Today, renowned gaming accessory company SteelSeries introduced the newest addition to their award-winning Arctis gaming headset family: the Arctis 3 Bluetooth. It's designed to provide the best gaming experience for you individually, combining wired connections to any gaming system you choose (including Switch, PS4, Xbox, VR, and PC) with wireless Bluetooth connection for VoIP chats, phone calls, and music.
Brian Fallon, Audio Category Manager at SteelSeries, touched on the importance of the Arctis 3's duality in a statement:
This is the first time that you can simultaneously have wired gaming audio and wireless Bluetooth. Bluetooth is incredibly useful for connecting wirelessly to mobile devices for chat and music, but as most gamers know, Bluetooth has too much latency for gaming. That is why this is a wired headset for gaming and Bluetooth for everything else.
In addition to simultaneous wired and wireless audio connections, the Arctis 3 also sports an impressive broadcast-quality microphone. Called the best microphone in gaming, SteelSeries famed ClearCast mic is "a retractable bi-directional system that delivers clear voice communication while acoustically eliminating all background and surrounding noise," giving your voice a natural feel and noise-free clarity that your teammates, friends or viewers will definitely appreciate.
The Arctis 3's speakers are nothing to sneeze at, either — every Arctis headset includes the same high quality speaker drivers the company uses in their priciest models, allowing for a balanced soundscape no matter what game you're playing or what music you're listening to. Intuitive SteelSeries Engine software allows for personalized audio settings as well, so you can have complete control over how you experience your media.
Finally, if you're worried about looking ridiculous in your gaming headset while you're streaming, you won't. Compared to some other headsets on the market, the Arctis 3 isn't aesthetically bulky or clunky. Its lightweight construction and athletics-inspired fabrics are pretty slick, and have a more "effortlessly cool while being great at games" vibe than a "that headset must weigh a thousand pounds and it pains me to look at it" vibe.
The Arctis 3 Bluetooth is priced at $129.99, and if you order it directly from the SteelSeries website, each headset comes with a free suspension headband in your choice of design for extra comfort. (The headband on its own usually costs $14.99.)
Thoughts?
If you've used SteelSeries headsets in the past, what do you think of them? Are you going to add the Arctis 3 to your collection? Let us know in the comments.
