Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Headset - Review
Over the years I have been blessed with the ability to enjoy a number of Alienware products, but most of them tend to be laptops, their accessories are not often things I get time with. This has been a choice on my side, as I didn’t think they were as good as many other brands around, but over the past few years the group have slowly been catching up with their keyboards and headsets. They are back once again with the new Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Headset, yes that is the full name, but is this a product that demands your attention?
As always with any review I do for a headset, we are gonna talk about its form, because if you can’t wear it, then nothing else matters. The headset itself features a large padded headband and two very well padded ear cups, so it is packed with softness from the moment you take it out of the box. The ear cups can be adjusted from the band, but there is a stiffness to them, so it will take a little effort to get them into place, the upside though is that once you position them where you want, they won’t move. Until you connect the external microphone, there really isn’t anything else you need to worry about with the form, it is minimal but not basic and that is honestly perfect. Past Alienware headsets have been known to feature some additional touches, that add nothing to the use, but overload the form factor and I am very happy that is not the case here. With the ear cups, something that impressed me was that they were taller on the inside rather than wider, which doesn’t sound impressive, but once you put them on you will see that it is. The taller ear cup means that the top of your ear is not smooshed to fit or trapped under the padding, it is not something all headsets do and I am happy for its inclusion here.
As for functionality on the headset, it comes with the usual suspects, but something else that I appreciate was that functions have been split across the ear cups, rather than loading up one single cup. The in-use functions can be found on the left ear cup, that is volume, microphone muting and Active Noise Cancellation, this is also the side of the microphone. The right ear cup is where you will find your power on and mode selection, either Bluetooth or the 2.4Ghz option. Having them split seems like a no brainer, but there are a number of headsets that try to put everything on one single cup and it can be easy to turn off a headset instead of turning it down, so the split is welcome. As for the functions themselves, they all behave like you would expect, the only slight difference is that the mode select has 3 functions, not the two you might think. Moving the toggle up puts the headset into the 2.4Ghz mode, this is where the included adaptor comes in handy, moving the toggle down enables the Bluetooth mode and you can swap between with almost no delay. If you need to pair the headset to another device via Bluetooth, you need to pull the mode toggle down and hold it for a moment, until the light begins to flash and then you can pair it.
The left side having the in-use functions means your control is always in the same spot and if you are like me, you will turn on Active Noise Cancelation or ANC quite often. Speaking of that is a good segue into how well it actually works and if you were worried about it letting in noise, you need not be concerned as the ANC is damn near perfect. There were times when I was wearing the headset that I could not hear my very noisy neighbours or when someone was coming and knocking on my door. Sitting in a dark room and playing on my Switch with the ANC on, was dangerous as I could not hear anything around me. It seems that the designers of the headset thought of this, as the headset also includes a transparency mode, which lets outside audio come through. The headset uses a Hybrid ANC system, meaning that it has two microphones to enable it, one is aimed at the outside world and the other is internal and works by listening to the sound that you would hear. This system constantly adapts to suppress all noise around you, so that your game or media, is the only thing you will hear and its great.
Perhaps one big part of any headset are the actual speakers with in the ear cups, here you will find a pair of 50mm hi-res graphene drivers, something that the headset has in common with the Logitech G Pro X 2. These drivers have been tuned by the team at Alienware to deliver the best sound possible, without the need for players to tune the headset via software. It is the graphene coating that gives the drivers their stability, while keeping them light, so they won’t bounce around when you crank the volume up. While reviewing the headset I played a number of games from Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom to Epic Mickey and even some Starfield and no matter what game I threw at the headphones, all the sounds came through nice and crisp, but if you don’t like the sound, you can tweak things.
As a wireless headset, battery life is perhaps one element that matters just as much as the rest, as you need power to do anything else. On the box it is claimed that the headset has 75 hours of battery life, but as always that is with a very specific use case and not the common ones. The claim is that for 75 hours of use, you need to connect it via Bluetooth and have no noise cancelation enabled, as I had it connected via Bluetooth and the 2.4Ghz modes, with ANC turned on most of the time, my battery life was a little different. After making sure it was fully charged out of the box, I managed to get myself a solid 40 hours of use and again that was bouncing between the modes. When I did run the headset flat, I tested out the fast charge and after around 15 minutes, I had another half dozen hours of use, I then charged it up fully. After almost 4 weeks with the headset, I only had to fully charge it twice and I used it a lot, you can see our review page to see why.
The other aspect that I wanted to touch on, if ever so briefly was the microphone. Included with the headset, though not attached to it is a unidirectional boom mic. I have never been a fan of mics on headsets, they are usually permanently attached to them and have mediocre sound, not the case on both fronts here. First the microphone is not attached to the headset out of the box, and apart from using it on some work calls, I left it off. Connecting it is simple, you just plug it in and then adjust it to the position you like. The arm has a decent length, so it won’t feel like you are trying to eat it when you speak and the rigidity of the arm also feels good. When you don’t have it connected, there isn’t anywhere to store it in the headset, which is a problem if you travel, but that is not a major issue. The quality of my voice was great when using it on calls, people could hear me clearly and I didn’t have to speak any louder than normal. If you are not like me and have issues with the default settings of the headset, you can tweak things with the Alienware Command Center, I did test things out, like the EQ settings and ANC customisation, but I reset them to the defaults afterwards, as I had no issues with how it worked out of the box.
Alienware have slowly be creating some amazing headsets, while the AW920H had some great tech inside of it, it looked a little ugly, but the Pro Wireless Gaming Headset looks great. It includes some incredibly soft padding on the headband and ear cups, making it a delight to wear for extended periods of time. Out of the box the sound quality is great via both 2.4Ghz and Bluetooth and with the Active Noise Cancelation, it let me just immerse myself into the games I was playing. As the headset works across PC, Mobile, PlayStation and Switch, it makes it a multi-purpose device and that is always welcome. The microphone being detachable is fantastic and when it is attached you will get some quality recordings via it, it just has no where to store when its not connected. If you are someone who games at home and on the go equally, then the Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming Headset is one to look out for, its comfy to wear, delivers great sound and has fantastic battery life, giving it a trifecta of wins that easy elevates it among some of the best headsets around.
The Score
9.0
Review unit provided by Alienware
The Pros
The headset is insanely comfy to wear, even after a very long gaming session, it remains comfortable
The sound quality out of the box is perfect and while you can adjust, you may not find a need to
The Cons
The mic being detachable is great, but there is no storage for it when disconnected
Alienware Command Center being needed for customisation feels a bit restrictive, a mobile app would have been better
