Over 100+ Gaming Audio Presets for the PC and Consoles – SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless Review

SteelSeries has made great gaming headsets, with the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless being their flagship model. While SteelSeries has produced many other series in between, the latest Arctis Nova 5 Wireless headset comes with a surprise.

It has over 100 customised sound presets tailored by esports pros and audio engineers. If you play online competitively but rarely tweak your sound EQ and rely on the default settings, you might appreciate this headset more.

For example, if you play online competitive first-person shooter games like CS:GO or Valorant, there is nothing better than being able to hear every footstep and every little sound the enemies make to ensure your team’s victory.

STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA 5 WIRELESS REVIEW – PACKAGING CONTENTS

The packaging includes a USB-C wireless dongle that you can plug into your gaming device’s USB-C port, a USB-A to USB-C dongle extension cable, and a USB-C to USB-A charging cable.

The USB-C wireless dongle has a wide design, which sadly may block your other ports next to it (like the USB-A port on your PS5 or PC case). Thankfully, you can use the extension cable to alleviate this problem.

STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA 5 WIRELESS REVIEW – DESIGN AND FEATURES

The Arctis Nova 5 Wireless is a compact gaming headset and feels lightweight. The foam earpads make it more breathable, which is great for long gaming sessions or gaming in the summer.

You’ll also get a ski goggle headband design, which may not provide the comfiest feel on your head, but it is light and easy to adjust to fit all head sizes. This gives a good fit while minimising damage to the headset.

The wireless headset supports both 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity, and a Quick-Switch button is easily accessible from the headset, allowing you to instantly switch from a Bluetooth stream to wireless, and vice versa. However, you can only listen to one stream at a time. So, if you connect the headset to your phone via Bluetooth and to your PC while gaming, you won’t be able to listen to both your audio call and in-game audio simultaneously.

It’s pretty handy, however, if you receive a phone call while playing games. An audible notification will come through the headset while you play, and you can then switch to Bluetooth for the audio call. It’s nifty because many of us don’t normally hear incoming phone calls while we are so immersed in our games.

The microphone boom is fully retractable, which means you can use and wear this headset while commuting to work or school without a dangling boom arm. The SteelSeries ClearCast Gen 2 microphone (32KHz/16Bit audio) has bidirectional noise cancelling and supports SteelSeries’ awesome Sonar through the GG software. It offers advanced features such as tweaking the noises to cancel, changing your tones, and other settings.

Apart from the Power and Quick-Switch buttons, you’ll also get a microphone mute/unmute switch and a volume dial. As far as battery goes, the wireless headset performs well too.

If you are connected to the PC, you can further tweak some settings through SteelSeries GG, but I find that the companion app offers more than enough options to monitor and adjust.

But you probably want to grab the Arctis Nova 5 for the customised sound presets. For this, you need to download a companion mobile app. With the app, you can select a specific game profile designed by audio engineers and game professionals (according to SteelSeries) and experience the switch instantly. You’ll notice the difference and hopefully hear what you want with the selected game.

Whether it makes the game sound better is a matter of preference. Being able to hear more footsteps, for example, would reduce the amount of bass and other game details, which you may or may not like.

Even without these advanced, customised profiles, the Arctis Nova 5 headset itself already has great sound. I’ve been playing Overwatch 2 with the Arctis Nova 5 and can truly appreciate its audio positioning and clarity. I also played Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC and Helldivers 2.

While playing Overwatch 2, I was able to hear every important detail, giving me the advantage of pinpointing enemies even before I saw them. For example, I heard the enemy’s Reaper footsteps above my position even though I hadn’t seen him visually. I managed to step back (which saved me from being killed when he unleashed his ultimate skill) and took him out afterward (I stored a clip of this on my desktop and promise to attach it here after I’m back from my travel next week).

STEELSERIES ARCTIS NOVA 5 WIRELESS REVIEW CONCLUSION

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless is a great wireless gaming headset with 2.4GHz and Bluetooth support, and it comes with tons of game presets to ensure you get the best experience from every game you play (assuming there’s already a preset for it). It has really good sound positioning and audio quality for the price. However, it won’t make music dance in your ears compared to premium headsets like the Nova Pro Wireless, and you’ll feel the difference as you crank the volume higher.

It has a comfortable, compact design, though it may look plain to some. It’s lightweight, and thanks to the retractable microphone, you can comfortably wear this outside while listening to music or even playing games on your smartphone.

Switching between Bluetooth and wireless is easy, thanks to the Quick Switch button. Plus, the headset is also compatible with many other gaming devices and platforms like PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices that support USB-C and/or Bluetooth.

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless retails for A$299, which is quite a steal, and is available now for purchase on the SteelSeries website and at retailers around Australia.

Disclosure: SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless review sample was supplied for reviewing