SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite review: Overrated?

The base station has another cool trick; It can charge and house a second battery. I got about 30 hours of use on a single charge, just under the SteelSeries’ lifetime, but as long as you’re near the base station, you’ve got endless battery life. When the battery power is low, simply switch the spare battery and the empty battery, and the headset will automatically turn on and reconnect within a few seconds. The backup battery charges in less than two hours, and there’s a hidden USB-C port on the left earcup just in case you’re away from home for too long.

Neatly finished

Fit and finish would be the other main reason to choose them over the Arctis Pro or BlackShark V3 Pro. The Arctis Elite is extremely durable, with an upgraded metal headband that looks really serious. While you can get it in black, you should instead opt for the sage and gold color. It’s instantly eye-catching and stylish, especially among gaming headsets, which tend to be either dark and dull or overly color-coded for gamers. Unfortunately, this feature-packed headset is also the heaviest I’ve tested so far at 380g, about 10g heavier than the Razer. The SteelSeries headbands are the most comfortable, thanks to the “Goggle Band” suspension strap that helps distribute weight across the top of your head, but it can only do so much.

Meanwhile, the earcups are made of synthetic leather that gets a little sweaty, especially during long gaming sessions. Razer has cracked the code on breathable ear cups and active noise cancellation (ANC) technology, but the SteelSeries’ noise reduction was better as a result. The difference in comfort between these two will be a matter of preference, but I also wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have strong neck muscles.

If the price here gives you any pause at all, I think you should consider other options, including the excellent Nova Pro, which has a similar base station and app support. The $250-$350 gap between the Nova Elite and any other gaming headset is enough to move up to a more powerful GPU, or to make a variety of smaller performance improvements across your system.

Ultimately, in addition to being able to connect more controllers, the upgrades are mostly beneficial for listening to music, and less impactful on gaming. For multi-console owners with deep pockets and an expansive music library, this is a feature-packed headset with no real competitors, but I know I’ll have a hard time finding a place for them in my new PC budget.