Closer Examination, Build Quality, and Comfort

As soon as you take the Patriot Viper V380 out of the box, your eyes will naturally be drawn to its massive, square-shaped ear cups. They're hanging on a pair metal hinges, which are connected by a sturdy headband mostly covered in pleather. On the upper side of the headband is a subtly engraved "Viper" logo. Both ear cups are covered in a metal mesh, making it seem like this could be an open-back headset, which it is not. Underneath the mesh the ear cups are sealed. Meaning, the mesh is there only for aesthetic reasons. The outer edges surrounding the mesh, as well as the "Viper" lettering on the ear cups, light up in any color your heart desires. The colors are bright and vibrant, although some aren't very accurate: white is beige, and pink is very pale. If you're not bothered by color-matching the headset to the rest of your setup, you'll probably enjoy the "Streamer" RGB effect, where all glowing areas slowly cycle through various colors, displaying the Viper V380 lighting system in all of its glory. Other available lighting effects are called "Constant", "Breathe", "Neon", and "Rhythm". You'll probably want to avoid the latter as it frantically jumps around between various colors whenever there is something playing through the headphones.


Even though the Viper V380 is quite large, Patriot took good care to make it very comfortable to wear. Just look at the thickness of the padding on the pleather-covered inner headband and ear pads. Every area that touches the head is soft, which is why the Viper V380 can be worn for many hours at a time without any signs of discomfort. This is true even if you have a fairly large head. Of course, the oversized ear pads help too—they will completely surround your ears, no matter their size.


The hinges connecting the ear cups to the metal hangers allow the ear cups to tilt. This is one of those seemingly small details that greatly increase adjustability to various head sizes.


You can adjust the height of the ear cups by sliding them up and down the headband.


The inner side of the headband is marked with a series of dots. They should help you adjust the height on both sides equally. The wire that connects the left and right channel is partially exposed but fully braided, which is why I don't see it breaking or getting damaged during regular use.


Flexibility test passed! You can twist and turn the Viper V380 in any direction you like, it won't creak or show signs of breaking. You'll appreciate this whenever you drop it on the floor. Flexible headsets handle table-height falls well, unlike rigid ones.


Controls are on the left ear cup, which I like far more than to have them on an in-line remote control. Here, we have an analogue volume dial and two buttons: one cycles between available RGB effects and the other is the microphone mute button. The head of the microphone is equipped with a white LED, which is on when the microphone is on and off when it's muted. While I think this is somewhat odd as it's usually the other way around, I didn't find the LED distracting during normal use, even when gaming at night.


The microphone is detachable, and its hole is sealed by a rubber flap. Once you plug it in, the flap will rest against the base of the microphone, which doesn't look all that great, but there's not much you can do about it, other than to void the warranty by cutting the flap off.


The base of the microphone has a notch, which should make it more stable after it's plugged into the headset. The notch doesn't do much, though—the microphone still moves around slightly, but seems properly attached. Luckily, it's sufficiently stable; I didn't have a single instance of it losing contact with the headset. The microphone arm is very bendy and stays in place well.