The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 is the successor to the Arctis Nova 7, a gaming headset that sort of straddles the mid-range and premium ends of the market. The Gen 2 brings some subtle but welcome upgrades (particularly to battery life and connectivity), while maintaining the same MSRP as the original model. On paper, that’s all great news.

As I mentioned, at $200, the Nova 7 Gen 2 is right on the price category border. For most other brands — Razer, Alienware, Logitech, etc. — $200-$250 is more or less where things top out. Not so for SteelSeries, whose lineup soars up another 200% to the $600 Arctis Nova Elite.

For SteelSeries, then, this is a mid-ranger, yet it’s mixing with some very premium competition. Does it do enough to compete with some of the best gaming headsets we’ve tested? Mostly, although there are a few issues I have, especially given the price.

Find out more in my full SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? An upper-mid-range gaming headset
• Who is it for? Most gamers except pros and streamers
• What does it cost? $199 / £179
• What’s good? The sound profile, companion app, comfort, connectivity and battery life
• What’s not? The mic is rather tinny, some elements feel a little cheap, and it’s a tad overpriced

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review: Specs

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review: The ups

The Nova 7 Pro packs decent sound quality with impressive spatiality and powerful bass. It’s comfortable, offers respectable battery life and brings some handy connectivity upgrades, too.

Excellent sound for gaming

The Nova 7 Gen 2 sounds rather nice. You’d expect that to be the case given that: a) this is a nearly-$200 headset, and b) SteelSeries has form with making excellent-sounding cans. The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite, while wildly expensive, sounds incredible, as does the $300 Nova Pro.

The Nova 7 Gen 2 drivers haven’t been given the same attention to detail as the pricier models, but the 40mm neodymium dynamic units still produce a decent sound and are a solid choice for gaming.

Chief among the headset’s virtues are its strong three-dimensional sound and bright treble — both essential in a competitive headset, allowing you to pinpoint where enemies are in relation to you. In Counter-Strike 2, I could hear enemy footsteps and tell precisely where they were coming from. As such, I had advanced warning to avoid being killed, and was able to score kills I might otherwise have missed by popping up on my foes unexpectedly.

Like most general consumer headphones and headsets with dynamic drivers, the Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 is tuned for a bass-heavy profile. I’ve no complaints about this, it’s great for music-heavy games and helps with immersion in bass-heavy titles — the sound of artillery in Hell Let Loose and Isonzo, for example, had the appropriate terrifying boom to it.

Tonal separation isn’t the best, and busier soundtracks like the cinematic interludes of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 sounded a tad muddy. If that’s something you care about, I’d recommend stepping up to something with higher-end drivers, like the Audeze Maxwell 2 ($329).

Decent for casual music listening

The Nova 7 Gen 2 is also fine for music. Again, there’s a big skew towards loud bass, but that’s just what many casual music listeners want. The masses want bass.

With lesser drivers, the sludgy simultaneous dual guitar riffs of Melvins’ Honey Bucket can all too easily get stuck in one another’s mud or become bogged down amid the song’s bassline. Indeed, it wasn’t the cleanest rendition I’ve heard, and those thick mids felt a little muddy, but this is a mid-range headset. It wasn’t an awful performance.

Bass is lovely. The pounding sub-bassline of Burn Water’s Ikigai sounded warm and powerful, free from distortion.

As I saw in game testing, tonal clarity up top is pretty good, with airier productions sounding great. The delicate vocal harmonies of Mocky’s Just a Little Lovin’ stood out nicely, with each voice distinguishable from the other.

What I enjoy most about this headset is the spaciousness. As I mentioned in the gaming section, spatial audio is really rather good. Mk.Gee’s Dream Police, with its lofty production and wide soundstage, felt fittingly three-dimensional. As did New Low — another of Mk.Gee’s — with its surreal industrial percussion reverberating from front, to sides, then to back.

Strong companion software

I’m a big fan of the SteelSeries GG app. It’s a slick, polished piece of software that gives you a decent amount of control over your SteelSeries gear. In particular, there’s Sonar, which allows you to control the mixing, levels and EQ of your devices (including the headset mic and audio channels separately), which is super handy.

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I especially love the wide array of game-specific EQ presets you can find on there. The list is arguably far too large for a simple dropdown, as there are hundreds. But once you locate an EQ for your game, you can tailor your sound to the specific title you’re playing with minimal fuss. The first thing I did when I began testing was fire up GG and set the EQ to Hell Let Loose — I had to make sure I could hear those enemy footsteps.

The Nova 7 Gen 2 also brings smartphone compatibility via the SteelSeries Arctis App, so console gamers can control their device from their phone during play. This is also handy for PC gamers, allowing them to tweak the headset without being forced to switch apps away from their game.

Lightweight and comfortable

The Arctis Nova Gen 7 is an extremely comfortable headset, primarily thanks to its low weight and employment of light, breathable (yet high-quality) materials. It weighs 325 grams / 11 ounces, so not much lighter than the pricier SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro (12 ounces) and Nova Elite (13 ounces). One or two ounces doesn’t make a huge difference. However, I went into testing the Nova 7 straight from the Audeze Maxwell 2, which weighs 1.2 pounds — a substantial weight off my shoulders, literally.

The Nova 7 Gen 2’s earcups are made from a lightweight fabric. This lacks the pizzazz and premium feel of the leather(ette) cups on the Arctis Nova Pro ($379), Nova Elite ($599), Maxwell 2 ($329) and Alienware Pro Wireless Gaming headset ($229). This isn’t uncommon in the mid-range arena, though, with the Fractal Scape ($199) and Razer BlackShark V3 Pro ($229) also using fabric. Either way, I find fabric quite comfortable and much more breathable than leather. I had no problems gaming for hours without getting hot ears.

The Nova 7 Gen 2 also uses a suspended inner headband design, which I love. It’s becoming almost ubiquitous these days, although you’ll still see other mid-range and even high-end headsets using a traditional padded single headband. The Fractal Scape, Alienware Pro and BlackShark V3 Pro, to name a few.

The suspended headband lets the Nova 7 Gen 2 sit very lightly on your head, without applying too much pressure in any one spot. It’s also adjustable, giving you more customization over the fitment, alongside the stepless earcup adjustment.

Respectable battery life

SteelSeries won’t be winning any awards for the Nova 7 Gen 2’s battery life, but it’s nevertheless respectable at 50 hours, which is up by 40% from the original Nova 7, according to SteelSeries. In my testing, I was able to play for about 12-14 hours on around 25% charge, so the manufacturer’s figures track.

Unlike the Nova Pro and Elite, which have removable batteries (and ship with two), the Nova 7’s battery is built in. That means downtime when you need to charge. Happily, 15 minutes will net you six hours of use, so you can take that necessary eye break… before coming back for another multi-hour session. Honestly, it’s very rare that my headsets ever run out of juice anyway, as they’re often charged overnight when I’m not playing.

Simultaneous wireless connectivity

One of the most useful features of any audio device is multi-point connectivity. Gaming headsets these days take that a step further, though, with simultaneous connectivity. That means you can take a call on your phone or work computer while gaming and, importantly, hear them both at the same time.

Without the USB hubs of the Nova Pro and Nova Elite to quickly mix channel levels in real time, this can get a bit messy, but it’s still super useful to have, and a welcome upgrade from the original Nova 7.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review: The downs

While the Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 is a decent mid-range headset, a weak microphone and some cheap design elements rankle, given the $200 MSRP.

Tinny microphone

The Nova 7 Gen 2’s mic is a little disappointing, given that this is a $200 headset. As you can hear in the audio clip below, audio recorded using the microphone is tinny and low-quality.

Now, headset mics aren’t usually the pinnacles of clarity, so I can forgive this flaw to some extent — especially since the headset isn’t aimed at or heavily marketed to streamers. And don’t get me wrong, it’ll do the job for game chat. I played a lot of the mic-heavy strategic shooter Hell Let Loose during testing, where microphone communication can be the make-or-break of a squad. My fellow players had no issues hearing me clearly.

It’s certainly not going to win any awards for fidelity, though. So, if you’re streaming, you’ll want to spend extra on something with broadcast-worthy recording, like the Audeze Maxwell 2 or a dedicated mic like the Shure MV6.

Finish a little cheap in places

This is another minor con, because overall the Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2’s general build quality is pretty good — with its metallic headband, premium plastics and soft fabrics. But letting the show down for me slightly are the buttons and controls. The dials in particular feel super cheap and flimsy.

I get it — this isn’t SteelSeries’ top-o’-the-range headset. But it still costs $200, and for that money, cheap-feeling dials rankle me. It’s also important to consider that for almost every other manufacturer, $200-ish is high-end, with build to suit. The Fractal Scape ($199) and Alienware Pro ($229) are similarly priced, while the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro ($249) can often be found for around the $220 mark. And those headsets are each finished exquisitely. Both the Fractal and Razer feature metal control dials, which are particularly gorgeous.

And that’s a rather neat segue into my next point…

Mildly overpriced

SteelSeries has form in overpricing. The scale ranges from “wildy” with the Arctis Nova $600 Elite, down to “mildly,” which is where I’d say we’re at here.

As I mentioned above, taking a look at the competition, the Nova 7 Gen 2’s $199 / £179 price tag is where many other brands top out. In other words, their top-line premium headsets are sitting at or just above the $200 mark — the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro, Alienware Pro and Fractal Scape, for instance. I’m not saying they’re all perfect, but they’re all built exquisitely and feel truly premium. The Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2, by contrast, feels truly mid-range.

That’s not to say I think this is a bad headset. Far from it. It just feels like a $150-$175 product to me. This would still differentiate it from the lower-tier SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 ($129).

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 review: Verdict

The Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 isn’t perfect. I think it’s priced a little too high, given the slightly cheap finishing touches and tinny microphone. Theoretically, I wouldn’t mind either of those issues as this is a mid-range headset — not one aimed at esports players or professional streamers. But I feel the trade-off should be a decidedly mid-range price. $25-$50 cheaper would’ve been the sweet spot for me.

Regardless, the Nova 7 Gen 2 does a decent job at most of the priority aspects. Sound quality is decent, with a bright treble and deep, punchy bass — making this a solid headset for both competitive and casual gaming, as well as listening to music. It’s highly comfortable, built well for the most part and packs respectable battery life, too. So, although I’d advise waiting for a sale to buy it, I’m still happy to recommend the Nova 7 Gen 2.