SteelSeries Arctis 7P Wireless Gaming Headset Review

Two steps sideways into mediocrity

Alex Rowe
7 min readSep 26, 2021

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Photo taken by the author.

When SteelSeries surprise-launched the Arctis headset family way back in 2016, it was a huge moment for me. I thought “Wow, finally someone is breaking away from just cloning HyperX and is trying to shake up the headset game.”

It was also fitting that it came from SteelSeries. They often like to trumpet themselves as the creators of the gaming headset (through slick marketing videos) and their Siberia series was one of the most positively-reviewed on the market. It was a bold step to throw those time-tested designs out and go in a new direction.

I was happy that they did. I have a larger than average head, and the Siberia series always worked better for smaller ones. I was never able to experience their earlier products. The new ski band suspension system on the Arctis let it fit my head, and I loved it.

In the five long years since that momentous day, SteelSeries hasn’t ever recreated that magic. They quickly binned all of their other headsets and tripled down on Arctis designs, but they’ve only had two truly new products come out — and I’m using “truly new” generously. The Arctis 1 mixed up the headband design and introduced a sleek low latency USB-C transmitter that Razer would later copy, but the core microphone and…

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Alex Rowe

I write about gaming, tech, music, and their industries. Audio producer, video editor, and former magazine critic. Look mom, I’m using my English degree!