The perfect wi-fi gaming headset is slowly driving me up the wall

Should you’re going to make the very best product available on the market, please go all the way in which.

Working example: the SteelSeries Arctis Professional Wi-fi is likely one of the finest wi-fi gaming headsets ever made. In 2018, I examined it in opposition to each single competitor available on the market (critically, all of them), and none might beat its mixture of fantastic audio high quality, a transparent microphone, unimaginable wi-fi vary, oodles of connectivity, and twin swappable batteries.

It’s an almost good gadget — however a few occasions per week, that “practically” half makes me need to scream.

Right here’s how I described dwelling with the Arctis Professional Wi-fi earlier this 12 months:

If I’m gaming with buddies and need a snack, I don’t must cease chatting — I simply stroll a number of rooms away to the kitchen and the audio by no means cuts out. When a too-loud recreation drowns out my pals, I faucet the dial beneath the ear cup to rebalance the audio between “recreation” and “chat” — it offers you two completely different audio gadgets in Home windows. When the battery runs out, I can simply pop a spare battery pack out of the bottom station and swap it in underneath 15 seconds. I make quite a lot of calls with the Arctis Professional Wi-fi, too, due to its built-in Bluetooth.

It’s true! There’s only one tiny factor I uncared for to say: the act of retaining it powered on can contain common embarrassment.

Nearly each week, I’ll inevitably be on a Zoom or Groups or Skype or Slack or Discord name after I’ll hear the dreaded beep — the beep meaning the battery is sort of lifeless. Not “25 % battery remaining” or “five-minute warning,” thoughts you. The beep means I most likely have 90 seconds to apologize to my dialog companions, seize a freshly charged pack, flick the previous one out, pop the brand new one in, and maintain down the facility button for what appears like an eternity whereas frantically gesturing to my boss / colleagues / interviewees to allow them to know sure I’m okay and I’m terribly sorry for losing their time however isn’t know-how hilarious?

(Many Verge colleagues have witnessed me doing this dance. Miraculously, I’ve to date escaped with out it changing into a meme.)

If all goes properly, my headset will come again to life, and I’ll fake it by no means occurred. However as typically as not, the embarrassing warmth of the second will result in much more embarrassment — I’ll press the facility button, however the headset nonetheless received’t activate as a result of I didn’t press it fairly lengthy sufficient.

Picture by Sean Hollister / The Verge

You see, the Arctis Professional Wi-fi has two energy buttons situated proper subsequent to one another — one to hook up with your PC or console, and one for the Bluetooth radio that lets it hook up with your cellphone. To activate Bluetooth, you solely must briefly faucet the button. Like most different Bluetooth headsets, holding it down too lengthy throws the headset into pairing mode.

However the Arctis Professional Wi-fi’ major energy button is simply the alternative: you have to carry it to energy on. And whereas the product guide says you solely want to carry it down for 2 seconds, it truly takes 2.25 seconds… and a full 3.5 seconds earlier than you get any audible affirmation that the headset responded to your command.

That further second appears like an eternity if you’re miming an “virtually prepared, be proper there!” gesture in Zoom. And typically — between that delay and the concern that possibly I stabbed the Bluetooth button as an alternative of the facility button in my haste — I wind up letting go of the button too early and should repeat the cycle once more.

All of this assumes the headset truly warns me that it’s powering itself off, after all! The primary few months I used the headset, I by no means obtained any warning in any respect. Seems, when you cease the bottom station from beeping each time you turn menus, it turns off the low battery alert as properly. And as soon as each month or two, I’ll additionally expertise a sudden lack of energy with no warning in any respect — usually after I’m taking part in a recreation or listening to music at low quantity. My finest guess is that the headset’s auto-power-off perform is a poor listener and doesn’t understand I’m nonetheless taking part in.

Would I do away with my Arctis Professional Wi-fi? Under no circumstances. It’s a incredible gadget I take advantage of day by day for video games, conferences, and calls, even when I wasn’t long gone the window for return. I’ve accepted that common embarrassment is the worth I’ll pay. Nevertheless it’s so tantalizingly near being value its $330 worth in US {dollars} as properly — which, final I checked, made it the only most costly wi-fi gaming headset available on the market. If SteelSeries made it barely extra comfy / adjustable for bigger heads, ironed out these energy points, and strengthened the hinge, a future model can be value each penny.

In the intervening time, listed here are the very best wi-fi and wired gaming headsets we’re truly recommending proper now.