- The Arctis Nova 5x Wireless is a very comfortable and adjustable headset.
- There’s a companion app with presets for your favorite games.
- Battery life is fantastic.
SteelSeries has released a mobile app to accompany its Arctis Nova 5, a comfortable, mid-range headset with a lot to offer. As someone who is a big fan of wireless headsets, I was interested to see how this device would stack up against the price point.
What does the steel series look like?
Starting with the general appearance and comfort level of the headset, this Steel Series headset has an internal strap, which you can adjust to be looser or tighter over your head. As someone who often finds headsets a little loose, I really like this strap. The plastic isn’t hard on your head at all, the inner strap is easy enough to unfasten and fasten and it’s made of such good material. The little green design detail looks sleek too! The ear cuffs are also very soft, and made of breathable material. Inside each side, there is an L or R, to indicate which ear to place the headset on.
The Arctis Nova 5 comes with a retractable microphone that slides flat, against the left earlobe. It is very easy to take out and put in. On the left side, there is also a mute button and a volume button. The right side has the on/off switch, the charging port, a light to show how much charge you have, a quick switch button, and a chat mix dial.
Sound quality
The sound is pretty good wearing the Arctis Nova 5 and the comfort level is very high for me. It’s an easy headset to wear and the microphone does its job. I don’t find myself struggling to wear it at all. When I connected the headset to my phone, using the new SteelSeries companion app, I found it very easy and straightforward. The app I tested was via Testflight on iOS, where I simply turned on the headset, paired it with the app, and then had a bunch of settings to tinker with. It’s worth noting that you need to be connected to your phone, in Bluetooth mode, to use the app, but then you can switch between Bluetooth and 2.4GHz mode whenever you want.
Here you can easily see the battery life you should expect from your headset, along with sliders for volume, sidetone, and LED brightness on the side of the headset. You can also switch between presets for 2.4GHz mode and Bluetooth mode with the tap of a button. It’s not going to throw a lot of information at you, which I appreciate. The Sidetone slider allows you to choose how much outside noise you want to hear or how much feedback you want to hear from your own voice if that’s something you want to monitor. The Arctis Nova 5 can connect via both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth modes, but you can only receive audio from one source at a time.
Steel Series Companion App
One of the more in-depth parts of this app are the 100 EQ presets, which are customized for specific games, as their preset name suggests. These presets were created by SteelSeries audio engineers, with the goal of emphasizing the audio characteristics of specific games, so you can get the best quality for the games you really enjoy. These are massively popular games like Final Fantasy XIV and Call of Duty: Warzone – so if you’re looking for a better way to experience your favorite games, this is a really good option!
Battery life
Battery life on the Arrctis Nova 5X is pretty fantastic, clocking in at 60 hours from a full charge, which has proven true in my experience with the headset. It depends on the features used, but I think the battery life is better than other comparable headsets. The dongle is quite bulky to connect your headset to your computer or other device, which was a real negative I had with this headset. It’s a large, rectangular dongle with USB-C right in the middle. This can be a little annoying depending on the device you want to connect it to, but using it with your mobile phone won’t be a problem at all.