Closer Examination, Build Quality, and Comfort

In terms of design, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless can best be described as a thorough refinement of the suspended headband design on the Arctis 7, Arctis 9, and several other members of the Arctis family. This time around, the emphasis is on the headset being as low-key and travel-friendly as possible. The build quality feels exceptional, with luxurious gray metal covering the outer headband and magnetic ear plates, and sturdy matte black plastic used for ear cups and hangers. Judging by the look and feel alone, the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless could easily pass as a high-end pair of travel headphones, which is just about as big of a compliment as I can give it.


The suspended headband is attached to the outer one with four plastic clips. It's stretchable, with carefully adjusted and even somewhat adjustable tension in that you can shorten it by pushing its upper two holes through the clips on each side. I found it perfectly comfortable in the default setting. It does a fantastic job of distributing the weight of the headset across the top of the head and proves to be exceptionally practical. You don't have to squander any time over worrying about the "height" of the headset—simply put it on your head, pull the ear cups over your ears, and you are good to go. The suspended headband will automatically stretch and adjust as needed.


The factory supplied suspended headband is black, but SteelSeries will happily sell you a more colorful one. The so-called Nova Booster Pack consisting of a cherry red, lilac, mint, or rose quartz suspended headband and magnetic ear plates will set you back $50/€35.


That brings us to the magnetic ear plates. They're found on the exterior of both ear cups and come with a small notch on their lower edge you fit your fingernail into to remove the plates. Behind the left one is a USB-C port for charging the headset if you get caught with a low battery while away from your wireless docking station. The right ear plate hides away a replaceable lithium-ion battery. What's happening here, you might wonder? You see, the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless comes with two batteries. While one is being used, the other rests inside the base station, which charges it for when you drain the one you're using. We'll dive deeper into this solution called the Infinity Power System in the battery life section of this review.


The ear cups are affixed to a pair of hangers for up to 90° inward rotation, making the headset easier to rest around the neck or on a table. The leatherette ear cushions are very soft and exceptionally comfortable. You can expect some heat to accumulate around the ears over prolonged sessions, although the same can be said of any pair of closed-back headphones with (p)leather ear pads.


The left ear cup has two buttons and a handy volume wheel. The buttons are used to turn the headphones on and mute the microphone. While the headphones are on, a short press of the power button activates or deactivates Active Noise Cancellation, and a double press turns on the so-called Transparency mode, where your surroundings are picked up by the microphones on both ear cups and reproduced through the headphones. As the power button protrudes from the ear cup and the microphone mute button is flat, distinguishing between them without looking is positively simple.


The left ear cup also has an analog 3.5-mm audio port should you want to use the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless in wired mode.


The right ear cup has a Bluetooth button. It is used to initiate Bluetooth pairing and control your music and phone calls. A single press of the button plays/pauses music and answers/ends phone calls, a double press takes you to the next track, and a triple press takes you back to the previous one.


The retractable microphone completely tucks into the left ear cup, basically making it invisible while not being used. The rubberized arm holding the capsule can be bent in any direction and stays where you want it.


The microphone capsule has a red LED for a clear visual microphone mute indication. You can cover the capsule with the supplied pop filter, but lose the option to fully retract the microphone, and the mute LED becomes somewhat less visible. That having been said, if exclusively using the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless at home, using the pop filter is a good idea.


Both ear cups are also equipped with microphones used by the Active Noise Cancelling technology. They're found close to the hangers and seamlessly blend in with the design of the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless.

Wireless Base Station

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless has an elaborate wireless base station, which is what you'll use to establish the connection between the headset and other devices, such as your PC (Windows or macOS), PlayStation 4 or 5, and Nintendo Switch. In short, unless you're connecting a sound source via Bluetooth, you'll be using the wireless base station. On its rear, you'll find a pair of USB-C inputs, as well as a 3.5-mm line input and output.


On the right side of the wireless base station is a battery charging dock. The battery simply slides in and out without any special insertion or ejection mechanism. This charging dock is an integral part of the so-called Infinity Power System boasted by SteelSeries.


The front of the wireless base station consists of an OLED display and a multipurpose metal wheel whose center area functions as a button. There's also a small touch sensor on the left of the wheel, which works as a back button for easier menu navigation. The wheel itself adjusts the volume of the headphones and controls the so-called ChatMix feature, which is accessed by a single press of the button in the center of the wheel. It's a clever little feature that lets you adjust the volume ratio between the game you're playing and the voice app you're currently using to communicate with your teammates. Turn it one way and the game will become louder and your friends quieter. Turn it the other way and the opposite will happen. The wheel can also be used to adjust the various settings of the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. The menus are accessed by pressing and holding the button in the center of the wheel.


The home screen of the built-in OLED display shows a lot of useful information, such as the headset volume, left and right channel activity, current bitrate and sample rate, active input (USB-1 or USB-2), and, perhaps most importantly, remaining battery level, as well as the battery being charged inside the wireless base station itself. The ChatMix feature, activated by pressing the button in the center of the wheel, swaps the volume slider for a Game-Chat balancing slider.


Through the menus on the wireless base station, you can select the active input (USB-1 or USB-2), pick any of the factory equalizer profiles or create your 10-band frequency profile, adjust the output gain, microphone volume, and sidetone, activate or deactivate the virtual surround sound, and control various other aspects of the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless.


One of the more interesting features is the so-called Transparent mode found in the Audio Options > ANC Options menu. It is adjustable in a range of 1–10, which determines how much of your surroundings you'll be able to hear in the headphones. While this sounds similar to the microphone sidetone feature, sidetone only captures what's picked up by the "main" microphone's capsule, while Transparent mode uses microphones on both ear cups and gives you a much wider, and louder if set to a high level, reproduction of sounds near you. Also, while sidetone can be used together with Active Noise Cancelling, Transparent mode and ANC are mutually exclusive. With Transparent mode set to 8 or higher, the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless sounds like an open-back pair of headphones, although not in as naturally "organic" a way simply because you're hearing your surroundings through a pair of microphones and speaker drivers. Users who can't afford to fully isolate themselves from their surroundings will certainly appreciate this feature.


Another interesting option is to change the function of the 3.5-mm line output on the back of the wireless base station. You can set it to Speakers or Stream. The first option will have the sound play through a pair of powered speakers connected to the base station. If you set the line output to Stream, the base station will mix all of its sounds together and output them to your sound card's input, so you can use them for streaming. You can even mix the main, AUX, and microphone levels in real-time on the base station itself. The appropriate mixer is found in the Line Out > Audio Output > Stream menu.


There are various other settings you can adjust on the wireless base station, such as the OLED display brightness and dimming, brightness of the microphone mute LED, auto shutdown feature of the headset (it turns off if inactive for 1, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes), and 2.4 GHz wireless mode (speed or range). SteelSeries really went out of its way to make the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless extremely customizable and jam-packed with features. Not a single gaming headset on the market comes even close.