When charging, the LED glows green when the headset has more than half of its battery life remaining. A small LED indicator on the right earcup blinks white when connected wirelessly and blue when connected via Bluetooth (and alternates white and blue when connected to both). The only lights on the Arctis 9 serve a function rather than simply adorning the form. Oh, and let’s not forget the great microphone.Answer See ResultsIf you are looking for colorful, pulsing RGB lighting, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Overall, it’s comfortable, has great battery life, and sound superb for movies, music, and gaming. The drivers are clear, powerful, and while the built-in 7.1 is OK, I strongly suggest grabbing the Xbox Dolby Atmos app, as it really does sound great (just remember to leave the headset in stereo mode as the Xbox does the virtual processing). When configured, and you dial in the EQ, and setup your Xbox properly, you would have to have your ear drums in your nostrils to think it sounded bad. I’ve seen some snarky reviews on Amazon and legit think people set it up wrong. Again, not a deal breaker, but keep it in mind. It also supports 3.5mm cables for audio, but they didn’t include one, and I would like to see that included at this price.

Then again, my damn Xbox One controller does the same thing, so it’s an issue I’m used to and not a deal breaker. Turning the headset on to use it with my mobile, or my PC, while it was last paired with the Xbox, turns on my Xbox. The controls are a little fiddly, but they work well enough, so it’s not a deal breaker. It’s not perfect, but honestly, how many headsets really do everything right. Well, you can use a Microsoft dongle to use it on PC I already have one for my Xbox controller on PC, and both pair to the same dongle that’s a win-win for me. Of course, the direct pairing with the Xbox is neat too, as you don’t need a dongle. You have a longer battery life, a custom EQ feature, you can pair other Bluetooth devices even while paired with your Xbox. Why pay the premium for the 9X when you could get the Arctis 7? Well, it’s lots of little things really. However, unless you’re an avid Xbox user and love that dongle free wireless, it’s hard not to consider the equally brilliant Arctis 7, which is a fair bit cheaper right now. It’s not cheap, but you do get a lot of cool features for your money. The Steelseries Arctis 9X Xbox One Wireless Gaming Headset is available now for around £200.

Arctis 9x review