The Asus ROG Cetra Wireless Earbuds Are A Feature-Packed Mess

Remember old gaming headset designs?

Alex Rowe
7 min readOct 30, 2023

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The charging case for the Asus ROG Cetra ear buds, with the lid open.
Photo taken by the author.

I’ve been enjoying the ASUS ROG Ally since its launch this summer, when I managed to find one on release day at Best Buy in spite of its huge hype and marketing campaign.

Alongside this launch, Asus of course rolled out tons of accessories. Carrying cases, extra power adapters, an Xbox controller for some reason…and a “new” pair of wireless gaming ear buds. I say “new” because the ROG Cetra actually launched a year ago in a black color option, and the main new thing for this year’s launch is a white color scheme that matches the Ally’s case.

That was just enough to get me to buy them a few weeks after the Ally, but honestly — I should have held off.

In spite of being a repaint of a year-old product, the ROG Cetra is still an impressive features competitor — at least, on paper. Selling for a reasonable $99 (official site here), these are cheaper than the ~$150ish dollar price that most wireless gaming ear buds now go for. In spite of their lower than average price, they have active noise cancelling and a case that charges wirelessly on any Qi-compatible charge surface. Both of those features are either absent or more expensive when looking at other brands like HyperX and Razer.

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Alex Rowe

I write about gaming, tech, music, and their industries. Creators and fans are so much more than numbers on a graph.