the most consistent, reliable multipoint I’ve ever used. After a couple of days, I have stopped checking to confirm each connection and now trust the connection has been made. Controls: Each earbud has a physical button located right where my index finger expects it to be. Controls are straightforward and programmable via the app. Also, controls vary by connection. For example, Bluetooth connection allows you to set access to your voice assistant, whereas dongle connection does not. The app is very easy to navigate and gives easy access to everything needed to completely personalize your experience. Comfort: The ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds are extremely comfortable. The earbuds are flexible silicone and wrap over/behind the ear. I wear glasses, and the behind-ear design does not interfere at all. I am extremely impressed. These are my first open-air earbuds, so there was a very brief period of recognizing no earbud tip extends into the ear canal. The open form factor in combination with the lightweight, pliable silicone construction make for a set of earbuds I might forget I’m wearing. Sound Quality: As mentioned, this is my first time using open earbuds. When I started the audio, I initially thought I was hearing it from my PC speakers. My first realization that I was listening to the ROG Cetra open earbuds was that my notebook’s speakers never sounded this good. The sound is immersive and the bass is surprisingly strong; granted, it’s nowhere near as powerful as sealed in-ear designs, but it is more than adequate for the purpose. I experienced some distortion during testing with very low-frequency bass at volume too high to be comfortable. At a normal volume, music of all types is clear, detailed, and very satisfying to listen to. I can verify that gaming performance is excellent. In-game sounds are lively and directionality is outstanding. Having owned everything from budget earbuds to high end over ear headphones, I am impressed by how well the ROG Cetra compare. Given the open design, I was concerned about sound leakage. Sitting in the same room, my wife says she cannot hear them. That’s good enough for me. Microphones: Voice quality in game and in phone calls is very good. Immersion Mode: This is ROG’s attempt at noise cancellation in an open earbud design. I believe one chooses an open earbud design because they want to maintain awareness of the world around them. The ROG Cetra open earbuds do a good job of reducing the low-frequency noise around the listener; the sound of a nearby air purifier all but vanished. The fact that I can still engage with the world around me is a huge plus. I can effortlessly carry on a conversation without removing either earbud. Immersion Mode just reduces the din. I like the implementation. Overall Impression: I find it very easy to recommend the ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds. - Sound quality is impressive when keeping in mind the open design. - Noise cancelling (Immersion Mode) is acceptable; just don’t expect an isolation booth. - They remain comfortable after hours of continuous wear. - Connection, whether dongle or Bluetooth, is rock-solid. No interference or dropouts experienced.

The ASUS ROG Cetra open wireless headphones have bridged the gap between traditional earbuds and over the ear headphones. As a musician and fan of over the ear headphones, I have always wanted to find a smaller, lighter, and more travel friendly way to interact with all of my devices. I have never been a fan of earbuds, as they seem to cause instant fatigue by the simple fact that they go INSIDE your ears. Over the ear headphones sound great and are very comfortable, but they are simply too big for some situations. The ROG Cetra headphones are a compact, lightweight, comfortable, great sounding pair of headphones that are also very versatile. They have effectively “bridged the gap” for me. Since the technical specifications are covered so well online, I want to focus on how I have been using these and how they work for me. Being ROG headphones, these are designed with gamers in mind first. ASUS have provided a USB-C 2.4 GHz dongle for use, where extreme precision and latency are crucial for intense fast paced gaming. The dongle also has an offset USB-C passthrough port for charging your device while gaming. These headphones are also Bluetooth, so you are covered for both casual gaming and everyday listening as well. These headphones come with a handy charging case that houses both the dongle and each headphone in its own spot. I have seen this become a trend lately for small items ranging from headphones, to microphones, and I appreciate the companies that are adopting this as standard. Setup was a breeze. As always, I first charged the case with everything inside. Once charged, which was pretty quick, I placed them over my ears, hit the Bluetooth pairing button, and was up and running in less than a minute. The first thing I noticed was the comfort. These are lightweight and very easy to put on and take off for storage in the charging case. ASUS have also provided a braided rigid neck cable that holds each headphone securely. The cable sits behind your neck, so you can take the headphones off and let them rest, or hang, around your neck if you need a break. While it isn’t necessary to use the cable, it is nice to have if you are doing intense exercise, hiking, or wherever you don’t want to lose one of them accidentally. Another bonus is the fact that I wear thick rimmed glasses, and while the top portion of the headphones goes over the top of your ear, I find that they do not interfere with my glasses, which is one thing I was initially concerned about in this type of design. Awesome! None of this matters if the sound isn’t on point and I am happy to report that this musician, who relies on sound quality daily, is very impressed. While they aren’t the same as wearing large woofer over ear headphones, they produce a rich full sound that is nothing short of incredible, for a design of this type. Well done ASUS! The stereo spread is there. The details in both the lows and highs are again, quite astonishing for this type of design. If you want to let more of the environment in, or add more bass and full sound, you can simply push them in towards your ear canal, or pull them away. Other noteworthy mentions would have to include the overall design and aesthetic of these is very modern. The RGB lighting on the sides of the headphones looks pretty cool IMO. They are just the right size for me and are again, very lightweight, reducing long use fatigue. If you want to use only one of the two headphones, for calls, zoom meetings, or simply to be connected while being alert with your surroundings, you can do that as well. PROS At home for both intense gaming and casual listening Excellent for workouts and traveling Very comfortable and lightweight Great design and aesthetic Great sound quality for this type of design Charging case 2.4GHz dongle included No in ear fatigue CONS None

The Asus ROG Open Wireless SpeedNova Open-Ear Gaming Earbuds are unlike anything I’ve used before. I’ve tried the bone induction style headphone as well as plenty if headphones and earbuds that either cup your ear or sit inside your ear. Never have I tried one that wraps around your ear and is so perfectly placed to deliver sound. Yes, I’m sure I’ve tried something that worked the same way, but I’m positive I’ve never tried something similar that delivered such quality sound. Bold statement? Maybe. But I’ll stand by it. Let me set the scene for you, so I know why I decided to get these. I wanted gaming headphones for my daughter. Something quality, but not something that will lead to a misshapen head like some kids get. Not that she plays enough to do that, but i also hate how kids completely tune out and are unreachable even in a household setting. That’s not acceptable to me. So we tried the ROG Open Wireless earbuds and she liked them for the sound. She liked how loud they got and how clear the sound was. Crystal clear even. She liked how they were able to keep nowhere pace of her gaming and she could hear the fine details in the sound which she described as being important in gaming. They were an instant hit and I’m grateful for at least having an alternative to what she was using. So interestingly enough, my wife asked if she could try them. My wife does telehealth and is online constantly. She sees patients for hours, daily and doing so is hard in your ears. It completely isolates you from everything around you. While it’s great for the patients to have her undivided attention, it’s hard on her to be in that isolated world. I think many of us have done online meetings, but she just has to do it on a constant basis. She gets tired of the over the ear headphones and she has two really expensive brands. One you won’t find at most electronic stores. She tried these ROG Open Wireless earbuds and instantly fell in love. The first love was the complete absence of pressure on any part of her ear or head. This is a big thing for her as long there is a potential for long term hearing issues for any device you were for an extended period of time. She feels like this will help minimize her exposure. She likes the battery life and how in a pinch she can charge one and still use one earbud to do work or at least listen. So stats wise, there are some things that truly make these earbuds superior to others. The first for me is the stability of the connection and sound. So you can connect via Bluetooth like normal and to be honest this worked perfectly for us. This is typically what we used and there was zero reason to use the second option. But if you want that unbreakable link, use the 2.4Ghz low latency SoeedNova connection. You just plug a small connector to your MUSB-C port and connect the earbuds. It’s supposed to be almost bulletproof. We didn’t have the need, the Bluetooth was awesome. I imagine for gaming this would maximize your experience where precision is needed. The second thing we loved was the comfort. The loop over your ears and the speaker rests naturally over your ear’s opening. Simple, effective and extremely comfortable. I really love this feature and I never expects to like it so much. Of course last but not least is the sound. I can quote stats out of the manual, but that is not going to tell you anything. I’m no audiophile for sure, let me start with that. But truth be told the sound is amazing. The speakers are impossibly small and the highs are crisp, bass hits and the mids are crystal clear. Spoken voice to highly technical beats all sound phenomenal. At the end of the day, would I recommend these? 100%. I’ll go even further and admit the fact that now I need buy a second pair for my wife as my daughter is not going to give them up! Which is you read the first part of my review you will know that’s a big deal to me. Thanks for reading.

I just picked up the latest ROG Centra earbuds from ASUS, these differ from the last version as these are the open type with an ear hook instead of going into your ear canal. This has its positives and negatives. In my experience they are super comfortable to wear for an extended period. Given their open ear design, they are not well suited for noise isolation or cancelling, others nearby may also hear the sound emanating from them. As for how they sound, with music and gaming they provide a clean sounding experience. Highs and mid-range, including vocals or voices are very clear. Low end response is a bit of a disappointment but sufficient (and helped with the toggling on of the Phantom Bass function), again that is because of the open style design. There is also less ability to custom fit these to your ears, for instance I noticed if the bud moves slightly over my ear canal, the sound is louder, with a bit more low-end response. My ears are on the bigger side (they say your ears never stop growing) so your experience in this area may vary based on your ear size. The ROG Cetra Open Wireless gaming earbuds come with a rather sizable charging case, since these are gamer targeted, they include the option to connect them via 2.4ghz wireless for lower latency situations via a supplied dongle. Part of the reason for the larger charging case is it is designed to accommodate both the ear hook design and the USB-C dongle (the dongle would need an adapter to plug into a USB-A port), the dongle is a bit larger as it also has a USB-C output (not pass through connectivity) for charging purposes. I do appreciate that the case has a place to store the dongle and that the dongle is designed differently than most USB-A style dongles (you don’t know how often I mix up different similar looking wireless adapter dongles for mice, headphones and USB storage). The case of course provides charging capabilities with an additional 48 hours of battery life which goes along with the 16 hours rated capacity of earbuds themselves. From a full charge, these only went down to 90% battery capacity at a large volume via the 2.4ghz dongle, so the 16-hour rating seems somewhat accurate, although Bluetooth connectivity requires less power and the rating is based on that. Also, since these have the usual ROG line of RGB lighting, that has an impact as well as use of different audio modes. I did not notice much difference in range or distance I could travel from my playback device when using Bluetooth or 2.4ghz connectivity. Since you can use these in hybrid multipoint mode (connecting two devices via Bluetooth or one via Bluetooth and 2.4ghz) I am sure that it may have additional impacts of battery life. The earbuds can also be controlled and configured via the ASUS Gear Link mobile app (not the Armory Crate mobile app) with a plethora of configuration settings and sound modes. You can also access the ASUS Gear link web site to perform some of the same settings as the mobile app. This also includes updating the firmware for the earbuds/case. For some reason there seemed to be a disconnect between the mobile app and the web site in detecting an available firmware update. The website had me download a utility to install on my PC to use to update the earbuds, the process took about fifteen minutes. Overall, I like the open design, connectivity options and performance of these earbuds, the inclusion of the 2.4ghz dongle certainly eliminates any latency, as Bluetooth inherently has some. Eliminating latency when using the 2.4ghz dongle is especially important for sound based queues in some games, or audio track syncing when editing video. >>> Pros >> clean sounding >> inclusion of a 2.4ghz wireless dongle for reduced latency use cases >> open air design, comfortable to wear for hours >> long battery life >> RGB ASUS Aura lighting effects >> configuration options via the ASUS Gear link mobile app or web site <<< Cons << open air design reduces bass, does not isolate ambient noise (that can also be a Pro), others may hear sound when you are wearing these << people with larger ears may have problems aligning the speakers on your ear << pricy