Closer Examination, Build Quality, and Comfort

In terms of design, build quality, and comfort, the SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth is in many ways identical to the USB-powered Arctis 5, which is why I can only rehash what I wrote in my Arctis 5 review and point out the differences that are specific to the Arctis 3 Bluetooth. All of the following photos are those of the Arctis 3 Bluetooth.


The SteelSeries Arctis 3 Bluetooth is an over-ear headset, so the earpads will surround your ears and rest against the sides of your head. As you can see, the shape of the earpads isn't perfectly round, but rather elliptical. Their inner dimensions are 5.0 x 6.5 centimeters, which should be more than enough to fit most ears. Instead of the more common pleather, SteelSeries opted for a kind of fabric your running shirt would be made of. It's an interesting approach, one that results in extremely soft and somewhat "breathable" earpads.


If you're so inclined, you can take the earpads off and easily replace them with leather or velour ones, which SteelSeries sells as an accessory for $15 a pair regardless of which ones you choose.


The Arctis 3 Bluetooth is equipped with an elastic inner headband. According to SteelSeries, it is made out of the very same elastic material one might find on ski goggles. It's in essence the stretchy thing that holds them firmly attached to your head while you're thundering down the slopes. It poses absolutely no strain to the top of the head. You can change its tension by adjusting the Velcro straps, but I don't think you'll feel the need to do so as the comfort level is constantly great. Add to that an exceptionally soft pair of ear cushions and a carefully adjusted clamping force and what you get is a very comfortable headset.


The headband replacement process is straightforward. It's attached to itself with two Velcro straps—you can use that to adjust its tension to some extent—and guided through a metal loop on both sides of the headset. You simply pull it out through the loop on both sides and put the replacement headband in by using the very same method.


The outer headband is made out of plastic, as are the ear cups, and that's one of the few details about this headset that bothers me. The chosen plastic is thick and firm and doesn't make the device look or feel fragile at all. On the contrary, I stuffed it into my backpack daily without a worry in the world. It's just that when shelling out $100 on a headset, you have every right to expect more premium materials, such as those offered by the Arctis 7 or Arctis Pro Wireless. On the plus side, the matte-black plastic looks stealthy, so you won't look like a clown when walking down the street with the Arctis 3 Bluetooth on your head.


The ear cups can be rotated by 90°, which makes it easier to rest them on your chest with the Arctis 3 Bluetooth around your neck or to simply put it on the table. The joints that make it possible are smooth and silent.


The outer side of the ear cups is covered in a fine layer of a rubber-like material and feels very nice to the touch. Both ear cups are subtly decorated with a discrete, black SteelSeries emblem. The ear cups aren't very resistant to fingerprints, but fingerprints are at least harder to see thanks to the matte-black color scheme. They're only apparent when the light hits the ear cups at a certain angle.


The controls are placed on the left ear cup. You'll find a microphone mute button, volume dial, and three ports here. The microphone mute button has a single diagonal marking that can be felt under the finger, thus making it easy to find without looking for it. After you press it, it protrudes outside of the ear cup, which again makes it easy to find when you want to unmute the microphone.


Below the volume dial, you'll find three ports. The first one is an 8-pin Mini-USB port used for connecting the supplied audio cable. Why did SteelSeries go with that rather than using a standard and equally compact Micro-USB port? Most likely to get you to buy the replacement cable directly from them should you lose or break it. They're selling it as an accessory for $8. We then have the 3.5-millimeter audio port, which is wired as an audio output. SteelSeries calls this port a "Headphone Share Jack," which means you can connect a wired pair of headphones and listen to whatever's playing on the Arctis 3 Bluetooth. I cannot fathom who would want to use it that way, but the feature is there if you need it. Finally, the Micro-USB port is used for battery charging. A USB-C connector would be more appropriate, although I can cut the Arctis 3 Bluetooth some slack on the count of having been on the market for a while by now.


The right ear cup has a multipurpose button built into it. It works as a power and Bluetooth pairing button and even has a simple control scheme. By pressing it once, you can play/pause the music or answer/drop phone calls, or skip songs by pressing it twice. The button also has a built-in LED, which changes colors to inform us about the remaining battery life. If it's green, there's more than 50% of battery life left. The yellow color corresponds to the 20%–49% remaining battery range, red equals 10%–19%, and blinking red means there's less than 10% of battery left—you should at that point connect the Arctis 3 Bluetooth to a USB power source and charge it. The headset can of course work in passive mode if and when you don't want to use its Bluetooth connectivity feature since the battery isn't needed for anything other than Bluetooth.


The built-in bidirectional microphone is retractable. You can pull it out and push it back in with absolute ease, with one hand. Not once did it get stuck when I was retracting it or fell out of its resting place when I didn't want it to. With this being a "passive" gaming headset, the microphone is missing an LED that would give us a clear visual indication of it being muted.


The microphone arm is completely rubberized and made in a way that has it stay exactly in the position you bent it to, which is good, too, because SteelSeries offers a few very exact instructions on how you should place it relative to your mouth.


In terms of connecting the Arctis 3 Bluetooth to the source by using a wire, two options are available. There's a regular 4-pole (TRRS) 3.5-millimeter plug which can be connected to a console, its gamepad, a laptop, or any other device that uses a combined audio output/input. This cable is 1.3 meters long. SteelSeries didn't forget about PC users, either. For them, there's an additional 1.9-meter splitter cable terminated with a pair of 3.5-millimeter plugs, one for headphones and the other for the microphone.