I have used and reviewed many earbuds over the years. With heaps of competitors in this space, I have constantly found myself using JBL’s earbuds for personal use. SteelSeries, famous for making amazing gaming headsets, has decided to throw their hat in the ring with the new GameBuds. The question is, is it too late for a new competitor to make up lost ground? The short answer is nope!
What’s in the box?
Opening up the small box, there is plenty in here. The case is in there, which opens up to show the two earbuds and the USB-C dongle tucked into the back. Then there is a USB-C to USB-C cable and the super important USB-C to USB-A cable.
Inside a little cardboard fitting are two alternative-sized ear cushions, so you can find your best fit. A lot of earbuds these days come with more options, but I’m not fussed here. Odds are one of those 3 will fit your ears. All 3 stayed in my ears easily, so I used the ones that were the most comfortable.
There is also a QR code to scan, which I assume takes you to the setup instructions. But with earbuds, I never look up a manual, so more on why that was an error later.
Style
When it comes to earbuds, you are likely going to be wearing them a lot. So how they look is reasonably important. Fortunately, these beasties have simple, elegant styles. The case looks like almost any other with a nice matte finish, a coloured strip around the middle, and the SteelSeries logo on top.
The earbuds have a nice and elegant shape, a nice matte finish, and the SteelSeries logo on the outside. The SteelSeries logo is one of those iconic ones that gamers will recognise, but is simple and cool enough that it won’t look out of place for people who aren’t game obsessed.
What do these buds bring to the table?
It’s one thing to make a new pair of earbuds, but they need to bring something new or unique to justify a look. The GameBuds do this. The first and most obvious thing is the inclusion of that USB-C dongle. Other brands have done this, but I haven’t seen it for a while. This was especially useful when the Switch didn’t support Bluetooth, but now that it does, I still love the dongle. It makes it so much easier to switch from your phone’s Bluetooth to your Switch using the dongle, and I love it. It also makes it super easy to quickly connect to a laptop for those sweet sounds.
The other major thing I love about them is the area on the buds that normally has touch controls is actually a button. It doesn’t take much pressure to press the button, but it’s slightly more than if it were touch-sensitive. This meant that I spent a bit of time frustrated trying to figure out why the touch controls didn’t work. If only someone had read the manual. This has been a game changer, as I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally change settings taking one earbud out of my other ear buds.
And of course, being SteelSeries and based around games, there is a little magic thrown in. And by that, I mean the software for the GameBuds offers presets for different games. Flicking through the options, there are heaps of games, especially online ones, allowing you optimal sound settings for that game.
Then there is the battery life. The buds promise to provide 10 hours from the buds alone, and another 30 in the case. This is without all the fancy features like ANC and testing that is about what I got. With the ANC it was definitely less, but not by much. I was expecting this to be an area of weakness, but SteelSeries knocked this out of the park.
There has to be downsides, right?
The biggest annoyance, which is minor, is you have to plug the earbuds into a computer for firmware updates. This is minor as it’s a rare occurrence, but I am so used to being able to do those updates for other earbuds through their respective apps on a phone. With these ones, I had to plug the earbud case and dongle into my PC and run the updates through the SteelSeries Engine app. Hopefully, over time, they make this way more seamless.
The earbud removal sensitivity also seemed to be a bit off. It would randomly pause at times, and I needed to press the button to unpause it. Minor annoyance, and may also mean I have weird ear shapes.
Should you get the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds?
Some minor issues aside, I love these earbuds. The USB-C dongle makes a massive difference, especially if you are a Switch\Steamdeck user. I find the sound quality ever so slightly better with the JBL buds, and their niggly little issues don’t exist, but the Arctis GameBuds bring some serious strengths to the table, making it a strong contender for my personal favourites.
Some minor issues aside, the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds are an incredible set of earbuds for gamers offering a hell of a lot of versatility.
