Steelseries Arctis GameBu Ds Gaming Headset

I bought these after using a set of Astro A50’s for a number of years. I bought these as I was struggling to hear footsteps etc when gaming (probably my age) and wanted to try less bulky in ear setup. The sound quality is superb as is the build quality and comfort of using them in ear. The charging case wouldn’t sync when used with the supplied cable which is disappointing, but once I tried a different cable the setup was straight forward. Very happy with these earbuds, but the built in mic is not good for gaming and talking in Discord etc so I’ve paired these with a separate mic. The downside of this is I can no longer hear myself in the earbuds and find myself shouting a fair bit when gaming. I’m not sure if there’s a soloution to this but I can put up with it. I can hear so much more detail when using these for gaming than the Astro’s and they are fine for listening to music etc on my phone and I like the less bulky feeling of these in ear buds compared to a normal style gaming headset. Plus they take up a lot less space on my desk. I’ve used them for many gaming sessions so far and never had them go flat. I think the price which is about half what I paid for my Astro’s is about right for a good quality set of earbuds. Even buying a separate mic plus the cost of these is cheaper than a set of Astro’s etc. I did have a random issue when playing ABI when the left earbud constantly kept disconnecting and then reconnecting but this seems to have disappeared after software updates and hasn’t been evident once since in any scenario I’ve used these in. The software that comes with these is excellent and comes with presets for tons of games. I’d definitely recommend these for anyone wanting a good set of in ear gaming buds.

Game changing. So much more comfortable than a normal headset. I agree the mic sensitivity is a bit lower but I can live with it. Great quality and build and the sound quality feels a lot deeper than my arctic headset. Bargain for the money I paid

I'm a very big fan of steel series so I was excited to try out the game buds earphones, however I was very disappointed. There are 2 connectivity options, Bluetooth which for me on PC, resulted in an audio delay which for gaming, is pretty horrendous. The second is via dongle which is supposed to be more reliable but I found the dongle to very unresponsive. When I did get things working somewhat, I then had to traverse the steel series GG software which is a very very poor user experience. Not only is it difficult to use, it kept locking the audio volume at a very high volume no matter how much I tried to adjust it, it was either zero/mute or blowing out my eardrums with no way to accurately adjust it. But the worst part was there would be the occasional sharp scratching noise which at the high locked volume was a genuine safety concern.

For anyone who was in a similar scenario to me, where they were using Apple AirPod Pros 2nd gen but wanted to try “gaming” earbuds this review directly compares the two Build Quality - Feel less premium then the AirPods, lighter case and earbuds themselves. The weight could be a pro or con depending on your preferences though. Sound quality - They appear to have a wider sound stage and better base then the AirPods. I actually prefer the sound from these then the AirPods) Noice cancellation - It’s serviceable, but AirPods are a little better Transparency mode - Absolute rubbish compared to the AirPods! Side tone - This is the main reason I bought the steelseries buds. You can use noise cancellation with side tone to block out the sound of fans but still get feedback from your voice to prevent shouting etc… this works really well for me (the side tone could be better though). AirPods don’t have this feature You can also disable ANC and Transparency mode on the buds which AirPods don’t allow Delay - Seems fine to me using both Bluetooth and 2.4ghz adapter, a little better then the AirPods Fit - These earbuds fit great for me, but this is dependent on the person I suppose The one major gripe I have about the steelseries buds is that in the left ear when ANC/Transparency is enabled there is some times a sort of wine? Usually audible when they first connect and it goes after 30 seconds If it wasn’t for the wine stopping after a few seconds I’d have definitely returned then

Update 2: I have since come to the conclusion (having tried two pairs of the competing Asus Rog Cetra Speednova buds that share the same problem) that the 2.4ghz issue described below is not a defect and is in fact by design, likely some power-saving "feature" that cannot be disabled as far as I'm aware. As such, I must advise avoiding these (and the aforementioned asus buds) if you care to use the 2.4ghz connection for non-continuous audio playback, like casual youtube streaming. There's no issue with continuous audio (e.g. music playlists and video games). I leave the former update and review below for posterity. ----- Update: I have experienced issues with the 2.4Ghz connection with these buds (no issues with bluetooth) where after spending a short while not listening to audio, like pausing a video or music track, and then playing/unpausing, there will be a delay before the audio actually starts where the first second or so the audio plays silent. This is especially annoying when watching YouTube and is sadly a complete dealbreaker on otherwise excellent wireless earbuds. I will be returning these and will further update this review if I receive a properly working replacement. ----- (former, five star review) Comfortable, great sound, long battery life, practically no latency on 2.4ghz and even the Bluetooth latency is decent. Needed to do a firmware update at first (which requires a computer, can't be done on mobile). The controls are buttons and not touch, which I like as I often accidentally trigger touch controlled earbuds like my old liberty 3 pros. Not all button presses are customisble, only the single and double press, other button functions like triple press and press and hold are unchangeable. The mobile app has tons of eq presets (I like the "deep bass" one) but for actual EQing you need to use the desktop app, which has probably the best equaliser I've seen. My only real gripe is that the buds announce when you switch between Bluetooth and 2.4ghz modes and ANC modes, and I find the voice rather annoying, I much prefer the simple beep sounds that soundcore buds use. Purchased for £123 (23% off), which makes it a really amazing value. They'll be easily replacing my headset for PC since I wear glasses and I imagine they'd be great for VR too.

Been using this for 4-5 months now and I have no regrets connects to bluetooth with my phone and mac seemlessly and sounds amazing, microphone quality is actually quite good for earbuds and their compactness makes them to daily drive easier and I prefer earbuds because I got headset bumps from regular headphones so its quite easy to use, The app is also very easy to navigate, when you use it on ps5 make sure to select the game preset on the app for the game your playing as it makes it much more immersive and gives an advantage for games like fortnite or COD. You get loads of different ear tips in the box that can fit anyones ears. Overall I highly recommend these if you use a ps5 and other devices.

As a gamer, I didn’t expect to love earbuds this much but these are seriously impressive. Setup was quick and easy on my PS5, and the wireless connection has been solid with no dropouts. The sound quality is great too. I can hear footsteps and small details so clearly it actually caught me off guard a few times (yes, I turned around in real life…). They’re comfortable for long sessions, and the battery easily keeps up with my “just one more match” nights. Overall, I’m really happy with them—definitely a 5-star upgrade for gaming. Price is just right in my opinion. You pay for top quality and perfect fit.

Pros : - Very small and light, extremely comfortable for long gaming session. - Battery life is very good. - Charging is very quick, earbuds can be topped up to gain hours of charge in 20 mins. - General sound quality is good. - Case is quite robust and has decent magnets for securing the lid and the buds. - Case has somewhere to store the 2.4GHz dongle. Cons: - Build quality is pretty questionable. These earbuds do not feel built to last. (The plastic bit that holds the silicone ear tips is extremely thin and has already cracked on one of my earbuds, just from removing the silicone tip for cleaning). - 2.4GHz connection suffers from occasional dropouts and interference. - Noise cancelling and transparency modes are completely useless. Noise cancelling just creates a constant hiss and transparency mode amplifies garbage noise (like PC fans) and does nothing to help hear conversations. - The mesh wax guards are poorly secured with glue which melted during the hot weather, other designs with screw on guards or metal wax guards provide much better value. I'd expect better built quality for something in this price range. If I didn't value comfort above pretty much any other feature, then I'd look elsewhere.