With the SteelSeries pedigree, and its relatively high price-tag, the Nova 7 Wireless certainly has some expectations to live up to, but how does it cope in a very competitive market?
First off, the Nova 7 is incredibly comfortable, so much so that you can genuinely forget that you’re wearing it. The adjustability on the headband, in two different places, with the AirWeave memory foam cushions work in tandem perfectly. At this point, we’ve tested quite a few headsets, but there aren’t many that can live with this level of comfort. I do endurance racing on Assetto Corsa Competizione, so I can be wearing a headset for several hours at a time without a chance to take it off at all, in the past I’ve found some headsets just can’t stand up to this test but the Nova 7 passed with flying colours. There’s also the option of a potentially more premium-feeling leatherette ear cushions, available for a very reasonable price, if you prefer.
As part of the comfort, noise isolation is also important, being able to block everything else out and hear the sounds as intended is a key factor of how well a headset will perform. The Nova 7 Wireless offers 2.4GHz connectivity and Bluetooth, which we’ll cover in more detail soon, but that obviously invites use indoors as well as outdoors, for commuting, the gym, whatever you fancy; unfortunately, the noise isolation on this headset is pretty poor, allowing a lot of external noises to bleed in, we’re not sure if the leatherette ear cushions would help with this issue but we can’t see it making an enormous difference, though some people do tend to prefer a more “open” headset, so they can keep an ear out for traffic or surrounding people during the commute, or listening for children and pets etc. at home.
Sound quality is obviously of very high importance, particularly in this price bracket. With the Nova 7 Wireless, the sound profile is a little bit odd but once you’ve worn them for a little while, it does begin to make sense for their intended purpose – gaming. Bass isn’t very powerful, lacking that bit of oomph that you’d want if you like listening to loud music, but the mids and especially the highs are detailed and pronounced, allowing you to hear features in the soundscape of your game, such as footsteps, the unlocking of a door, a tyre breaking traction, all of these kinds of noises are typically higher frequency. Turning on Spatial Audio does degrade the sound quality ever-so-slightly, but makes up for it with improving directional audio substantially; if competitive gaming is your bag, which if you’re buying a headset like this it probably is, you’ll most likely find that quite useful. Sadly, due to the sound profile being tweaked towards gaming, the headset isn’t the best in its class for music or films, largely due to the lack of bass that we mentioned; it’s still perfectly good for a bit of listening on the side but don’t buy this if you’re a real audiophile with a Spotify addiction.
SteelSeries have equipped the Nova 7 Wireless with a 2.4GHz channel and Bluetooth, allowing you to connect to a whole host of devices, and even two devices at the same time; handy if you want to take a phone call while in the middle of a game. Setting up the connections couldn’t be easier, the instructions are straightforward and it works very well. I also found this feature useful for watching a Twitch stream (or similar) on a second device while gaming. As a lovely extra feature, the headset is also equipped with a 3.5mm jack for connecting to older devices.
The built-in microphone is surprisingly good for a gaming headset, providing a clear and loud broadcast with very little compression. The boom mic can be used while inside the headset, or dragged out and placed in front of your mouth for clearer pickup, sound quality does suffer somewhat if you use it retracted. SteelSeries’ Clearcast AI Noise Cancelling works well to remove unwanted noises, but it’s obvious that it’s still in Early Access at the moment as it lags behind offerings from the likes of NVIDIA with their Broadcast and Discord with Krisp. (The Clearcast AI Noise Cancellation can only be used with the PC)
Build quality is, as expected from SteelSeries, bob on. The headset weighs in at 325g, which isn’t bad at all for a wireless headset with this feature set. The PVD-coated steel headband gives the headset a feel of strength and sturdiness that all-plastic competitors just don’t have an answer for, while the beautifully soft AirWeave ear cushions feel spongy and soft. We don’t doubt this headset will stand the test of time.
The headset is equipped with a handful of buttons and toggles, all of them are easy to find and they’re quick to learn. On the left earcup is a microphone toggle and a volume wheel, both feel nice to use and the volume wheel is weighted well to give decent feedback. On the right side you get a ChatMix wheel, to adjust the volume of your game against your team chat, and a power switch and Bluetooth toggle.
Finally, battery life, we tested this headset for about 6 weeks while catching up on other work and only charged it a handful of times, it’s difficult to test the exact accuracy of the 38-hour claims but it’s definitely there or thereabouts. The Type-C connection supports fast charging, with a 15-minute quick charge providing up to 6 hours of use, very handy if you forget to charge it before a night of gaming!
First off, the Nova 7 is incredibly comfortable, so much so that you can genuinely forget that you’re wearing it. The adjustability on the headband, in two different places, with the AirWeave memory foam cushions work in tandem perfectly. At this point, we’ve tested quite a few headsets, but there aren’t many that can live with this level of comfort. I do endurance racing on Assetto Corsa Competizione, so I can be wearing a headset for several hours at a time without a chance to take it off at all, in the past I’ve found some headsets just can’t stand up to this test but the Nova 7 passed with flying colours. There’s also the option of a potentially more premium-feeling leatherette ear cushions, available for a very reasonable price, if you prefer.
As part of the comfort, noise isolation is also important, being able to block everything else out and hear the sounds as intended is a key factor of how well a headset will perform. The Nova 7 Wireless offers 2.4GHz connectivity and Bluetooth, which we’ll cover in more detail soon, but that obviously invites use indoors as well as outdoors, for commuting, the gym, whatever you fancy; unfortunately, the noise isolation on this headset is pretty poor, allowing a lot of external noises to bleed in, we’re not sure if the leatherette ear cushions would help with this issue but we can’t see it making an enormous difference, though some people do tend to prefer a more “open” headset, so they can keep an ear out for traffic or surrounding people during the commute, or listening for children and pets etc. at home.
Sound quality is obviously of very high importance, particularly in this price bracket. With the Nova 7 Wireless, the sound profile is a little bit odd but once you’ve worn them for a little while, it does begin to make sense for their intended purpose – gaming. Bass isn’t very powerful, lacking that bit of oomph that you’d want if you like listening to loud music, but the mids and especially the highs are detailed and pronounced, allowing you to hear features in the soundscape of your game, such as footsteps, the unlocking of a door, a tyre breaking traction, all of these kinds of noises are typically higher frequency. Turning on Spatial Audio does degrade the sound quality ever-so-slightly, but makes up for it with improving directional audio substantially; if competitive gaming is your bag, which if you’re buying a headset like this it probably is, you’ll most likely find that quite useful. Sadly, due to the sound profile being tweaked towards gaming, the headset isn’t the best in its class for music or films, largely due to the lack of bass that we mentioned; it’s still perfectly good for a bit of listening on the side but don’t buy this if you’re a real audiophile with a Spotify addiction.
SteelSeries have equipped the Nova 7 Wireless with a 2.4GHz channel and Bluetooth, allowing you to connect to a whole host of devices, and even two devices at the same time; handy if you want to take a phone call while in the middle of a game. Setting up the connections couldn’t be easier, the instructions are straightforward and it works very well. I also found this feature useful for watching a Twitch stream (or similar) on a second device while gaming. As a lovely extra feature, the headset is also equipped with a 3.5mm jack for connecting to older devices.
The built-in microphone is surprisingly good for a gaming headset, providing a clear and loud broadcast with very little compression. The boom mic can be used while inside the headset, or dragged out and placed in front of your mouth for clearer pickup, sound quality does suffer somewhat if you use it retracted. SteelSeries’ Clearcast AI Noise Cancelling works well to remove unwanted noises, but it’s obvious that it’s still in Early Access at the moment as it lags behind offerings from the likes of NVIDIA with their Broadcast and Discord with Krisp. (The Clearcast AI Noise Cancellation can only be used with the PC)
Build quality is, as expected from SteelSeries, bob on. The headset weighs in at 325g, which isn’t bad at all for a wireless headset with this feature set. The PVD-coated steel headband gives the headset a feel of strength and sturdiness that all-plastic competitors just don’t have an answer for, while the beautifully soft AirWeave ear cushions feel spongy and soft. We don’t doubt this headset will stand the test of time.
The headset is equipped with a handful of buttons and toggles, all of them are easy to find and they’re quick to learn. On the left earcup is a microphone toggle and a volume wheel, both feel nice to use and the volume wheel is weighted well to give decent feedback. On the right side you get a ChatMix wheel, to adjust the volume of your game against your team chat, and a power switch and Bluetooth toggle.
Finally, battery life, we tested this headset for about 6 weeks while catching up on other work and only charged it a handful of times, it’s difficult to test the exact accuracy of the 38-hour claims but it’s definitely there or thereabouts. The Type-C connection supports fast charging, with a 15-minute quick charge providing up to 6 hours of use, very handy if you forget to charge it before a night of gaming!
