Author: Game Infliction

Whether you have the Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you’re going to want the best Xbox gaming headset, and the Xbox Wireless Headset is at the top of our list for a reason. However, if for whatever reason that headset doesn’t strike your fancy, there are so many out on the market that no matter what your needs, we’ll help you find the perfect gaming headset.

TL;DR – These are our picks for the Best Xbox Series X/S Headsets:

• Xbox Wireless Headset
• Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX
• PDP Airlite Pro
• HyperX Cloud Stinger Core
• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1
• SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X
• Razer Kaira Pro
• SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
• Audeze Maxwell
• Bang-Olufsen Beoplay Portal

The best gaming headsets to pair with Microsoft’s consoles will deliver comfort, reliable connectivity, and solid sound, while spatial audio and support for surround sound can even give you a leg up on opponents. After extensive testing and research, we’ve found nine headsets that fit the bill – and click here to see them in the UK.

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The Best Xbox Headsets

1. Xbox Wireless Headset

The best Xbox headset you can buy

• See it on Walmart
• See it on Microsoft

The Xbox Wireless Headset is the official platform gaming headset, and it partners perfectly with the Xbox Series X/S, even matching the console’s design. For under $100, you get simplicity in pairing thanks to its use of the Xbox Wireless standard. An easy connection over Bluetooth or a USB-C dongle is also available for a host of other devices, and as a wireless option, it offers a 15-hour battery life to last through your longest gaming marathons.

This headset doesn’t lack performance or features, offering 40mm drivers to pump out sound—with an especially booming bass—on par with other mid-range headsets and rocking support of Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos, and DTS Headphone: X. The integration of the Xbox Accessories App allows you to adjust the EQ presets, making the audio customized to your ears. And though the Xbox Wireless Headset totes a mainly plastic build, it’s durable with intuitive dials for volume and game/chat mix on the earcups, as well as easy-to-find buttons for device pairing and mic mute.

2. Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX

Best Wireless Xbox Headset

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When you glimpse the feature-rich, quality-designed Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX, it’s easy to see why it’s our favorite wireless Xbox headset. 2.4GHz wireless means a pain-free connection to your Xbox Series X/S, and with the flip of a switch, it connects to other gaming consoles like the PS5 or Nintendo Switch. After pairing, you’ll enjoy lag-free, uninterrupted gameplay for up to 40 hours, thanks to impressive battery life, and you get Bluetooth support for your other devices.

Beyond being one the best wireless gaming headsets, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX’s are comfortable, lightweight, and durable thanks to an improved design that will leave you surprised by how great they feel even after hours of use. As for its immersive sound experience, the 50mm Nanoclear speakers deliver, relaying even the most subtle nuances in your games, including picking up on the quiet footsteps of other players. The flip-down microphone also sounds clear for easy communication with teammates, though it picks up some background noise.

3. PDP Airlite Pro

Best Budget Xbox Headset

You don’t need to spend a fortune on a quality headset for your Xbox, and PDP’s Airlite Pro is proof. For under $80, you get an officially licensed Xbox headset that offers crisp highs and booming bass from 50mm drivers. Your experience is further amplified by its compatibility with Windows Sonic, delivering spatial audio for easily discernible sound cues, especially in shooters.

This budget gaming headset offers a durable yet comfortable build with ample adjustability and well-cushioned, breathable earcups to ensure a pleasant wearing experience even through marathon sessions. It’ll pair seamlessly with your console via a low-latency wireless dongle, though it lacks Bluetooth for an easy connection to other devices. As a wireless option, battery life is important, and the 16 hours it gets is nothing to rave about, but luckily charging is facilitated by a USB-C cable to make life easier.

4. HyperX Cloud Stinger Core

Best Budget Wireless Xbox Headset

Wireless Xbox Series X headsets usually come at a heavy premium, costing a couple hundred bucks just to have freedom from wires. Luckily, HyperX has made a name for itself over the last few years, creating some of the best budget headsets around. The HyperX Cloud Stinger Core takes the success that’s made the Cloud Stinger one of the best gaming headsets on the market, strips back all the unnecessary features in order to deliver an affordable wireless gaming headset for the masses.

Sure, it doesn’t support virtual surround sound or a Bluetooth connection, but does that matter when you can usually find this wireless gaming headset for under a hundred bucks? We’ve used dozens of HyperX gaming headsets over the years and can tell you the HyperX Cloud Stinger Core is perfect if you want a no-frills gaming headset that just works.

5. SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1

Best Ultra Cheap Xbox Headset

Though the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 may be the cheapest headset on our list, it’s packing everything you need for an immersive, enjoyable gaming experience. With the same drivers as the Arctis Nova 7, this headset’s sound quality is surprisingly great. There’s even support for Microsoft’s Spatial Audio to make the most of sound cues in games, while EQ settings can be adjusted using the SteelSeries GG app on PC.

SteelSeries didn’t forget comfort in the design of the Arctis Nova 1, so you’ll find the headset has a lightweight, height-adjustable build and plush, breathable earcups. Dropping wireless connectivity also helps keep the weight and price lower. That means the only way to connect to your devices is via the 3.5mm jack, making for a simple plug-and-play connection to your Xbox.

6. SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X

Most Comfortable Xbox Headset

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With most headsets, you start to feel fatigued after a few hours of wear, but thanks to SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X’s design, you should last almost as long as its impressive 38-hour battery life. Similar to its predecessor, the Arctis 7X, this headset offers an adjustable ski-band headband and soft, breathable fabric memory foam earcups for cool, comfortable gameplay.

The Arctis Nova 7X packs more than just all-day comfort, as your favorite games sound great thanks to the Sonar software, which allows you to tune EQ settings and take advantage of spatial audio. Communication between teammates is also sharp and precise when using the retractable, noise-cancelling microphone. Also on offer is multi-device connectivity via a 2.4GHz dongle, while Bluetooth is available for pairing a plethora of other devices, and you can even use both simultaneously.

7. Razer Kaira Pro

Best Bluetooth Xbox Headset

• See it on Razer

Bluetooth connectivity makes it easy to pair a whole host of devices with a headset, and the Razer Kaira Pro offers solid Bluetooth 5.0 support. Therefore, in addition to its use of Xbox Wireless for a seamless connection to your Xbox Series X/S, you can easily connect to your smartphone, tablet, or gaming laptop over Bluetooth. And you can do both simultaneously, so while listening to the action of your favorite shooter through Xbox, you can also jam out to music over your phone connected with Bluetooth.

The Razer Kairo Pro comes loaded with other fun features, like RGB lighting on the earcup to amp up your playing experience, and the headset still manages to last up to 15 hours with RGB turned on. The earcups also offer controls for everything from adjusting the headset’s sound settings to switching between devices, which may be overwhelming to figure out at first. You even get two mics, a removable wired mic and one built-in.

8. SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless

Best Noise-Cancelling Xbox Headset

Noise distractions are unavoidable, especially if you live with roommates or in a bustling metropolis, so grabbing a headset with powerful noise cancellation like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is vital. On offer is a hybrid noise-canceling system with four mics that adjust based on what you’re listening to and what it picks up in your environment. Improved earcups also help with sound isolation, and a simple button press activates a transparency mode to reveal what’s happening around you.

With SteelSeries latest, we see the biggest design shift since the start of the Arctis lineup with now telescoping arms on its adjustable headband to better accommodates larger head sizes. The earcups are also slimmer and sleeker, giving off less of a gaming headset vibe and more of wireless headphones look. And one of our favorite features remains intact with a few upgrades, the hot-swappable rechargeable battery system.

9. Audeze Maxwell

Best Audiophile Xbox Headset

Audiophiles will rejoice when they hear the soundstage of the high-fidelity Audeze Maxwell. Everything from the in-game sound to music mix comes across clearly, while the sound cues remain easily discernable. Unlike the Audeze Penrose X that previously held this spot, the Xbox version of this headset offers Dolby Atmos support for immersive spatial audio delivered through the 90mm planar magnetic drivers with Fluxor magnet arrays and Fazor Waveguides.

As for connectivity, the Maxwell has you covered with a USB-C wired option or wireless dongle to enjoy high-res sound up to 24-bit/96kHz. While Bluetooth 5.3 lets you connect to multiple devices, even supporting the LDAC codec and the low latency LC3plus and LC3 codecs. Beyond audio greatness, this headset offers a suspension headband and contoured earpads for all-day comfort, and we mean all day for several days, with its wild 80-hour battery life.

10. Bang-Olufsen Beoplay Portal

Best Premium Xbox Headset

B&O’s Beoplay Portal offers a high-end gaming headset that looks good, sounds good, and feels good. Once you move past the cost, you can enjoy the comfortable, lightweight design that steps away from the look of traditional gaming headsets. With superb audio quality, they’re perfect for everything from listening to your favorite album or basking in the roar of Dolby Atmos enabled game audio pipped from the Xbox Series X/S.

In a world full of distractions, it’s sometimes hard to stay focused on your game, so active noise cancellation should come in handy. Another convenient feature is Xbox Wireless for seamless pairing with your console, while Bluetooth or a 3.5mm audio jack are available for all your other devices. Unfortunately, you can’t use Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth simultaneously like other headsets on this list, and you’ll also find the 12-hour battery could be better.

Where to Get the Best Xbox Headset in the UK

Best Xbox Headsets FAQs

How Do You Choose an Xbox Headset?

There are a vast number of gaming headsets available these days, and it’s important you pay attention to specific specs to ensure you’re getting the best one for you and your Xbox Series X/S.

First, connectivity is essential. When purchasing a headset, you want to consider ones that have a variety of connections, so you can make use of it on multiple devices. One standard is Xbox Wireless, which acts similar to Bluetooth, but is exclusive to Xbox. It makes pairing compatible headsets to your Xbox console quick and simple.

Another connectivity option available is a USB wireless transmitter, and with this, you can just plug in the dongle and get gaming. You can also plug into your console or controller with wired options like a traditional 3.5mm audio jack or USB. Some of our picks even offer Bluetooth, and though the Xbox Series X/S doesn’t support it, it’s still convenient for use with other devices like your smartphone or laptop.

Of course, you want a great-sounding gaming headset. There are several factors to consider for the best audio performance. Driver size is important, and 40 mm is often the standard, but bigger usually means better. The drivers are internal mechanisms that create the sound waves you hear. A larger driver allows for more air to pass through, making not only louder sounds but also more nuanced, wider frequencies.

The range of frequencies heard on a headset is their frequency response. As humans, we can hear a range from 20-20KHz, which will cover low deep sounds to high pitched screeches. Most headsets available offer close to this frequency response or even better.

Since the Xbox Series X/S offers support for some of the best spatial audio and surround sound technologies, you may want to consider a compatible headset. This type of audio places you right in the center of your game and can pick up sound directionally. With Dolby Atmos, you can even distinguish the location of a helicopter overhead or enemies lurking in the bushes. It’s truly a next-level immersive audio experience. Looking for headsets that offer Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic, and DTS Headphone:X can amp up your gameplay and help you efficiently annihilate your competition.

Are Xbox One Headsets Compatible With Xbox Series X|S?

If you already have an Xbox One gaming headset, it should be compatible with the Xbox Series X|S already. That being said, there are some outliers that don’t work across both generations of consoles. If you want to know if your current gaming headset is compatible with the newer version of the console, you can check out this Xbox support page for the issue.

Which Xbox Headset Has the Best Sound Quality?

All of the headsets featured in our list have decent sound quality, but if you’re looking for the absolute best, you’ll want to go with high-end gaming headset. These headsets are more expensive than some of the budget options available, but they all offer excellent quality sound.

Which Headset Is Best for Xbox Series X Games?

Most compatible headsets will do just fine for most Xbox Series X/S games, but if you want something that provides richer sounds for AAA games, you’ll want to look at the more premium options on this list. These are headsets that offer things like Dolby Atmos or Windows Sonic.

• Pair your headset with the best game deals

Michelle Rae Uy is a freelance tech and travel writer, part-time production editor, and a full-time traveler from Los Angeles, California. She currently splits her time between Los Angeles, London and the rest of the world. Follow her on Instagram @straywithRae.

Danielle Abraham is a freelance writer and unpaid music historian.

Image Credit: Annalee Tsujino is a multi disciplinary designer and illustrator. Check them out on Instagram @antsu_illustrations.

There’s a moment at the very beginning of El Paso, Elsewhere, where the protagonist James Savage leans over the hood of a car pulled over in the middle of nowhere and makes a plea directly to the player. “I need you to believe…that I’m going to get back into this car, on the count of three, and stop my ex before she destroys us all. I need to know that you believe, so I can too.” He slowly counts to three, and in a blink, he’s in the El Paso hotel where she lies in wait. “Well,” he says, as if pleasantly surprised. “Here’s to believing.”

The parallels between this specific moment of James’ opening monologue and the story told to me by Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. of the game’s development aren’t lost on me. He’s worked on over 80 projects in the past eight years, he tells me over a video call, across video games, comics, and tabletop, AAA and indie, licensed and original IP. His studio, Strange Scaffold, was founded out of a “deep passion for advocating to make games better, faster, cheaper, and healthier because our players deserve it.” As he speaks to me, Nelson walks Aristotelian laps around the brightly-painted living room, kitchen, and hallway of his house. Occasionally, he sprints to the PC to check a fact, then resumes his peripateticism.

I’ve interviewed Nelson before about his move from writing to every other aspect of game development, and his game-making philosophy centered around sustainability, broad collaboration, and deep introspection. When we last spoke on these subjects, it was about An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs – an extremely different kind of video game. And yet, not at all different. Both games center protagonists who are deeply in love, deeply hurt by it, and who spend a lot of time thinking about those feelings. Both games take place in colorful, almost surreal environments – albeit very different flavors of surreal. And both games are made with a distinct earnestness and sincerity that’s almost overpowering.

Two very different games, yes, but with the same heart. It’s intentional, Nelson says, and reflective across all of Strange Scaffold’s manifold projects. Wildly different swings all, but with the intent of cultivating a community that sticks around for their shared core of sincerity and introspection. That’s the Strange Scaffold portfolio strategy, but it almost destroyed them, for a lack of believing.

“So September 26th is when the game is supposed to come out, and we were going to run out of practically all of the money on October 1st,” he says. “I [started] to interact with the corporate and investment sectors of the games industry and they tell me, ‘You can’t make games like this.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, we’re doing it now. We do it over and over again. We do it profitably. We do it on time and on budget.’ And they say, ‘Yeah, that’s amazing. That’s astounding. You can’t do it like that though.’ And that ends up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in that if we don’t receive support, we don’t get to keep making games this way.”

Nelson laments what he sees as a trend from industry publishers and investors to demand that studios like his make their games less risky by effectively risking the physical and mental health of their staff. “The assumption around the process of building games is that it must be harmful on some layer for it to have the chance of being successful,” he says. “Even on this game, again and again, we…were being told [by publishers and investors] that our emphasis on player and team health was a measure of our lack of ambition.”

“People kept asking me in rooms, ‘What game do you really want to make though? What do you really want to make? What’s your big swing?’ And I think it’s a big swing to give people amazing games over and over and over again that each provides something different for their lives. So we stuck by that. Yeah, it is what nearly drove us out of business. We managed to find some like-minded people that we’re no longer on the red line but I’ll be honest, we’re still on the knife’s edge hoping that as we show up for our players, they show up for us too.”

Like James Savage, like Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan stage play, studios like Nelson’s rely on audience belief. Even El Paso’s game over screen reiterates the message: You Keep Going. My own adventure with the game took a bit of a leap of faith, too. I loved the sincerity, silliness, and sadness of An Airport for Aliens Run by Dogs, but I’ve never played the shooters El Paso is inspired by (Max Payne, Hotline Miami) nor am I enthralled by the idea of shooting zombies. But I did exactly what Nelson hoped I’d do: I took a chance on El Paso, Elsewhere. And was rewarded many times over.

El Paso, Elsewhere is beautiful. It’s beautiful to look at, in its dramatic color contrasts of light and shadow and mixture of complex lighting effects against haunting PS1-style models and structures. Retro and modern all at once. It theoretically takes place in a hotel, if the hotel is infinitely deep and leads to hell, and the conceit works to keep the environments not just varied but perpetually and appropriately unsettling.

Writing is where El Paso especially shines, specifically Savage’s steady narration and interplay with the player. His speech is heavy with the poetry we imagine we think of when we stare out the window, nearly hungover, at 3AM in the wake of some grief. But El Paso is also full of hope and energy, both in its overall story (which I shall not spoil, but it’s good!) and in the relentless total radness of slow-mo dodging a zombie and filling its head with bullets midair while a punchy hip-hop soundtrack thrums in your ears. Yeah, James Savage is righteously sad and on a lot of drugs, but he still looks really freaking cool shooting biblically accurate angels out of the sky. Shooting feels cool too, fast and snappy, and action movie-esque in its momentum. Put it all together? Consider me a believer.

Though he’s the one speaking to me, Nelson’s whole philosophy is against the idea that one person could be the face of the entire project, or even that a faceless Strange Scaffold “brand” could be responsible for it. He wants players to feel the creativity and identity of each individual developer that touched the project, from the music of RJ Lake to Romero Bonickhausen’s cutscenes to Gary Kings’ work on the game’s trailers. And every other name in the credits, too.

“I honestly feel like we have done players a disservice, so earnestly making them focus on studio brands or legacy characters rather than saying, ‘This person told the story that made you cry. This person made the characters who you cosplayed as. This person made the gameplay that when you play every other game in this genre, this person and this group of people designed the mechanics that you miss in your hands years later.’”

Nelson gives a personal example: Binary Domain. It’s a game made by Yakuza and Like a Dragon developers Ryu Ga Gotoku studio, and it’s wildly different from the franchise the developers have become known for. But Nelson loves it, because it has the same heart as the Like a Dragon series that he already loves.

“It’s a little bit like comic books,” he continues. “You probably aren’t a fan of Batman, you’re a fan of how Frank Miller wrote them or Tom King. You’re a fan of how a specific person’s lens of interpretation changes a work. I think if you apply that lens to video games, we’ve seen a lot of things where people are not allowed to just think about making video games and doing their jobs and delivering the experiences that players love. Layoffs, the recent Unity news, there’s a variety of distractions…I have realized the reason that buying games for me is such a roll of the dice is because I’m just looking over and over to see when and where a team is allowed to have that earnestness and that creative spirit and that individual expression is allowed to really speak. Because I believe it is in AAA games, I believe it is in indie games, it’s in AA games and it is one of the first things to be strangled by production decisions that do not acknowledge its existence at all.”

El Paso, Elsewhere was not free of those “distractions” – Nelson is candid about that too. Apart from the funding crisis, he says the game was essentially made entirely in 10 months (though in planning for two years). 50 chapters, a full rap album, over 40 minutes of 3D animated cinematic cutscenes – it was a lot in a short time period, even with Strange Scaffold’s efforts to keep its people from overworking. “Every single time someone does something cool, it creates work for other people if only because they are inspired to do something amazing,” Nelson says. Exhilarating, yes, but exhausting.

“As a leader, I’ve done what I can to mitigate some of the negative effects of that, but the process of pulling this game together and making the best version of it according to our vision and our time and our scope and our budget has been, I think, pretty intensive for the team,” he says. “And while we’ve created periods of rest, we’ve spoken, we communicate really intelligently, there’s one thing I look at with some pain and regret it is that we made a game so big and so cool that the end of its development cycle did not represent the philosophical desires that we have for the development cycle as a whole.”

But Nelson isn’t giving up on his vision. He and Strange Scaffold plan to continue looking for ways to keep the studio’s structure but nix the urgency, speed, and pain that so often comes with deadlines. And perhaps with the critical success of El Paso, Elsewhere, he’ll find more believers willing to support future earnest endeavors, whatever the genre or theme. Like Savage and the player, mutually staring down death and heartbreak and game over screens: You keep going.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

You’re reading the fourth chapter of my eight-day travelog recounting my unbelievable trip to Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships.

If you already haven’t, be sure to check out the other chapters:

• Day 1: The Birthplace of Pokémon
• Day 2: Pokémon Sweets and Unbearable Heat
• Day 3: Creature Feature

Day 4 – Psyduck Fan, Unleashed

7:45 am – I wake up actually feeling rested for the first time since we got to Japan. The first stop of the day is to Pokémon Center Shibuya, and then we’ll be set free to explore the area, shop, and eat, so I figure I should have a light breakfast. I go to the buffet and grab a Malasada donut, Spanish omelet, croissant, orange slices, berry pastry, chocolate pastry, coffee, orange juice, thin pancakes with berries, and a piping-hot slice of lasagna.

8:25 am – We pile onto the bus and start our journey to Shibuya. It strikes me how this is our fourth day here and the World Championships haven’t even started, yet we’ve seen and done an astounding amount of stuff. We’re getting the full experience, indeed. This feeling continued to strike me for the next two hours.

10:25 am – Two hours later, we arrive at Pokémon Center Shibuya, on the sixth floor of the Shibuya Parco shopping mall in Tokyo. This is the third Pokémon Center of the trip yet there are still new things to be found. The first thing that catches the group’s eye is the newly released Wigglet plushie. As you can see, it looks totally fine and there’s nothing more to say about it.