Customer Ratings & Reviews

The best thing about this wireless headset is, it’s compatible with everything. Even though this model is designed for the XBOX, it works equally as well with the Nintendo Switch, PC, PS5, and mobile. It’s the perfect headset for those who need something versatile. This is my second SteelSeries headset. I bought one 4 years ago for my son to use with his Switch and PC. He never had any issues getting it to work, and more importantly, the build quality was solid. I’m hoping the Arctis Nova 5X lasts just as long. Another impressive feature of this headset is its range. I can walk into other rooms and down the hallway and I never lose connection with the 2.4GHz wireless transmitter. Other gaming headsets I own from other brands cannot match the range of this headset. Speaking of the 2.4GHz wireless adapter, it works perfectly for the Switch. Because of its low-profile T shape design, it neatly plugs into the bottom of the Switch’s USB C port. This allows you the ability to hear audio and voice chat with others through this headset. You could connect the headset to the Switch through Bluetooth, but the Switch doesn’t support mic usage through Bluetooth. So why would you do that when this headset has the perfect spot for the adapter. One downside of the low-profile T shape adapter is it can block other USB ports on your computer. SteelSeries does provide an short cable/adapter to help in this case. While its compatibility is impressive, the accompanying software and apps need improvement. There are simply too many of them to download and it’s not clear which ones are needed. It would have been helpful to have some guidance or instructions in the box. The only instructions included is a sheet notifying you to download the Arctis Nova 5X app for your phone. After doing so, it became clear that many of the useful features built into the headset can only be controlled or setup from the various programs you can download to your computer. If you take the time to understand how to setup and use the programs, there are many useful functionalities. Another thing that was confusing when setting up the headset for the first time was the ability to update the firmware. Updating the firmware is one of the first things I do when using new hardware. Again, there was no guidance or instructions in the box, app, or on SteelSeries website, that showed you how to initiate an update. Doing so may have addressed an issue I was having with the sidetone setting on the mic. In addition to Off, there are 10 levels the sidetone can be set at; when setting the sidetone to level 1 out of 10, the mic picks up a considerably amount of outside sound. For example, I could hear my gaming laptop’s fans loud and clear from setting level 1. This is something that can probably be fixed with a software and firmware update, but until I figure out how to do it, the mic’s sidetone is too loud in my opinion. Overall, I really appreciate how this headset works with almost any device. I only wish it included a standard 3.5mm jack. Including a headphone jack would have made this even more compatible. But unfortunately, the trend in electronics today is the removal of a jack for wired connections. The sound it produces is acceptable for standard gaming. It does a great job with directional audio. It also has decent base. Not the lowest frequencies around, but it does produce enough bass for standard gaming needs.

TL:DR - This headset is great once you figure out there's a mobile companion app, otherwise the out of box EQ is "Flat" and it sounds just as it says... flat! I didn't enjoy it out of the box sound experience, and I thought there was memory on the headset, so I downloaded the PC app and it didn't help me in the slightest for Xbox gaming. It does have a ton of compatibility though, it works on Switch, PC, PS5, mobile, etc. Overall, once I discovered the companion app, the experience got significantly better. Though some of the presets I think are gimmicks. Like COD MW3 preset, vs COD MW2, COD MW, and COD MW2 are basically the same sounds to my ear. Anyway I'd recommend it with the caveat of the mobile app is required! ---- When I first unboxed the headset, I was pretty happy with the fact it came with some stickers. I also LOVED the fact the headsets laid flat which for me storing them when not in use was really nice! I dislike the fact the Xbox Series X itself doesn't have a USB-C port, but it comes with a pretty decently long cable that can easily help you put the adapter in front of the console. It still looks a little weird on your entertainment center, but it's not a deal breaker. The comfort for me out of the box wasn't there. Luckily I had the option to adjust the inner headband to fit my Tweety bird sized head! I ultimately ended up removing the inner band for longer sessions though. I like it the inner band because the outer band is this rubbery like material and can pull my hair, so the cloth inner band is ideal, but again for my huge head, and for longer gaming sessions with the pals, it's more comfortable since there's less bearing down on top of my head. Speaking of playing with the fellas, the mic is great. No complaints from the receiving friends, and they thought my voice sounded more crisp than they remembered during our XDefiant play throughs. I did enjoy minimizing the audio for voice and pumping up the game volume and visa versa when needed. --- Now for the sound --- Honestly at first I hated it. I thought it was just too flat. What's weird about the whole thing is nothing on the box from what I could tell, or the instruction manual mentions a mobile companion app! I'm not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but for me it wasn't and on the second page of the manual, it says, "Use Engine Inside SteelSeries GG to set custom eq settings an control your mic" and tells you to go to the website to download it. So I did, thinking this would help me set a sound profile that will sound better than the default. Because like I said, the default wasn't good IMO. Luckily for the desktop app, you don't need to sign in, but I went ahead and created an account, just to discover that the headset doesn't save anything. It's just a sound profile for PC gaming. Which I tested and I now knew the headset had significantly better sound to offer. I just didn't know how to get it on the headset. Went to Steel Series website and noticed it has a companion app. Went back to the manual, looked on the box, and nothing stood out to me. Nothing at all indicating there was a mobile app. Once I paired my headset to my iPhone... it basically opened up a bunch of sound profiles to use on Xbox and there's so many! In fact 99% of them are unnecessary! My feedback to them is to redesign the app a little bit and sort the EQ profiles into a three tiered expanding form. So for example, the first drop down could be something like, "General, Gaming, Movies, Music, and Podcast" then once I select that, it'll offer the next options, and then another. For example if I choose Music, the next drop down can filter the results to say "Jazz, HipHop, Rock, Pop, etc." Then the next tier can say some bands you may listen to where it's tuned for. Or if I said, Gaming for the first option, then "Shooter, Action RPG, Sports, Adventure, etc., then list off the games. Right now everything is just listed in one section so it's hard to find what you want when you're quickly switching sound profiles to test out the differences. Speaking of the sound profile differences... A lot of it is unnecessary. For example all the various Call of Duty sound profiles are practically identical. Battlefield 2042 and Halo sounded very similar to my ears and the Starfield sounded great, but was it necessary to have a specific one for Starfield? Overall I like the option, but I think organizing it more so it can be filtered would be ideal. I will say that once you find the EQ you like it really does change the sound for the better. At the end of the day, I did enjoy using these headsets and easily has me not wanting to use anything else on Xbox. So yes, I do recommend these for anyone wanting a good pair of headsets, BUT ONLY if you know about the app. The app is a requirement and no the app doesn't require an account, so even better!

These are my very first pair of SteelSeries headsets. I have had every brand of gaming headsets you can imagine. First impressions: Very plain looking headset. No RGB. No crazy colors. Very simplistic design. All the buttons on both sides of the headset initially give a what does this button do. Thankfully there is an actual hard copy owner's manual to reference. Ear Cups: The earcup cushions feel very comfortable and the cloth material is very soft. Softer than my aging Corsair Void RGB Elite. Cups have the right amount of give to not push my eyeglasses against my temples. Each cup is marked L and R. The earcups fold flat but do not fold. Headband: Not a fan of the headband at all. There is a 3 way adjustment of the headband. I prefer a headband with memory foam on it instead of the elastic band. Fortunately it is still very comfortable and doesn't pull one's hair. I also don't like the adjustment of the earcup holder length. Takes a lot of force to pull them down. Sound/Mic: On a scale of 1:10 the sound is about an 8. You can make adjustments using the Arctis Nova 5 Companion App. Sounds good with bluetooth but I feel like the headset was built more for the 2.4GHz playback when connected to the Xbox Series X. No feedback with Mic (mic retracts). Sounds good and a little better than the corsair and on par with my wired HyperX wired headset. What comes in the box: You get a usb-c cable and another usb-c cable extension (no power brick), wireless dongle, and info guides along with some stickers. Charges: It rapids charge with USB-c. I just used my apple ipad pro charging block. The LED breathes green when charging. Final Thoughts: These headsets are packed with additional features that my son and I will never used. Get the xbox version because it can connect to just about everything. The build is solid and I hope the battery lasts a very long time. It does not have a 3.5mm jack so when the battery no longer holds a charge I guess it is end of life for the unit. I have not checked if usb-c charging port also seconds as a headphone jack. These do run a little small IMO opinion. If you have a larger than normal size head you should probably stay away or run them without the elastic band. The elastic band is removable but the actual plastic headband isn't lined with cushioning.

The best thing about this headset is its build quality. They feel very solidly built and I think they’ll be able to take a beating from your little ones, or from those of you who might just toss them onto your desk or wherever after you are done gaming. The headband, earcups are very strong and the earcups are quite comfortable. But to my ears, the sound quality is just alright. I’m very picky about headphones though, and I own some high end headphones. So to most consumers, these will probably get the job done. But if you’re an audiophile or expecting amazing sound out of these, then I would say look elsewhere. I played rocket league, Fortnite, and call of duty with these headphones on and they sound bright. To my ears they lack bass and miss, so most games are going to sound trebly. They are loud though, and voices in chat come through loud and clear. The microphone is cool because it retracts fully into the earcup. You’ll have to mute it with the press of a button otherwise it stays active when retracted. My only other complaint is the usb c dongle it comes with. The Xbox series x only has the OG USB ports for it, so you’ll have to use the long adapter that they provide in the box to use these wirelessly. I can’t blame the headset for it, this is Microsoft’s fault, for not putting a usb c port on the Xbox series x. The adapter is just unnecessarily long. For Pc, or Nintendo switch though, this will not be an issue as the wireless dongle will connect and pair great. All in all, I love the brand. They make a very good headset for most casual gamers. I would recommend these for your kids, they are very tough and should take a beating. They will be content with these. For serious gamers and audiophiles? I would suggest you spend a little more and get something better.

TLDR: The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5X offers up an impressive 60 hours of battery life along with very good audio quality when using the included 2.4GHz dongle but comes up way short on Bluetooth audio quality compared to its competition. CONFIGURATION I initially configured the Nova 5’s on my Windows PC, which is my primary gaming PC. I would recommend initial configuration be completed with a PC before using the 5X with other devices due to a mandatory firmware update this is required on first power up. Fortunately, the firmware update to both the dongle and the headset completed quickly and without any fuss or issues. One thing SteelSeries needs to work on is their Windows apps. They have a total of 5 different apps you can download that are applicable to the 5X. Users must download the Gaming Gear app for firmware updates and then a separate app, Sonar, for audio configuration. While both apps are easy enough to use, I don’t like the multitude of different apps. Not to mention the other 3 offerings for game captures, recording, etc. While separate apps do make for a much lighter weight install than SteelSeries’ competitors, it also makes it cumbersome to find the app you want when you want to make changes. USE The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5X boasts an impressive battery life, up to 60 hours! With a 15-minute fast charge option that nets you up to 6 hours of use. Wow! Using them for several hours playing games on the PC didn’t faze the 5X’s as they were still showing 98% battery life. Outstanding. Like other manufacturers have started doing, the 5X’s allow the user to switch seamlessly between the 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth with just a press of a button. It works well & I was able to switch between my PC (2.4) and my iPad (Bluetooth) with ease. I’m glad manufacturers have started making it simple to switch between multiple devices. SteelSeries states the Nova 5X’s can reproduce the full audio spectrum, 20Hz – 20,000Hz using their included 40mm drivers. When I first tested them, I was concerned that the 40mm drives would be substantially weaker than the now standard 50mm drivers found in most premium headphones. I was surprised at their ability to reproduce such low bass frequencies with drivers that are 20% smaller than a lot of the competition. Speaking of audio quality, the Nova 5X do a very good job sonically using the included 2.4GHz dongle. Audio is punchy and decently accurate (note that these do not offer any noise cancellation). There are over 100 different presets available in the either the Windows Sonar app or the SteelSeries companion app to help tailor the Nova 5’s to your liking. To be honest, 100 different presets is really overkill. Listed mostly by game (though there are several presets for movies and music) each preset is just a very subtle variation of the next and I couldn’t tell a discernible difference between most of them. I like other manufacturers’ approaches where they offer a basic configuration based on the game genre and then let you just fine-tune the settings from there, as like I said, the differences between 100 different presets are minimal for the most part. NEGATIVES As much as I enjoyed the sonic performance of the 5X’s while using the 2.4GHz dongle, I dislike their performance over Bluetooth. Quite frankly, these are some of the worst performing headphones over Bluetooth I’ve used in a long time, regardless of price point. Audio was muddied, muted, and lackluster to say the least. No amount of fine tuning via companion app was able to correct the poor audio quality. To add insult to injury there was a very noticeable Bluetooth lag. So much so, that only after about 20 minutes, I had to stop watching a movie with them. It was too distracting having the screen so far out of sync with the audio. Ugh. FINAL THOUGHTS I really enjoyed gaming with the Nova 5X’s linked to the included 2.4GHz dongle. The audio was very dynamic and aggressive. More aggressive than many others. The Sonar spatial audio works well and is very convincing at creating a virtual surround sound environment along with offering many different adjustments to help tweak the audio to your liking. What I don’t like, is that I cannot use Dolby Atmos or DTS Headphone X with the Nova 5’s. However, what really holds these headphones back is their poor Bluetooth performance. I have ear buds that cost 1/3 as much as the Nova 5’s that sound better via Bluetooth. I will give the Nova 5’s a recommended rating if being used with the 2.4GHz dongle. But, if used solely with a Bluetooth connection, it would be a not recommended. RECOMMENDED with caveats.

Love the ability to be able to have it connected to my xbox and phone at the same time. Weight and comfort are very good, simple install, also love the retractable microphone.

These headphones are super comfortable even for long periods of time and have good sound quality. The battery life last longer than any other wireless headphones I have used before. They are a great purchase for the price.

I love those headset so far! My more expensive headset died and I researched this as a replacement. It has been better than expected! Amazing sounds, easy set up, and I love the clean feel. Best feature for me is the BT mode. Once I connected to my phone, it will automatically pick up my phone calls in the headset and switch back to the game when I'm done the call. I highly recommend this set.

Easy to pair with Xbox. My son enjoys the experience of the awesome sound and talking which it supplies.

Good quality wireless headset. The sound is pretty good, the app is good, the build quality is good, holds a long charge. It's also reasonably loud, just remember to turn off the loudness protection in the application. Can you buy IEMs that sound better for this price? Yes. But these are nice from a convenience perspective. The app does allow you to EQ, which is nice. They do lean bass heavy.

Gave to my son as a Christmas gift and he loves it! He love the ability to switch from his game to answer his phone seemlessly. He also loves the mic and sound quality.

Awesome so far. The duality of bluetooth and 2.4 usb brought a convenience I never thought of. Stays charge for days and sound is clear and mic sounds clean and clear.

The Arctis Nova 5X is lightweight, comfortable, and has a well-designed button layout. Unfortunately, sound quality is the most important factor for me, and that’s where it falls short. The bass was weak, even with bass boost enabled, which made it difficult to feel immersed in single-player games. If bass and immersion aren’t a priority, this headset may work for you. Otherwise, I’d recommend looking at the Arctis Nova 7 or the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 instead.

Great headset. Great sound & build. Lightweight and comfortable. I don't like how you have to plug into a PC & use app to configure for Xbox use. But once done they work good. And the Bluetooth is a nice feature.

Light weight, long battery life, perfect amount of clamp force. Overall very happy.

Very comfortable headset, not super heavy, sound quality is very nice sometimes as good as other headsets. Easy to sync and use.

The item was purchased on Black Friday for a Christmas present. Upon finally opening, it was found that the sound quality was absolutely horrible. In game thunder and rain noises will intermittently become static robot type noise which ruins the game play. After verifying with another know good headset it was verified that tbe headset was the issue. Then I found that Best Buy on has a 14 day return policy. So now Im stuck with $100 paper weight. I would advise for anyone interested to do thorough research. I plan to reach out directly to the manufacturer to see about their warranty to hopefully replace then or refund my cost. Other than that they are very comfortable and easily compatible to my Xbox console.

I’m a Sony fan and wanted the Pulse Elite to be my new replacement headset. I had been using the same old wired set for about 10 years and wanted to finally go wireless. Unfortunately the Elites were heavy and huge. The one size fits all set up was terrible. I have a small head (6 7/8 hat size) and the Elites just slid right off my head with any movement. I tried the Pulse 3D after. I heard they fit better and tighter. Wrong! I saw SteelSeries had something new coming out so I decided to wait a bit and I’m glad I did. They fit like a glove and are super light. I went with the 5X so that i could use them on Xbox and PS5. They’re very good. Also works with PS Portal as long as you’re in range of the PS5. Only small gripe is that the Nova 5 skipped the 3.5 jack. Pretty silly if you ask me but it is what it is. Can’t go wrong with these for $130. Sound is great and there are a ton of presets with the app. Also has bluetooth. Nice for watching TV through a Roku and such. Very good purchase.

Sound quality for the price can be a little flat, not enough depth to surrounding sounds or bass at times, just loud noise at times. That being said, the fact i can use it with anything an not just console does make this a convenient product, hidden mic so it dosent get damaged is nice. I would buy this on sale and i would recommend to anybody looking for something under the 200 price range

Bought these for my girlfriend, wanted to get her something wireless and comfortable but not break the budget on some A50s. These are comfortable and the battery not only lasts forever but it charges so fast. Comfy, never dies, can be worn for hours, and wireless, definitely checks all of my boxes