The sound quality is decent, the price is right, and the feature set is impressive.
Canearbudsreplace your gaming headset?
SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds say “yes.”
These “Made for Xbox” earbuds come with accessible packaging and are small enough to fit in (most) pockets.
Price and specsBuild quality and featuresSound and mic qualityCompetitionShould you buy them?
This review was made possible thanks to a review sample provided by SteelSeries.
The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.
jot down
Spec
Freq.
Thankfully, the Arctis Gamebuds arefar, farmore comfortable.
In fact, I think they might be the most comfortable in-ear headphones I’ve ever used.
These are actually some of the most comfortable ear-anything I’ve ever used.
Another aspect I like here is the clicky buttons, rather than capacitive.
You have to actually activate these controls, which I feel like every headset on Earth should opt for.
Once you’re in, the experience is good, with a high degree of configurability.
SteelSeries' Arctis app is very good, with tons of per-game pre-sets. More music pre-sets would be welcome, though.
I think more general-use pre-sets would be nice to see, but SteelSeries is often adding more via updates.
And you’re able to always create your own, too.
They’re easy to set up on an Xbox and PC, too.
The carry case is a bit chunkier than I’d prefer, compared to things like AirPods and Samsung Galaxy Buds.
I find the sound quality is also up there for earbuds.
The Arctis Gamebuds have impressive separation for earbuds.
Yes, I am old.
These are the first truly viable Xbox and PC gaming earbuds.
The sound quality on the mics is just about passable for basic party chat.
But, it’s still worth being aware of.
Overall, I’m more than impressed with the SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds audio reproduction.
Every Xbox gamer should replace their AirPods with the SteelSeries Arctis Gamebuds.
They’re great for music, easily replacing my Galaxy Buds.
They’re decent for gaming, and more convenient in a lot of cases given their size and rechargeability.
And the features make the price point feel fair, too.
I also found the listed battery life wasn’t quite up to par with reality.
Indeed, they are a bit cheaper at$130 on Amazonas of writing.
They aren’tearbuds,though, and do not have active noise cancelling.
But you’re gonna wanna want earbuds specifically to get the most value out of them.
Arctis Gamebuds: Should you buy them?
I can’t help but be thoroughly impressed with what SteelSeries has put together here.
You should buy this if …
You should not buy this if …
