This is the comparison of Steelseries Arctis 5 and Arctis 7. Both models are very popular and have some differences. To know better about this headset, take look on a detailed review before you buy any one of these.

Steelseries Arctis 5	Steelseries Arctis 7
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Extremely comfortable. Sleek aesthetics. Great audio. Sensible software.	Great sound. Comfortable fit. Reasonable price. Seamless wireless.
CONS	CONS
So-so surround sound. Long, convoluted cables.	Fine-tuning music takes some work. Roundabout phone and speaker functionality.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Expert Reviews of Steelseries Arctis 5:

By Nag.co
the Arctis 5 is a comfortable gaming headset that delivers good in-game audio as well as ensuring that your teammates can hear your commendations and insults in perfect clarity. Oh, and it features RGB lighting – if that floats your…

By Techteamgb
Steelseries sent over their Arctis 5 and Arctis 7 gaming headsets for me to take a look at – let’s see if they are worth their price tag! Want one? 5’s: prourls.co/VY8Q 7’s: prourls.co/Ijdc – OverclockersUK Affiliate link: techteamgb.co.uk/ocuk – Want…

By Techpowerup
The SteelSeries Arctis 5 is available online for $100. Great audio performance, both for music and serious gaming SteelSeries Engine 3 software is easy to use and filled with useful features ChatMix Dial is a fantastic addition, one I’d love to see on…

By Videogamesuncovered
SteelSeries have created an excellent headset with the Artics 5 being able to deliver very precise sound with a range of different options in the SteelSeries Engine to customise it to your needs. The connections and cables are something which could be…

By Tom’sguide
The Arctis 5 offers great sound that you can fine-tune to your liking, a comfortable design and an impressive mic at a reasonable price.

Expert Reviews of Steelseries Arctis 7:

By Techgeatlab.com
While the Arctis 7 wasn’t one of the overall top performers, it is by far our favorite of the wireless headsets, offering the best combination of performance and price, without any major…

By TheStreamingBlog
The SteelSeries Arctis 7 is an outstanding headset that isn’t only visually pleasing, but its design is also functional which makes it an excellent gaming headset for continuous gaming sessions. The wireless range and battery life are unbeatable; plus,…

By TechRadar
On the consoles, it’s less easy to recommend the Arctis 7, due to mainly to its lack of surround-sound. The need to wire any headset to an Xbox One controller negates spending extra on a wireless headset, anyway. But the fact it works in proper wireless…

By Kitguru.net
Overall, I had a hard time deciding how to score the SteelSeries Arctis 7 gaming headset.On one hand, the audio quality is very good for a gaming headset, the mic is up there with the best I’ve heard and I genuinely believe ChatMix is one of the best,…

By Techteamgb
Steelseries sent over their Arctis 5 and Arctis 7 gaming headsets for me to take a look at – let’s see if they are worth their price tag! Want one? 5’s: prourls.co/VY8Q 7’s: prourls.co/Ijdc – OverclockersUK Affiliate link: techteamgb.co.uk/ocuk – Want…

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Steelseries Arctis 5

There are lines of models in the same series like Arctis 1, 3, 5, and 7. There are some changes between all these headsets. Likewise, Arctis 3 is also different in features and sound quality. Everything nice and worth buying and worth as a package.

Steelseries Arctis 7

This has 2.4 gigahertz wireless audio, the best microphone in gaming, and 24-hour battery life and these are just some of the claims that SteelSeries makes about their Arctis 7 wireless gaming headset. Everything is nice in this headset as mentioned. As a package, it’s worth buying. 

DESIGN:

Steelseries Arctis 5

As far as the look, it definitely just doesn’t look like a SteelSeries headset. Now, it does have kind of the look that SteelSeries has. It’s usually like a leather band, this is a cloth type material. It is very low-profile and to me, doesn’t really look like a gaming headset.

Now, it has its own design, you can go online and order these headbands in different designs if you’d like. Now, if you want to adjust these there is a Velcro on the inside that you just simply unstrap, and then you shorten it down to get the exact fit that you want.

The materials that it’s made it is plastic but there’s plenty of giving. I don’t feel as comfortable twisting these as I do as others because this plastic is really stiff which doesn’t seem to have as much give as many of the other headsets. Now, this is not plastic, it’s a rubbery type material. It doesn’t really show fingerprints which I like. Your right and left are marked on the inside part of the headset.

Steelseries Arctis 7

The improvements from the previous version include thicker padding on the ear cups for enhanced comfort, a redesigned reshaped headband, and a tweaked overall soundscape for better audio quality. The outer part of the ear cups is made from a hard plastic while the inside is fitted with this nice soft thick foam padding. Steelseries chose to use this nice fabric padding that in my opinion is an awesome design decision because this stuff is a lot more comfortable than that plasticky fake leather type of stuff that you see on so many other gaming headsets.

There’s no RGB lighting or gamer styling of any kind. It’s just a simple and sleek design that won’t have people staring at you if you were to wear it out in public or at the office or something like that.

COMFORT:

Steelseries Arctis 5

The ear cups are these specific like to Steelseries, I haven’t seen this on any other headset which is like woven type material. The way that they stitch these, they don’t get hot. There’s the air that happens to flow through these and you can wear them for long periods of time, especially long gaming sessions and they just don’t get uncomfortable.

Steelseries Arctis 7

This just feels nice and soft against your skin and doesn’t feel like it’s overheating or gonna get all sweaty and gross after long periods of time on your head.

The headband consists of a metal arch combined with a soft elastic adjustable fabric strap and although that’s a little bit different than a traditional headset strap, it does feel quite comfortable on your head even during long gaming sessions. I have like a medium to a large-sized head and the Arctis 7 feels both comfortable and snug at the same time.

FEATURES:

Steelseries Arctis 5

There is a little control panel that is connected down to USB. Now, this specifically is made for PC but I did realize that it worked for ps4 as well but with lower volume. It will up so as soon as you plug it in that is putting power to here and it gives you control over your game and your chat volume. So, you can easily switch to which one you’re wanting to hear more inside of your headset and it’s giving you extra controls especially if you’re doing a lot of online gaming to be able to hear more chat than hear gaming, it’s pretty important for those who understand how that works.

The other thing that makes this pretty unique is the cable. In headsets, you don’t like proprietary cables because if something happens to this cable, you can’t just go buy another three-and-a-half millimeter cable, and it works. Here, both ends of this have a very tiny unique looking USB and the only way that this works, and the only way that this headset works is by this cable. It’s made to go specific into one end of the headset and then one into the little amp itself.

The other thing that makes this unique is the other cable that comes with this because if you’re wanting to use this on a tablet or your cell phone or anything with a three-and-a-half millimeter plug, it gives you this tiny little adapter that plugs into the other end of this USB to be able to plug it in. So, you have to keep up with this adapter if you’re one to use it on other devices other than your PC, this is also how you use the ps4 as well.

When this headset is plugged up, there is RGB lighting. Now, with SteelSeries software on the PC, you can customize this to do different little modes, change to different colors, change to color specific that you want them to or you can have them stay a certain color, it gives you a ton of options. Also with SteelSeries software, you’re able to customize the mic level how much noise reduction you want, there are tons of features built-in even the EQ settings, they have pre-built ones or you can change it to get the sound that you want, this is also how you change your DTS surround sound as well.

Now, surround sound only works on your PC, it does not work on the consoles. If you go and looking for a surround sound headset for your ps4 or your Xbox one although, these headsets work on those systems but they don’t do the 7.1 surround sound because you have to use the plug that goes into the controller and not into the system itself.

Underneath the mic mute button, there’s your volume up and down. These get extremely loud on PC but again with consoles, I noticed that it’s not as loud as most headsets. It can get pretty loud but again it just feels like it’s kind of limited.

This only retail for $100. Now there are three different models, you have the Arctis 3, 5, and 7 which is the wireless model. This is not wireless but it does have the same surround sound and if you’re looking for a surround sound headset for under $100, you really aren’t going to do much better than these.

Steelseries Arctis 7

The bottom of the headset is where you’ll find all of the manual controls. There’s the power button, chat mix dial, microphone mute switch, volume dial, 3.5-millimeter jack, and a micro USB charging port. The controls are easy to reach and are laid out intuitively. My only complaint is that I sometimes hit this volume controller what I’m taking the headset on and off, now that doesn’t sound like a huge deal but I accidentally crank up the volume sometimes.

The set up is a breeze, all you do is plug the USB hub into your computer, press the sync button on the receiver, and then press the sync button on the headset itself which is actually just the power button and that’s it. Once you’re connected, you’re free to enjoy wireless lag-free audio with a range of up to 40 feet. I did a test of this thing by putting this headset on and I walked around my entire house listening to music and I never had any problems with the quality of the audio or dropped connections or anything like that. It’s pretty awesome.

Another awesome thing is the battery life SteelSeries claims up to 24 hours per charge and while I didn’t attempt any 24-hour straight gaming sessions to find out. Cumulatively, I think I got about 20 hours of use out of these before needing a charge, so that’s pretty good.

In the engine software, on the right side, there are some microphone controls. This one will allow you to hear a live preview to assist with microphone configuration. Mic sidetone will allow you to hear your voice through the headset and you can set how loud your voice will be using this slider. There’s a slider for adjusting the sensitivity of the microphone as well. Also, there’s an option to configure how the headset behaves when it becomes inactive.

MICROPHONE:

Steelseries Arctis 5

It’s pretty easy to know which is your left and right because on the left side, you have your microphone little nub and you’re able to pull it all the way out. So that you get a good extension and you can place it. This is honestly one of the most easily bendable microphones I’ve ever seen.

In the box, they put the best mic in gaming. I haven’t tried every headset but I can honestly say that the microphone on this headset is pretty damn impressive. So, if you’re looking to stream on Twitch or YouTube and you’re wanting a microphone that’s built into the headset instead of having an external microphone and investing more money, this may be the way you want to go.

You can simply push the mic back in as well, that does not mute it because on the back left part of the headphones is where you see your mic mute button and that is the way that you mute your headset mic.

Steelseries Arctis 7

The built-in microphone is also hidden down here where it’s tucked away inside of the ear cup. So, when you need it, you simply pull it out and I think it’s pretty cool to be able to store it away inside the ear cup when it’s not needed.

SteelSeries likes to brag about the quality of this microphone. Personally, I don’t think it’s anything groundbreaking or amazing but in the context of gaming headsets, overall, it is pretty good. Now, the sound of your own voice being recorded by a gaming headset is always going to be super subjective as to whether or not you like it but I think in general, most users of gaming headsets will probably be satisfied with the quality of this microphone.

SOUND:

Steelseries Arctis 5

They do allow quite a bit of sound in as also allowing quite a bit of sound out. So, now if you listen to these very loud and there’s anybody around you they’re likely to hear everything that you’re listening to.

SteelSeries just pretty much knock that out of the park in the sound department. They give you the controls to get the sound that you want. Now with the software that’s on your PC, you can just basically make the sound any way you want. You can have a lot of bass or extreme clarity or you can alter the mids to come forward, I mean this is one of the headsets because of the software that can open up so many doors.

The surround sound on these on the PC sounded incredible like you really can pinpoint where everything’s at around you. So, if the sound is very important this might be what you’re looking for.

Now on ps4, I use these to play uncharted and with the ps4 it’s not surround sound but somehow with the spaciousness that they’re able to do in this stereo headset. I was still able to felt like things were all around me, it didn’t feel like a simple left and right stereo. So, what SteelSeries did with this is pretty impressive. Now with music that is where it also got very impressive because of the controls in the EQ settings and the different things that you can change between, I was able to tweet these to sound like headphones that cost twice as much.

Steelseries Arctis 7

In sound quality, it’s actually pretty good. It’s a gaming headset and that’s really where it shines its bass-heavy much like other gaming headsets although I would say to a lesser extent. I think it strikes a pretty good balance where it provides that big bassy sound in games that makes explosions and gunfire just sound epic but at the same time, it’s not so overpowering that you can’t hear other important audio like footsteps or voice cues. This kind of balanced soundstage actually makes them pretty good when just listening to music as well.

These do support DTS Headphone V2 which simulates a 7.1 channel surround sound system. Personally, I don’t use it, I don’t actually like simulated surround sound audio when I’m using a headset. I just preferred the best quality stereo audio that I can get.

Some of the functions are handled through Steelseries engine software which you can download for free from their website. The engine software is a simple application that won’t leave you feeling frustrated by trying to find what you’re looking for. The software allows you to toggle the DTS headphone surround sound on or off. If you choose to turn it on, you can tweak the settings a little bit with optional profiles and bass and dialogue enhancement. There’s an adjustable equalizer that you can tune as per your choice or select from a list of presets and a dynamic range compressor that will moderate volume fluctuations and deliver audio at a uniform level.

WHICH TO BUY?

Between these two headsets, both are good. But, there are some positives and negatives. The price difference between these two is just around $30. Arctis 7 is an advanced version, better sound quality, and has wireless mode and also the price is not that much high comparatively but the mic is a little bit low in quality as that of Arctis 5. If you want a mic quality better then you have to get that in a wired version. So, decide which one you want to buy as per your preference.