Wireless Performance

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless comes with a compact wireless dongle with a USB-C port. The dongle establishes a 2.4 GHz wireless radio connection with the headset, which is rock-stable at all times and offers plenty of range as well. I moved around my apartment without ever losing connectivity to the receiver, which came in handy when I wanted to keep talking to my teammates while grabbing a snack from the fridge.


There are two main ways of using the aforementioned wireless dongle. You can plug it into the supplied USB Type-A to USB-C extension cable and use the Arctis Nova 7 Wireless on your PC or PlayStation 4/5. Alternatively, you can plug the dongle directly into a USB-C port of your mobile devices of choice, such as your smartphone or the Nintendo Switch. I tested this on several Android phones, and it worked flawlessly. As soon as I plugged the dongle in, a headset icon would appear next to the battery icon, and I was instantly able to listen to sounds from my phone, as well as use the microphone to communicate with my friends through the mobile version of Discord, Skype, or any other VoIP app.

The Arctis Nova 7 Wireless also supports Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, which enables an easy connection to mobile devices. The only supported Bluetooth audio codec is SBC, which is hardly ideal either in terms of latency, but there are no noticeable audio synchronization issues when watching YouTube or Netflix videos. Some slight lag can be felt when playing mobile games – not high enough to bother you in single-player titles, although high enough to throw you off of your game in multiplayer and rhythm titles, where perfect timing is everything. With that in mind, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Arctis Nova 7 Wireless to hardcore mobile multiplayer gamers.

The headset also supports simultaneous Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, which is immensely practical in everyday usage. You can have it connected to your PC and smartphone at the same time and answer phone calls without interrupting PC connectivity. There's a handy Bluetooth Call option in the SteelSeries GG software driver, which enables you to lower or completely mute the game volume during voice calls.

Battery Life

According to official specifications, the Arctis Nova 7 Wireless can offer up to 38 hours of wireless operation when using the 2.4 GHz wireless connection and up to 26 hours of work if 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are used simultaneously. Depending on the loudness it's set to, the headset can last even longer than that. When listening to music and playing games at a moderate volume, I was able to achieve a bit over 40 hours of use on a single charge. You can check the remaining battery level in the Engine section of the SteelSeries GG suite. There you can also activate a power saving option that's going to turn the headset off if no sound is playing for a set amount of time, from 1 to 45 minutes. You can also turn the power saving feature off, should you want to have full control over the headset being on and off. I found it optimal to have it set to around 30 minutes; if I'm not listening to anything for half an hour, it's safe to assume I'm absent from my PC. The same Settings menu lets you control the Bluetooth connection, namely, if the headset automatically connects to a nearby device via Bluetooth when it's powered on or not.


The battery is charged through a USB-C port found on the right ear cup. Fast charging is supported, so a quick 15-minute top-up is sufficient for up to six hours of additional wireless usage.