The ENDGAME đŻ SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds Review
Jabra lives on! Since Steelseries is owned by Jabra, although theyâre no longer making earbuds under the Jabra brand, the new Steelseries Arctis Gamebuds are heavily inspired by Jabraâs Elite series, at least in terms of design, as you can see in the photos below, thereâs a lot of resemblance to the Jabra Elite 5.
Obviously these are targeted at gamers, and as a gamer myself, I do have some opinions about it, both good and not so great about them. But before we go into some deep analysis about its sound, its mic and noise cancelling, hereâs whatâs special about the GameBuds.
The Dongle...
The 2.4ghz dongle isnât just a more convenient way to connect them to your PS5, PC or phone, it actually makes a huge difference in terms of latency compared to Bluetooth. When connected with Bluetooth, thereâs a noticeable lag of around 300ms on PC, which isnât great for gaming. However, using the dongle completely removes that latency. Additionally, the dongle allows you to easily use the GameBuds mics for game chat, and to be frank, its in-game mic quality is not bad for TWS. đ Have a listen to the sample.
(About the in-game mic samples, just note that the GG Sonar PC app does give you Clearcast AI noise reduction for cleaner voice pickup, or you can opt for your own custom settings. Here Iâm just using Clearcast.)
Phone call quality test
Its mic pickup for phone calls is pretty decent in quiet scenarios, but in noisy windy conditions, it might not be so great at filtering noise from your voice. Otherwise, great mic pickup in less noisy conditions as we saw in the game demo.
đ Have a listen to the sample.
(For Bluetooth mic pickup, do note that Sonar settings, including Clearcast are not available. This is its mic quality on its own in both quiet and noisy conditions using really loud cafe noise and wind noise from a fan.)
2. It's VERY customisable...
The second reason theyâre so special is the insane amount of customisations you can do with them, and you can customise them individually for 2.4ghz Audio or Bluetooth. Using the GG app on PC, you can customise the Game, Chat and Mic output, as well as enable the side tone voice passthrough to hear yourself better, so that verbal exchanges feel more natural.
The app also provides more than 100 sound profiles tuned for specific games. If you feel confident enough, you can create your own EQ settings and make presets which you can access easily on the Arctis app on iOS or Android. So while youâre in the middle of a game, you can make your changes from your phone easily. This is extremely convenient.
Out of the box, you will want to make some changes because the default settings are only okay. For instance, Iâm most impressed by its soundstaging, itâs wide and open, but I think it can be a little more crisp and vibrant. I chose the Elden Ring preset because it really brings out that vibrance, gravity and oomph. Feel free to browse through the presets and settle on one that suits your preference for gaming and music.
Spatial audio can only be activated through GGâs Sonar app on PC, where you can set the audioâs distance and intensity to simulate headphones or speakers. To experience it, youâll need to hear through the dongle, but itâs worth it. Even on its default headphones settings, the spatial audio already sounds quite immersive and convincing because you really do get that sense of sound coming from outside the earbuds.
Sound Quality
When comparing sound quality between 2.4ghz and Bluetooth, there is a difference. Generally, the tuningâs about the same, but on Bluetooth it sounds a bit more v-shaped, a bit more excited.
However, I do think the separation is quite a bit better on 2.4ghz. Itâs also a cleaner, more airy, more relaxed sound. That is most probably because of Bluetoothâs limitations, it only supports streaming over the high-compression SBC codec, rather than hi-res codecs like LDAC. So on 2.4GHz, you get lower compression and thus, cleaner, more revealing sound quality.
đ Have a listen to the sound samples.
On the other hand, the reason why you might want to be on Bluetooth is the volume. Itâs about 20% louder on Bluetooth compared to using the dongle.
Active Noise Cancelling Test
As for the noise cancelling feature, itâs decent but not impressive. Compared to many earbuds in the same price bracket, it doesnât cut as much low frequency or mid-range noise. But if youâre mostly gaming indoors, this shouldnât be an issue. Because what youâll be more concerned about is cutting the noise of anything coming from outside the four walls of your room.
đ Have a listen to the ANC samples.
Transparency mode?
Its Transparency mode is decent. Ambient passthrough is loud and clean enough for quick awareness, but I canât help but notice that by default, itâs not that great at passing through my own voice. Turns out, you can turn on sidetone which gets the mics to amplify your own voice louder. The downside is that it stays on even when transparency mode is off. In my opinion, it would have been better if sidetone is a transparency mode thing only.
Pros and Cons
Overall, as a pair of gaming earbuds, thereâs so much to like about them especially how customisable they are. I like the physical button controls, which reduce the chances of accidental presses, and you can easily switch between Bluetooth mode and 2.4ghz by triple pressing. The buttons also allow you a large range of controls like ANC toggles, volume and music playback. The fact that you can adjust settings on the fly with apps on PC and phone is awesome.
In terms of performance, I have no complaints about them. Its active noise cancelling can be better, but I think they perform well for the price in terms of sound and mic pickup. I like the dongle. Itâs not small, but at least itâs not likely to interfere with an adjacent USB port because you can switch it around, and the longer side stays out of the way.
My number one complaint about them is that updating its firmware is quite tedious. You cannot update it from your phone, the update has to be done from your PC through the GG app. And you have to plug the dongle into your PC, connect the earbuds, put them into the case and plug the case USB into the PC. So if youâre a mobile or console gamer without easy access to a PC, you canât update them unless you borrow a PC.
Another more minor complaint is that on Bluetooth, they donât support multipoint pairing, so if you want to connect two devices at once, it must be with the dongle and Bluetooth at the same time.
In short, the Steelseries Arctis GameBuds is definitely aimed at gamers. Even people who just want decent audio and features with gaming as a lower priority will find these quite a treat. But something for more serious listening and even better active noise canceling, youâll do well to look at alternatives built for that purpose like the Sony WF-1000XM5 and JLAB Epic Lab, which I rated as some of the best sounding earbuds in the market.
If you want to know the latest prices of these earbuds, maybe even purchase them, Iâve linked to their Amazon pages below.
Check latest price:
SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds - https://amzn.to/49LJPit
Read the review of full-sized Steelseries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless. Hereâs a spoiler for you. Itâs microphone quality is âchefâs kissâ.
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