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!
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