One of my favorite pieces of gaming gear to try out is always headsets, hands down. There’s just something about listening to the sound-suite of different headsets that never gets old. This journey is especially important when I’m trying to find the best headset for a specific price range.

SteelSeries’ Arctis Prime is an impressive gaming headset that offers a comfortable and durable frame while giving players a crisp and clear audio profile. Falling in the realm of mid-range priced headsets, costing only $99, the Arctis Prime is a fantastic choice if you want a solid headset that doesn’t have much holding it back from perfection.

What’s In The Box

The Arctis Prime comes with a few things, all of which are fantastic inclusions. You get the headset itself of course, a removable mic windscreen, a detachable 4-pole 3.5mm adapter, and a dual 3.5mm extension cable. I appreciate that SteelSeries is giving users options when it comes to just about everything included.

Being that this headset is universal, it has to fit universal needs and it proves its versatility greatly. First off, I love how the headset cable is actually detachable. I’m one of those people who gets paranoid about the cable being torn out when it’s hardwired in, so this is an awesome design choice.

The windscreen is a cool addition as well. Personally, I use windscreens when at all possible as they really do a great job of providing great mic audio on your listeners’ end. More headsets really should include these, in my opinion.

The dual 3.5mm extension cable is nice and long which lends itself perfectly to that side of use for PC. No one likes a short cable when it comes to playing on PC so its inclusion is a welcomed one for sure.

Aesthetics and Build Quality

Simple yet effective, the Arctis Prime is a beautiful and non-invasive headset, aesthetically speaking. You don’t have RGB, flashy color accents, or crazy design choices. It’s a mature headset that takes itself seriously. I actually love the solid black design throughout with the dark grey SteelSeries logo to give it a level of dimension

Another cool aspect about the Arctis Prime is that you can add your own flourishes of creativity through its removable speaker plates and ski goggle band. You can purchase additional sets that show off different designs from artists, different games, or just fun color schemes.

There are many things to love about this headset, and build quality is definitely one of them for me. It’s a solid headset that utilizes aluminum alloy and steel in its headband, allowing for it to be extremely sturdy. I personally love when headbands are made of these kinds of metals as they stand up to use and time much better than plastics.

It’s also extremely lightweight too which is a plus. They don’t cause fatigue and actually seem to cause the opposite as I’ve forgotten at times I’m even wearing them. I can lend part of that to the extremely soft and comfortable earcups. They are the bee’s knees at creating a comfortable balance with the headband because it is on the snugger side so it doesn’t fall off. The earcups do a superb job at keeping it from feeling like it’s squeezing your head at all though.

Audio Quality and Features

As far as audio quality goes, it’s a near-perfect blend that absolutely creates an immersive soundscape for players to get lost in (in a good way). When you’re playing a game like Fortnite, the world is so crisp and clear that the world around you seems as it couldn’t sound any more living than if it were actually real. It’s so easy to pinpoint sound locations or new sounds you didn’t even know existed.

That aspect isn’t just limited to games though. Music and videos are also an absolute joy with the Arctis Prime over your hearing holes. It’s also a headset that can be a beast at times, as its volume can go pretty high. My single complaint about them though is the fact that they could use just a bit more bass. I’m not someone who normally likes too much bass because it can muddy up the audio, but these could’ve benefitted from just a touch more.

Noise cancellation is another area where this headset shines. Using a mechanical keyboard has never sounded so quiet before. I can’t hear anything going on outside of this thing. It’s a good thing that the volume wheel is easy to get to and moves very smoothly so that it’s just a knee-jerk reaction to hear what’s going on outside of them.

I’m happy to report that this headset also delivers a fantastic mic quality, living up to its touted Discord certification. These ClearCast mics are fantastic and when I received feedback from those I game with they said that this is the best I’ve ever sounded. Keep in mind that I’ve even used headsets up to four times the price of this one too, so that’s saying something.

What It Could Have Done Better

As I said, my only complaint is that they could’ve packed just a teensy bit more bass into these. Nothing else to report in the negative zone.

Verdict

The Arctis Prime is the best-wired headset I’ve tried in this price range maybe ever. It offers durability, crisp and clear audio, an A-tier mic, and the ability to give you creative authority in actual hardware additions. This is a win not only for SteelSeries but for gamers that can get such a great headset for such a modest price. This is a wishlist must-have for gamers looking for something affordable and great.