ASUS TUF Gaming H7 Wireless Headset Review

Gaming wirelessly are oftentimes lofty ambitions and end up as thoughts you’ll perish once you see the price tags that come with them, not to mention the number of issues that plague it supposed gifts of tangle-free gaming. Fast forward to today and we’ve thankfully left those issues to dust, or at least most of them. And that brings us to our subject for the day, the ASUS TUF Gaming H7 Wireless Headset.

Gaming wirelessly are oftentimes lofty ambitions and end up as thoughts you’ll perish once you see the price tags that come with them, not to mention the number of issues that plague it supposed gifts of tangle-free gaming. Fast forward to today and we’ve thankfully left those issues to dust, or at least most of them. And that brings us to our subject for the day, the ASUS TUF Gaming H7 Wireless Headset.

UNBOXING

The TUF Gaming H7 arrives in a large black box that’s a bit understated. Inside it are the TUF Gaming H7 itself, and another box that holds the microphone, a manual, a microUSB cable for charging, and the USB wireless connector.

DESIGN

When it comes to the design, the TUF Gaming H7 looks a bit rugged yet quite refined. It comes with massive earcups painted matte black with a yellow lining on the side. The earpads are soft and yet thick with leather on the inside. ASUS says that the earpads feature a combination of specialized, fast-cooling fabric and leather for an improved comfort and sound isolation.

No RGB here, if you’re looking for it. If not, then that’s a great thing. It actually works in the favor of the TUF Gaming H7 since you’ll be saving more on the battery life. And hey, if you do happen to want RGB, you won’t see it anyway.

The controls of the TUF Gaming H7 are all located on the left side. There’s the volume control, mute switch, and the power button. It’s also where the microphone jack and microUSB port for charging are located.

Moving forward, the TUF Gaming H7 is held by a steel band, with the TUF logo and TUF GAMING text on each end. There’s also some thick padding going over at the underside of the band for cushioning your head, and the TUF GAMING logo once again at the top. According to ASUS, the clamping force of the TUF Gaming H7 is 20% less than the previous version. We can't exactly dispute that claim, but we can say that it's right where it's at. Although, while the clamping force is not at fault, the earpads felt a tad uncomfortable and warm after several hours of gameplay. 

When it comes to setting up, you’ll you have to do is plug in the USB receiver, press the button on it until it flashes, and pair it with the headset by pressing the power button.

CONNECTIVITY

The TUF Gaming H7 features 2.4GHz wireless technology with dual-antenna design for stable and low-latency audio transmission. During our test run for the past two weeks, we had no issues when it comes to audio or microphone stutters during our games and music. There's no wired connectivity here, however. The microUSB port is just for charging. The maximum coverage area it can go for is 25 meters, although we don’t see any possible scenario where you’d be that far away from your PC or PS4.

 BATTERY LIFE

ASUS says that you can get 15+ hours of usage with the TUF Gaming H7. We were planning to fully drain the battery first and we didn’t exactly charge it to full, but even then we got over a good two-week span with an hour or two daily on playing competitive on Overwatch. One thing to note, if no audio is playing for a span of 5 minutes, the headset will automatically turn off to save battery.

SOFTWARE

The TUF Gaming H7 utilizes the ROG Armoury II. You can tweak the settings from there from the output and input volumes, some Sound Optimization presets, Virtual Surround, the Equalizer, Bass Boost, Compressor and Voice Clarity. You can also adjust the Noise Gate levels, and Perfect Voice.

PERFORMANCE

There are 53mm ASUS Essence drivers powering the TUF Gaming H7. Those are basically large 53mm Neodymium drivers. It sounds as sweet as it looks.

GAMING

For gaming, Overwatch, Blizzard’s fast-paced first-person shooter is our go-to game to test out headphones on the PC. Its Virtual Surround definitely can definitely assist you when it comes to locating where audio cues such as gunshots, footsteps and explosions are coming from.

We also tried it out with a little bit of FROMSOFTWARE’s Bloodborne with the headset connected to the PlayStation 4, with the gaming taking advantage of plenty of sound elements for its atmospheric horror vibe. 

MUSIC

We tested the TUF Gaming H7 with the Sound Optimization for Music Preset, Studio for reverb preset, and Bass Boost at 50%, and Equalizer Preset on Vocal. First on our track as always are Sade’s ‘No Ordinary Love’ followed by The Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Crying Lightning’ for that sexy and smooth bass lines. They’re deep and punchy, although cranking up the Bass Boost to 100% won’t be advisable since it muddles the clarity in favor of the bass. Dream Theater’s ‘As I Am’ with its beautiful arrangement comes nicely, but instrumental separation isn’t quite recognizable. 

Microphone Test

CONCLUSION

At the time of writing, we have no idea how much it would cost. Value plays a great deal when it comes to our reviews, but for now we’re going to leave it as it is. With that said, there's so much to love about the ASUS TUF Gaming H7 Wireless Headset. It delivers superb performance with its rich sound quality, deep bass, and virtual surround sound. The design in terms of durability and aesthetics is easily one of the best that we've tested. We'll see if ASUS will price this one just right.

Update:

Okay, folks. I have received word that it costs Php5,000 locally and is now available. This price point gives it the edge against the competition. And even disregarding said competition, the ASUS TUF Gaming H7 Wireless boasts rich features and beautiful performance for a wireless headset that can give you awesome value for your hard-earned ducats. Money well spent!