Third in our series of Brilliant Value Gaming Gear is the Element Gaming Headset Xenon 700 review. We’re pretty well in love with Element by now – the Thorium Keyboard is a stonkingly good bit of kit, and the Iridium Gaming Mouse is a no-brainer at under £23 from Ebuyer.
And so with high expectations we come to their top-of-the-range gaming headset, the Xenon 700. With a design borrowed heavily from Razer’s Blackshark headset, the sturdy metal frame is uncompromising in its bare bone structure – but actually I love that. You can SEE how well it’s constructed, that every part is actually metal and not plastic hidden away inside some padding.
The earcups are big and comfy-looking in their leather padding, and the LED lighting is a touch way way cooler than the £45 price tag would have you expect.
Just like the rest of Element’s range, they’ve done it again – fabulous-looking product at a great value price.
But… does it stand up to the test?
The 3m long cable is a must when you want to move more than two feet from your desk and still remain attached to your skype call, and the braided wire is essential for stopping that mysterious wound-into-knots frustration, and to ensure it won’t break in short order. The in-line remote, fabulously lit obviously, is a handy addition; not only controlling the volume but also offering mic mute and speaker mute buttons.
The in-line headset control. It’s fiendishly tricky to photograph glowy stuff. Just saying.
The earcups themselves looked pretty enormous to me – but apparently this is a Very Good Thing. Sitting comfortably right over the ear, they are fine even for long-into-the-evening League sessions without causing that Hot Ear Burn, or NumbleEars as No.1 son calls it. The thickly padded leather on the earcup gives a quality touch, and the fully adjustable nature of the screw-tightening joints means that there’s never anything but a perfect fit.
The side of the earcup is made of mesh to allow the LED glow, which can be turned off using the in-line control if you wish (it never is. why would you do that? It’s so cool!)
The side of the earcup. See? Cool!
The headband is also lightly padded with leather, and detailed with the blue stitching; the overall feel is one of thoughtful design and quality. Honestly? NOT what I expected at this price point!
Set up is a dead-easy plug & play, though the accompanying disc allows all the drivers to be installed.
The actual sound quality from the headset is great – from a group skype call in-game, through watching the Hobbit and keeping up with the League of Legend World Championship live stream of excited commentators, the headset handles it all well. the sound is crystal clear, and the bass is excellent.
Earcup with the microphone bar folded away.
The microphone is another jointed metal bar with yet more thumbscrews to adjust it to your own perfect position. Quality is reportedly excellent from various gamer friends on Skype :)
So; the comfort is good (though I’m not absolutely sure the daughter wouldn’t snag her long hair on the thumbscrews if she was wearing for any length of time), it blocks external noise a little too well (you may need to cause a near-death-experience by bursting through the door in a frustrated fashion to yell DINNER! for the fifth time…), and the microphone is crystal clear without background noise breaking in too loudly.
The ear cups are pretty big on a 14yr old head. But that’s a good thing for comfort factor.
The Element Gaming Headset Xenon 700 can be snapped up on Ebuyer for a mere £45. I really don’t know of another gaming headset that will provide this much quality at that price point; if you’re not buying right now, you probably ought to tuck the knowledge away for the Christmas list – it’ll bring a proper joyous smile to any teen gamer’s face, I promise.
- 7:1 simulated surround sound
- 360° adjustable microphone
- Soft leather ear pads
- Inline controls
- LED lighting
