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SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: one-minute review
If you’re someone who craves the best in gaming audio and the most performant gaming accessories, then the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite is the only wireless gaming headset you need to consider buying – it is the best I have ever tested, and probably the best gaming headset, period.
While its price tag means it’s more expensive than most of the best gaming consoles, if you’re someone who strives to build the most performant gaming setup, or someone who craves the highest-quality audio for gaming, then the Elite is for you – and boy does it prove to be worth it for that audience.
Its design and build are something I’ve never experienced before, and I simply have no complaints here. The headset is extremely robust with its all-metal frame, and is as comfortable to boot with its super plush leatherette ear pads. All controls and buttons are intuitively placed and a joy to use, with genuinely satisfying motions to the volume wheel and microphone.
The feature set is even more impressive. First and foremost, it really is the first certified Hi-Res (96kHz/24bit) wireless gaming headset on the market, and it’s such a joy to use in all its premium quality audio goodness. This is in no small part provided by its 40mm carbon fiber drivers that are stretched over a brass surround ring inside each cup, and supported by a brilliant GameHub DAC unit, which also offers multiconnectivity and even multimedia play – simultaneously. The brilliant SteelSeries’ Infinity Power battery system returns, and the microphone is now dual-fold with a brilliant boom mic supported by a beamforming built-in mic – taking over automatically whenever the boom one is retracted.
The performance of the Elite is otherworldly when it comes to gaming audio. It’s rich and detailed, with zero harshness or muddiness, and only the best, most rounded and fulsome profiles being directed down your ears at all times. It is relentlessly good. Throw in the fact that you can make it your own audio-wise with the Sonar PC app, or the mobile Arctis App to change things on the fly, and it’s elevated further.
Whether you’re looking for a PC gaming headset, PS5 headset, Xbox headset, or even a Nintendo Switch headset, this is the ultimate one to strive for, and one that all other premium gaming headsets should now be measured against. In a similar vein to how I described the Garmin MARQ Golfer (Gen 2) premium golf watch I reviewed recently, if you want to go once, go hard, go premium, and go big on a gaming headset, then this is the one.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: price and availability
- List price: $599.99 / £599.99 / AU$1,349
- The most expensive gaming headset I’ve tested, and nearly twice the price of the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless
- Offers its own premium, audiophile-grade vision of value
There’s no denying that the SteelSeries Arctis Elite is expensive. At the above price, it’s more than a PlayStation 5 and not that far off a PlayStation 5 Pro either. You could also get two 512GB Xbox Series S consoles for the same price or almost three DualSense Edge controllers. Anyway, it’s expensive, but where does it sit in the market?
In terms of direct competitors at the price point, in the gaming headset market, there are basically none. SteelSeries’ own Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is generally my pick for a premium gaming headset with its $350 / £330 sticker price (though it is often discounted now) – but the Elite comes in at nearly twice the price of that now. Similarly, outside of the SteelSeries ecosystem, it’s also comfortably more than the likes of the audiophile-focused Audeze Maxwell and Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Pro, too.
To find direct competitors pricewise, you’re looking to the core audiophile headphone market and products like the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2, Focal Bathys, and the Elite is still even more expensive than the Sennheiser HD 660S2 as well – and they all, of course, do not feature any gaming headset features or enhancements.
However, and hopefully this review shines light on all the reasons why, I genuinely believe that there is robust value in the Elite if you are the precise audience it is targeting. If you are that ultimate setup gamer, or an audiophile gamer who wants the best gaming audio money can buy above all else, then the Elite is absolutely for you, and you will see and hear the benefits and boosts.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: specs
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite |
|
Price |
$599.99 / £599.99 / AU$1,349 |
|
Weight |
13.4oz / 380g |
|
Drivers |
40mm carbon fiber with brass surround |
|
Compatibility |
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Mobile |
|
Connection type |
Hi-Res wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (audio jack), Bluetooth 5.3 + LE Audio |
|
Battery life |
Up to 60 hours (2 x fully-charged batteries), Infinite Power System |
|
Features |
Certified Hi-Res audio (96kHz/24-bit) ClearCast Gen 2.X – Retractable Boom Mic and Smart-Switching On-Ear Beamforming Microphone with AI noise rejecting, ANC, Omniplay GameHub (connect four devices simultaneously), |
|
Software |
SteelSeries GG/Sonar, SteelSeries Arctis Companion App (iOS & Android) |
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: design and features
- Every part of the build is premium and of superb quality
- A host of first-ever premium features built into its DNA
- Two great colorways and a robust but comfortable build, epitomized by the metal frame
Starting off with the obvious, yes, this is another headset cut straight from the same SteelSeries Arctis Nova cloth as many others – at least, in terms of overall aesthetic, shape, and form. Which is fine – if it isn’t broken, why fix it? Instead, enhance it, as the Elite does, by offering a metal frame and hinges made of rolled steel and aluminum for starters.
However, elsewhere, literally every part of the Elite’s design and build looks and feels premium. This includes the volume wheel, which is incredibly satisfying to use, offering a lovely click with each notch you reach. The trademark retractable mic extends and rolls away with a new level of smoothness that I haven’t felt on any headset before, let alone a SteelSeries one, and the comfort of the plush leatherette earpads is something like never before, too.
It also comes in two distinct colorways, with the sage and gold combination being particularly striking and very evocative of the luxurious lifestyle device that SteelSeries is keen to describe the Elite as being. The other obsidian colorway is more familiar on a gaming headset, but the shine of the metalwork of the build gives it a chic edge. The dial on the accompanying GameHub DAC unit matches the gold or obsidian, respectively, of each colorway, too.
Ensuring we cover the necessities, on the left cup, we have the retractable bidirectional, 32KHz ClearCast Gen 2.X boom mic, the mic mute button, the power button (which also acts as the ANC and transparency mode button), the volume wheel (which can also be pressed in to remotely control the GameHub’s function), and audio jack port. On the right cup, we have the Bluetooth button (which controls media on your connected devices too, with a range of different presses) and the secondary beamforming mic, a ClearCast on-ear microphone, to be precise.
Both earcups have the swappable metal plates on the outside that SteelSeries fans will know and love, and they both hide something important, as they do on other headsets from the brand; on the right, it’s the replaceable battery, and on the left, it’s the USB-C port.
As with Nova Pro headsets, the Elite comes with a DAC unit that connects to your device. The version with the Elite is called the GameHub with OmniPlay and is a beefed-up version of the ones that accompany the Pros, which still offers the way to charge your removable batteries and tinker with settings, but has a trick up its sleeve.
This time, you can connect to all types of consoles or platforms from this one unit, from PC to PlayStation, and from Switch to Xbox – on top of the added Bluetooth connectivity the headset has too. The result is that you can connect up and listen to the audio of four different sources all at the same time – hence the term, OmniPlay. And it really is magic.
Underneath the physical features is where the real magic lies, and one of the most unique things about the Elite, which makes it truly different among its peers. First and foremost are its brand-new drivers: custom-designed 40mm carbon fiber drivers with a brass surround ring. These offer a frequency response of 10-40,000Hz and are at the core of the Elite’s bona fide, certified Hi-Res (24-bit/96kHz) audio offering – a first in gaming headsets.
The ANC onboard is formed of a four-mic hybrid active noise cancellation that features a transparency mode, and complementing that is the mic’s AI noise rejection tech, which is also witchcraft, given how much noise it can block out when in chaotic environments like busy streets and when trains scream past. You’ve also got the brilliant multi-faceted Infinity Power system (two removable batteries, one of which can always be charging in the GameHub, while also offering a USB-C port for quick charging), so you’ll likely never run out of battery, and a convenient method of charging the headset. Plus, Bluetooth codec support is excellent, with the 5.3 version supporting LC3 and LC3+.
I think the only feature missing from such a premium headset package would be a hard case, or at least something more protective than the leatherette one included.
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: performance
- Simply the best gaming audio from a headset I have ever experienced
- Seamless and abundant connectivity, with a brilliant mic
- Brilliantly comfy and easy to use, and perfect for all other media
Where do I start? The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite simply excels in every single audio manner, on every platform, and for every media and genre of game you can throw at it. That’s it, I could leave it there.
But I won’t, naturally. In practice, the audio is incredible on the Elite. I can immediately hear a difference from other sets I have to hand, like a SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 or the also excellent Drop + Epos PC38X, and it’s almost certainly better than my Sennheiser HD 550 headphones, which I put above many gaming headsets.
Across all my testing on PC, console, and mobile, the Elite excelled. The world of Ghost of Yotei was alive through audio alone; the chaos of hectic scenes in the Battlefield 6 campaign on PS5 was incredibly bombastic and rich, without ever being muddy or boomy; and the details of Control and Frostpunk 2, to name but two, on PC were a sheer delight.
Technically, the Elite is fully unleashed as a PC gaming headset due to the PS5 and Xbox Series X, sadly, not being able to output at the highest res – though you’ll also need to manually change a setting or two in Windows to ensure your PC outputs in Hi-Res too. Given that Hi-Res edge that the Elite has on PC, it does leave me wondering whether it’s an equally wise investment for someone who exclusively games on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or Nintendo Switch. It feels almost like a disservice to the headset – and the money you spent on it – to leave it tied to any single platform, and maybe more so a console that can’t unleash the full power of the Hi-Res headset.
However, that really isn’t to say you’ll not be having an awesome, spectacular time on console, so don’t let that put you off either, especially if you’re an audiophile who plays on PS5, for example. As previously mentioned, I still had a breathtaking time on console with the Elite, so you’ll still have a super quality headset for console, and the Elite’s other premium qualities will make it shine.
Away from gaming, as a pair of bona fide enthusiast audiophile headphones, the Elite absolutely holds up. They certainly sound just as good as my Sennheiser HD 550s, and perhaps better, after testing them across a range of music and video. Basically, if you’re at all concerned about how the Elite transposes its gaming audio prowess to other media, don’t be. This was echoed by my time using the Elite out and about as a set of contenders for best headphones on walks or travel; the audio never failed to impress, and the ANC is impressive too.
As with other modern SteelSeries audio devices, you can get even more out of the Elite with the companion app on mobile to give you flexibility and customization options on the fly – great when playing on console. And on PC, you can tap into all the SteelSeries GG and Sonar have to offer to tailor the Elite even more acutely to your preferences if need be.
Should I buy the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite?
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite: Also consider
If the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite is either not what you’re after or a bit rich for you, then here are two competitors that might hit the mark.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite |
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless |
Audeze Maxwell |
|
Price |
$599.99 / £599.99 / AU$1,349 |
$379.99 / £329.99 / AU$735 |
$329 / £319 / about AU$450 |
|
Weight |
13.4oz / 380g |
9.5oz / 266g |
17.3oz / 490g |
|
Drivers |
40mm carbon fiber with brass surround |
40mm neodymium |
90mm Planar Magnetic |
|
Compatibility |
PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Mobile |
Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Mobile |
Playstation or Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Mac, Mobile |
|
Connection type |
Hi-Res wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (audio jack), Bluetooth 5.3 (LE Audio, LC3, LC3+) |
Wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (USB-C), Bluetooth 5.3 |
Wireless (2.4Ghz via dongle), Wired (USB-C & audio jack), Bluetooth 5.3 (LC3plus / LC3 / LDAC / AAC) |
|
Battery life |
Up to 60 hours (2 x fully-charged batteries), Infinite Power System |
Up to 60 hours (2 x fully-charged batteries), Infinite Power System |
80+ hours |
|
Features |
Certified Hi-Res audio (96kHz/24-bit), 40mm carbon fiber, brass ring surround drivers, ClearCast Gen 2.X – Retractable Boom Mic and Smart-Switching On-Ear Beamforming Microphone with AI noise rejecting, ANC, Omniplay GameHub (connect four devices simultaneously) |
Companion App, 40mm Neodymium magnetic drivers, 360-degree spatial audio, retractable ClearCast 2.X mic |
Detachable hypercardiod mic, beamforming mic with physical and AI reduction, FILTER™ Noise Reduction Technology, embedded Dolby Atmos license (Xbox), |
|
Software |
SteelSeries GG/Sonar (PC), SteelSeries Arctis Companion App (iOS & Android) |
SteelSeries GG/Sonar (PC) |
Audeze HQ (PC) |
How I tested the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite
- Tested almost daily for nearly five weeks for work, gaming, and on the go
- Used on PC and PS5 Pro on a wide variety of games, and work and home tasks
- Compared directly to a set of Sennheiser HD 550 headphones, as well as other gaming headsets
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite has been my daily gaming headset for work and play for around five weeks for review. I have integrated them into both my gaming PC and PS5 Pro setups, as well as used them out and about as a pair of audiophile headphones.
On my RTX 3090 gaming PC (a machine teamed with an Acer Predator X32QFS gaming monitor), where I was able to test the Hi-Res audio after changing a setting in Windows, I played a host of games, including the Titan Quest 2 Early Access build, Frostpunk 2, Control, and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 3. I also used them extensively for work and video calls.
On console, I primarily tested the Elite with my PS5 Pro, but also with my office setup’s PS5 Slim for good measure. On PS5, I tested the Elite with almost my entire playthrough of Ghost of Yotei, as well as some of Death Stranding Director’s Cut, Battlefield 6, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (the PS5 version) and the Claws of Awaji expansion for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and for multiplayer testing I used the Elite for finishing a Ghost Recon: Breakpoint playthrough with my buddies as well as an Aliens: Fireteam Elite playthrough.
As well as using the Elite as headphones while on dog walks, I also tested them with music and entertainment. I used them as I normally would with the likes of Spotify and YouTube, but also hi-res audio providers like Tidal. During my testing, I was able to compare the Elite to my set of HD 550 headphones as an audiophile headphone reference point, as well as a Drop + Epos PC38X headset, and a SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 headset.
First reviewed September-October 2025
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rob.dwiar@futurenet.com (Rob Dwiar)
