Let me preface by stating I am reviewing the Blackshark v2 pro. Sometimes amazon combines similar item reviews, this is important and that I have owned this for over a year with consistent usage, using it multiple days a week for 1-8 hours.
This thing has a lot going for it with very few downsides that in my opinion do not outweigh the pros and if you can get this for $150 or less it is 100% worth it.
Pros
- Noise cancellation is so strong, sometimes I don't hear my wife when she calls for me. She was the one who bought this for me lol
- Sound quality through synapse can be adjusted to your liking, and I can't recommend it without it (kind of a con)
- Incredibly comfortable even with glasses. There is a lot of good padding on the head and ears, prior headsets this was always an issue, recently before this I owned a corsair void elite and even that wasn't perfect, but it was close in this category.
- Battery life is actually really strong, just be sure to charge it after each usage. I've only ever gotten this to low battery where it beeps at me if I use it for 10-12 hours without charging it. Sometimes thats a long gaming day sometimes thats multiple days. I'm pretty good about keeping things charged, so this isn't a pain point for me, but may be for you. That said you can charge while using it.
- Removable microphone, probably not a huge deal for most, but I use these as headphones not a headset. I use an external USB mic for better quality (I'll get into that later).
- Ability to use this with 3.5mm port. I wouldn't recommend this without the USB function, as the USB DAC it comes with is decent enough and having used it without it, this is where it fails, but I'm labeling the 3.5mm port as a pro in case you have a multipurpose headset in mind
- THX 7.1, now this is just virtual surround sound but in the couple games I have tried, notably monster hunter world, it performs really well, its weird to get used to but its done well enough. Not a huge selling point, you can get this elsewhere, but noted.
Cons
- Without the USB DAC and synapse you are losing a lot of potential. This thing is really good for sound quality once you configure it, but on it's own it's horrible, this is why I did not get the wired version of the blackshark v2 with just 3.5mm.
- Microphone quality isn't great, its honestly worse than most and for $180 it should be a lot better, this is why I use an external mic. Unless you're yelling, your friends will probably say you're quiet.
- Intermittent disconnects, unsure if this is a hardware, connection or synapse issue but it happens infrequently it doesn't bother me, but should be noted.
- Synapse, I swear I've had issues with every gaming software (ghub, icue, synapse) but recently synapse has been a pain. I love iCUE (or did) but hate corsair software, but if synapse continues to get worse I will look elsewhere for another headset.
Overall, if I had to buy this thing again I'd do it for $130 or so. I wouldn't spend $180, I'd just get professional wired headphones, but this thing has a lot going on that it made it worth it to me. I recommend these headphones to anyone who is in the market for a wireless headset in this budget range who doesn't hold grudges against razer. In that niche, I think its perfect.
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