Customer Ratings & Reviews

From a usability standpoint, these are by far my favorite earbuds for gaming. Love the ability to use the USB dongle on my handheld and Bluetooth to my phone. One button to switch back and forth. Plus I think good sound and great ANC. Have also used Apple Air pods and ROG earbuds... as well as some cheap brands. However, from a reliability/durability standpoint they get a big, meh. I have had to return two units so far (got my first pair in Oct 2024, this review is Nov 2025) from sound not working to the constant high pitch buzz. But while the return process is cumbersome, SteelSeries replaced them both free of change. So overall giving these 4 ****

These things are awesome! A great fit in the ear, and comfortable for long wear. The sound quality is unmatched for an earbud, both directionally and treble/base performance. Battery life is fair to below average, but is to be expected given they are ear buds, and the case has plenty of extra juice. Very happy with these!

The sound coming out of these things is insane. Insane is an understatement, I truly had no idea what to expect with “gaming buds”, but man. These things pack an absolute punch. The only, and I mean only downside is the mic quality. Everything else is great, but my friends complain about how flat I sound, and that’s even if the buds pick up every word that I’m saying. If the mic were even a little better on these, I’d give em a 5, but it is a bit annoying trying to communicate with a party full of my friends and not feel annoyed/annoying.

I waited over a month to buy new earbuds because I saw Steel Series was releasing new ones. I use their Arctis Nova 7 headset and have always loved the quality and features the headset has. The main reason I wanted these earbuds over my existing Pixelbud Pros is they have a 2.4Ghz receiver and was hoping they'd have better mic quality. The 2.4 receiver allowed great sounding audio and overall the fit was comfortable. The Bluetooth seems to cut out very often for me. That was pretty disappointing. I also found the mic to be very low quality. I probably would've settled for these headphones, but the straw that broke the camels back was the buttons. It has actual buttons on them. I tried tapping to do play/next song commands and it never worked. Then I realized you have to press an actual button, but isn't very comfortable while they're in your ears. I also was disappointed that the button commands aren't very customizable and hard to remember. You can only change some of them, whereas most earbuds these days allow full customization. Steel Series usually makes great products, but I think they need to make some improvements and try again with Arctis Gamebuds V2. I will consider giving them a shot when that time comes, but until then I'm going with something else.

Ive used these earbuds for my phone, computer, and console gaming and it has exceeded my expectations in many categories. For starters, you are able to have it connected to multiple dev I ces at a time. I have the dongle connected to my switch dock and am able to have the earbuds connected to my phone so i can call or listen to music at the same time. The battery life is also a huge perk as it was able to last almost all day without dying. The earbuds also feel high quality and if you download the app or intstall the aplication on a computer you can customize the audio to fit your needs as well as select from different preset audio settings reccomened for specific games.

I have not done a lot of tech reviews so just want to say that up front. I am a fan of SteelSeries and their products and wanted a set of wireless buds so decided to finally get the Gamer Buds. First thing I will say: update the firmware. It was a night and day difference on sound. I have not had the issue with fit that seems to be a common complaint so I on the regular use them for 5-6 hours at a time for gaming. Sound is great and has that sour round feel. Options in the Arctis app for changing presets have been very helpful for finding the best sound for different types of games. I have especially liked them for Marvel Rivals and Monster Hunter. I would say the biggest negative is for changing the sound level itself you have to hold down the bud and and wait, which can be frustrating if you don’t do it correctly and turn off noise cancelling or such. The app allows you to change it directly but sometimes annoying to have to open the app to do this

I was very excited for these for a while. However the ANC isnt as good as i would hoped for vs theyre actual headsets. Quailty feels plasticy. Sound sounds good. Bass isnt as good as i hoped for even when chnaged in the tuner. Mic is excellent. Annoying thijg. You have to chnage everything in your pc to make it work. Select input and output to the earbuds, unlike other devices that do it auto. Overall 3 of 5. Id stay with my steel series headset though.

First pair of buds I've actually liked, very comfortable with the right inner ear attachments. Holds a decent charge for long streaming sessions as well, can use a single and easy to go mono sound if needed of you have a lopsided charge in the base.

I wear ear buds all day and wanted to switch to buds for gaming. These have great sound and are pretty comofortable but the button duntions arent the best and the mute takes 4 seconds to turn on and off. Also the tone for mute and inmite arent very easy to figure iut which is which. I do recommend them.

Great fit and good battery. Only thing is the mic quality isn’t the best.

Ok lets be real here, i was a 15 minutes to take they back to best buy because the anc is broken and the volumen is low , i go to sonar edit the presets , disabled volumen limit and they now sound extreme loud and clear but in Xbox, pc and the phone , the ps5 have a great volumen problem.. In PS5 the volumen is to low that i cant hear nothing around me but this is a software problem im waiting to steelserie to fix this soon and the anc distortion problem soon or i going to take this back and really dont want

Cycling through the various included earbuds and I still have issues. You simply cannot put them in your ear. In one ear I insert them upside down and twist, the other you sometimes get lucky and can insert them logo up and it sticks. The worst part is when they have a 75% fit, good enough to proceed but not a tight feeling. The quality is great. Audio is great. Mic feedback, they say I sound low. I don’t like not knowing if the mic is muted or not. You kind of have to get in lobby and see if your mic is on and then turn it off using the tap featute.

These are super cool. Bought them randomly when they were on sale. They work great. Sounds quality is cool. The noise canceling works great. Battery life is good too.

I have had these for a week now. They work bery well for most gaming. Good fit, over 100 pre nade eqs. Missing one for Black Ops 6 though. That truly needs to be addressed. Overall another great Arctis ptoduct.

First time using in-ear buds, and was on the unsure side. Was looking to find a pair that would easily connect to my pc and other devices, as my previous gen A50s were havung problems switching. The SteelSeries Buds perform very well and the set up is easy. It does have a desktop and mobile app, which are okay. I only really use the desktop app to manage discord and xbox app volumes. A lot of the sound profiles sounds great though, and the spatial audio on the Warzone setting was great. I also like the triple tap option to switch between the 2.4 ghz and bluetooth feature. My only knock is they may be a little large for some ears so long usage may not be viable (my wife did not find them comfortable even with the smallest ear tips), and i wish there was sound mixing on the mobile app (unless i missed it).

Honestly would recommend these to anyone who is looking for any type of audio for either gaming or for your phone they fit your ears well and they have great features.

These are easy to use and sound great. Can confirm they work on XBox Series X, PS5 and PC. Some of the settings are a pain when switching what you are using them on but that isn’t the earbuds fault. These also have phenomenal battery life!

Great sound and super portable. Love listening to my favorite YouTube shows in the morning through the ps5 and keeping things quiet at night while the wife and kids are asleep.

I was getting tired of people I game with complaining about how bad the mic was on the pulse explorer and as far as the sound, they weren't anything special. I switched over to these when they released and no complaints yet on the mic (granted it wont be as clear as a boom mic) and the sound is actually amazing! Rich and full soundstage and you can set up custom profiles for the game you are currently playing via the app. I also love the fact the app on iphone connects to them instantly when they are being used with the ps5 and you can change the customer EQ and ANC/Transparent mode on the fly via app. Also, for those who complain the sound is too low, turn off the volume limiter in the app and the sound will be LOUD!

These are okay to be honest. You know when you aren’t sure if you should keep something but you do and then regret it? Well I think I’m going to listen to my gut this time. These headphones are nice for the most part but they have a few issues that I can’t overlook. The volume doesn’t truly go that high and it’s rough when playing games that require you to hear footsteps nearby. In some cases you can hear buzzing during silent moments in game and at times they malfunction and blare sound louder than can be achieved through volume controls. If you’re buying for the noise cancellation well they’re okay. At times they seem to cancel my own voice out when talking to others which means I can’t communicate effectively and it seems to occur most often during cutscenes or loud moments in game. They come with a great app with multiple pre set volume settings but it seems gimmicky cause you don’t notice that much of a difference anyway. They have a great charging system as well as battery life but so do many others. I wanted so much to like these but I’m going to return them after using them for a solid 21 days. I think I’ll just cough up a bit more cash and try something else