One of the perks of reviewing headphones for a living is gaming with gear like the SteelSeries Arctis 7X. When the device debuted in late 2020, I called it “one of the best gaming headsets ever made,” and the past two years have done nothing to change my impression. The Arctis 7X is basically everything I’ve ever wanted from a gaming headset: comfortable, feature-rich, and compatible with nearly every gaming system on the market.
What I didn’t know at the time, however, was how useful it would be as a travel accessory.
The Arctis 7X has become my go-to travel headset, which has proven to be a great idea – except for one time when it wasn’t.
After a few years of staying home for the holidays, my wife and I are finally ready to travel again. We traveled across the country to visit my family for Thanksgiving and are taking a more modest trip to see my wife’s family for Christmas. The Arctis 7X has become my go-to travel headset, which has proven to be a great idea – except for one time when it wasn’t.
SteelSeries Arctis 7X on the way
In case you’re not familiar with the SteelSeries Arctis 7X, it was our overall pick for the best gaming headset for a long time. (Its successor, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7x, is now on the list.) It’s an iteration on the SteelSeries Arctis 7, a wireless gaming headset that used an elastic headband instead of plastic or steel cutouts. This ensured a perfect fit every time. Good sound quality, powerful software, a clean microphone, and reasonable battery life helped bolster the overall package.
What sets the Arctis 7X apart from most other wireless gaming headsets on the market is that it works equally well with PlayStation and Xbox consoles. To greatly simplify a complicated matter, Microsoft uses a unique wireless protocol for the Xbox. This is great, as it means multiple Xbox Wireless Headsets can be paired right out of the box, no dongle required. It’s also terrible, as it means that the vast majority of wireless gaming headsets work beautifully with PC, PlayStation and Switch, but don’t work at all with Xbox, unless you want to plug in a 3.5mm audio cable.
The Arctis 7X, on the other hand, has a USB-C dongle with a simple switch: “USB” or “Xbox”. While the Xbox Series X doesn’t have a USB-C port, it does have multiple USB-A ports, and the Arctis 7X comes with an adapter. I live in a house with a PS5, an Xbox Series X, a Nintendo Switch, a gaming PC, and an Android smartphone. Having a headset that works with either one is as convenient as it sounds.
As such, when it was time to start holiday travel, the first thing I reached for was the Arctis 7X. While it’s not a small headset, it was everything I needed for both work and play. It connected to my laptop so I could work while I was away. It plugged into my Switch so I could listen to my games on the plane. It connected to my phone so I could listen to music on the go. The earbuds fold up so they fit easily in a backpack, and the long battery life would last a round-trip overseas flight, and then some.
The night before my flight home, I plugged the Arctis 7X into my computer to charge it. And then things got weird.
By Thanksgiving, the Arctis 7X was everything I hoped it would be. The clear microphone helped me meet effortlessly with my team via video chat every morning. The good music quality was more than adequate for listening to music while we covered our Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. After work, I immediately jumped into Final Fantasy XIV on PC, or Final Fantasy Dimensions on my phone.
The night before my flight home, I plugged the Arctis 7X into my computer to charge it. And then things got weird.
An amazing battery
One reason I like the Arctis 7X is because it doesn’t require a complex proprietary charger. Any micro-USB cable will work, plugged into any suitable power source. That’s why I was shocked when my Arctis 7X absolutely refused to charge.
I’m no stranger to finnicky cables so I didn’t think much of it at first. I borrowed a cable from my aunt and tried again. Arctis 7X charging light still refused to turn on. We went through a whole box of cables until we tried three or four different micro-USBs. I tried plugging headphones into the laptop; I tried plugging it into a portable charger; I tried plugging it into a wall adapter. Nothing worked.
As a last resort, I did a factory reset (which is a good trick; just pop off the left earcup cover and press the small switch inset with a paper clip), which sometimes fixes battery issues. I also left the headset plugged into the wall overnight. The next morning, it still won’t light up for love or money.
I was face to face with an immutable technological truth: the devices you own will occasionally break for no reason. I had taken good care of the Arctis 7X for two years and never encountered any problems before. But the universe must obey Murphy’s Law, and it looked like I was about to spend two long, loud flights with no way to block out the roaring engines, irritating chatter, and screaming babies nearby.
I wish I could say that I discovered a wonderful arrangement just as the plane took off, but the truth is much more prosaic. I reached into my backpack and discovered that I had a pair of wireless headphones that I will sometimes use during my trip. Since both my phone and the Switch support Bluetooth, I was in relatively good shape for my ride home, even if the sound quality was nothing special.
The weirdest part of the whole story is that when I got home, I decided to dig out the charging cable that came with the Arctis 7X and plug it directly into my Xbox. This time, it charged immediately, and has since behaved normally with every cable in my house. Why the headphones despised my aunt’s cables, I don’t know – and I have to wonder if the problem will happen again.
Consumer devices – even relatively fancy ones from well-known manufacturers – are fickle beasts and will occasionally fail us when we really need them.
The lessons here are twofold. First of all, more headsets should follow the example of the Arctis 7X. We shouldn’t really need to carry two (or more) separate pairs of headphones just because different wireless protocols don’t play nice with each other.
The second lesson, however, is that consumer devices—even relatively fancy ones from well-known manufacturers—are fickle beasts, and they’ll occasionally fail us when we really need them to. There are good gaming devices and there are bad gaming devices, but there is no such thing as the perfect gaming device.
In any case, I’m planning to pack the Arctis 7X again for my holiday travels next week – but I’ll definitely be picking up my headphones again, too. I’d rather have a backup plan than a whole day of travel with nothing to block out the noise.
