Prolific as gaming headsets are, earbuds haven’t found similar success in the PC market as they have mobile. However, the rise of handheld devices like Steam Deck creates a unique opportunity for more portable audio solutions to carve space for themselves. SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds deftly demonstrate the potential for this form factor.
SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds
£160 / $160
Pros
- Excellent sound quality
- Great battery life
- Comfortable fit
- 2.4GHz & Bluetooth
- Robust app and software
Cons
- Middling microphone
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How we test and review products.
At £160 / $160, Arctis GameBuds muscle in on the territory of many midrange wireless headsets like SteelSeries’ own Arctis 7. While one shouldn’t expect similar performance from cans and earbuds, these little speakers more than hold their own.
Specs
| SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds | |
|---|---|
| Drivers | Neodymium magnetic |
| Frequency response | 20-20,000Hz |
| Connections | 2.4GHz Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Bluetooth codecs | SBC |
| ANC | Yes |
| Battery life | 10 hours (+30 hours from case) |
| Weight | Buds: 6g (each) Case: 49g (empty) |
| Extras | Silicon eartips (small, large) USB Type-C to Type-A adaptor USB Type-C charging cable |
Design & Comfort
SteelSeries adopts a stemless design for Arctis GameBuds, making them closer in appearance to the likes of Google Pixel Buds than Apple AirPods. I prefer this compact approach as it gives the earbuds a more discrete appearance.
These audio beans are made entirely out of a durable-feeling plastic, complete with IP55 water and dust resistance, available in either black or white colourways. While all versions of these earbuds work with PC, you’ll need to choose between PS5 or Xbox compatibility.
Arctics GameBuds slide into my ears snugly with a practically perfect fit. While I imagine most will get by just fine using the out of box medium eartips, there are smaller and larger alternatives included in the box too.
No earbuds ever disappear completely inside my sensitive ear canals, but SteelSeries’ pebbles come close. They’ve sat comfortably for hours-long gaming and listening sessions without any major discomfort past a small readjustment here and there.
Forgoing touch controls, Arctis GameBuds use physical buttons on either earbud. Both single and double press actions are customisable but triple press remains locked to switching between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth modes.
The default control scheme is intuitive, and it wasn’t long before I was quickly skipping through tracks, adjusting volume, and swapping between my PC and mobile without a second thought. However, these buttons come with a small adjustment period as the amount of force required to trigger them is slightly more than you’d expect.
Arctis GameBuds call a clamshell case home, which also houses the earbuds’ wireless L-shaped dongle for 2.4GHz connectivity. It’s on the larger side on account of the number and size of its occupants but remains easily pocketable.
Audio quality
I had high expectations for Arctis GameBuds given SteelSeries’ previous excellent efforts in audio, namely Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. Within just a few minutes of donning the earbuds, it quickly became clear to me that the manufacturer had successfully translated its expertise with gaming headsets into this smaller form factor.
My first impressions of their qualities came by way of Steam Deck. It took just a few seconds after plugging in the 2.4GHz dongle into the handheld’s USB-C port before I was up and running, no software necessary. This plug-and-play experience is true of PS5 and PC, offering the best audio quality.
Bluetooth makes for a convenient fallback but naturally comes with higher latency than 2.4GHz, making it less suitable for gaming. Arctis GameBuds only sport SBC (Subband Coding), the most basic audio codec available to Bluetooth devices. While it gets the job done, I would’ve loved to have seen AAC or aptX support as the earbuds’ drivers are certainly deserving of higher quality options.
Trudging through the busy streets of Novigrad in The Witcher 3, I’m blown away by the dynamic range and imaging coming from these tiny but mighty earbuds. All sounds great and small come to life brilliantly, from the quiet crackle of torches in the quiet of night to the chorus of chatter from the city’s denizens.
These qualities also make Arctis GameBuds suitable for competitive gaming too. In CS2, for example, I have little trouble identifying the direction of enemy footsteps. The thundering clap of the AWP also sounds fantastic, making those clutch thwips feel even more satisfying.
SteelSeries proudly touts that esports professionals have tested these in-ears, even providing their own equalisers for certain games. I personally didn’t feel the need to swap from the base Flat preset given how well-rounded its sounds, but more options are always welcome.
Shifting from gaming to music, Arctis GameBuds deliver a great listening experience across a wide variety of genres. Bass tones are pronounced and punchy without proving overbearing, allowing mid and high tones room to breathe.
Tracks like Robert Miles’ trance anthem Children is a great showcase for the bud’s sound signature, as piano keys and strings harmoniously soar above thumping beats. That said, I had plenty of fun kicking back with less bass-heavy tracks too including Sufjan Stevens’ tender Fourth of July.
The only weakness of Arctis GameBuds is those inherent to all in-ear headphones, namely soundstage. Neither music nor games sound as expansive with these in-ears as they do most headphones, but they put in a solid effort given their form factor.
However, being in-ears does afford these buds great passive noise isolation with a proper fit. You can block the world out further with ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) or let it in through Transparency mode. Both features perform admirably but one shouldn’t expect performance akin to class-leaders like Sony WF-1000XM5.
Mic quality
No piece of gaming audio kit is complete without a microphone, and Arctis GameBuds is no exception. There’s naturally no detachable/retractable boom mic to speak of for these buds, meaning it’s up to beamforming tech to carry your comms.
Unfortunately, the resulting mic quality is a mixed bag. Using the earbuds on Discord, my teammates had trouble understanding my callouts due to middling clarity. For casual conversations the microphone gets the job done but I can’t comfortably rely on it to carry for me through a competitive game where clarity is king.
Listening back to audio recordings captured locally, there’s a great deal of compression in place that sounds as if I’m using the built-in mic on a laptop or webcam. Compression is a necessary evil for wireless mics but its drawbacks are more obvious here owing to the size of the microphones themselves and how far they are from my face.
Battery life
SteelSeries claims you can squeeze around ten hours of use from Arctis GameBuds per charge, sans ANC. This lines up with my personal experience, managing to get through an eight-hour workday with about 20% left in the bank.
Popping the earbuds into the case, they charge back up right quick, netting a few additional hours of uptime after just 15 minutes or so. The case holds up to 30 hours additional charge at maximum capacity, for a total of 40 hours uptime.
You can juice it up via its USB Type-C port round the back or throw it on top of a Qi wireless charger. As it fills up, the LED on its front indicates how full it is, shifting from red (0-25%), to yellow (26-65%), and finally to green (66-100%). Alternatively, you can get a more precise reading from your smartphone or PC if connected to either device.
Software
Like other peripherals from the brand, SteelSeries GG serves as the hub from which you can configure Arctis GameBuds on your desktop. Meanwhile, the Arctis app takes on these duties on your smartphone. It is slightly annoying having to remember two different application names, but you quickly adjust after a few stumbles.
GG offers the most functionality of the two, allowing you to craft custom equalisers that you can then transfer over to your smartphone. It’s unclear why this separation exists but it’s easy to forgive. Firmware updates are only possible via PC too, but this makes sense to avoid mismatched firmware with the 2.4GHz dongle.
Through Arctis or GG, you can easily adjust noise control options, microphone sidetone and volume, and configure button mappings. It’s also easy to swap between equalisers if you fancy rocking one curated for a game.
SteelSeries unfortunately continues to lock its Sonar feature behind an account requirement. Thankfully it’s not necessary to crack on with Arctis GameBuds but worth giving a whirl if you don’t mind signing up and fancy trying a virtual mixer.
Conclusion
Arctis GameBuds arrive at a serendipitous time, ready to capitalise on the growing popularity of handheld gaming PCs. It’s in this realm and paired with smartphones they shine brightest but they can happily stand in for your headset providing you don’t need a crystal-clear microphone.
Competition for Arctis GameBuds is few and far between, but I imagine we’ll see more challengers emerge in the near future. Sony InZone Buds cost a comparable £150 in the UK but rise to $200 in the US, while forgoing Bluetooth compatibility entirely. This leaves Razer’s Hammerhead HyperSpeed as the only alternative with the same feature set, which you can find for around £129 but they’re seemingly MIA in North America.
I’ve little trouble recommending SteelSeries’ earbuds at their full £160 / $160 price. However, you can often find them closer to £135 / $135 given they’ve been around for a few months. With that kind of reduction, they’re a no brainer for handheld gamers and those like me that spread their playtime across multiple platforms in need of something portable and punchy.
