Alienware Pro Headset Review: One of the best

Verdict

While its noise cancellation efforts and microphone could use a little work, the Alienware Pro headset is a top-tier, versatile, set of gaming cans with great battery life at an even better price. If only it were easier to lug around.

Introduction

Alienware is no stranger to premium devices. Its flagship $230 Alienware Pro headset now sits alongside its new gaming mouse and keyboard to form a complete package. But this isn’t just a PC peripheral: it’s a multi-platform pair of cans that, in this price bracket, offers a captivating value proposition for the platform-agnostic gamer.

The Alienware Pro Headset, which I can already commend for taking such a simple approach to its name, is a feature-rich product. There’s no denying that. But can it innovate enough in a crowded space to warrant its price tag? You’d be surprised.

Design

• Sleek looks
• Buttons and dials make for intuitive use
• Not travel friendly

Available in a blindingly matte white affair or smarter black, the Alienware Pro Headset looks and feels like a high-end product. It’s non-reflective, barely shows prints, and is soft where it needs to be and smooth where it should be.

While rounded in almost every area, the centre of each cup had a more angular look, giving the Alienware cans character without striking a heavy gamer aesthetic to dissuade you from taking them out and about. After all, these aren’t cheap, and ANC shines in public: these could be the only cans you need.

The supremely plush leatherette cups are just the right size, nailing the sweet spot for a passive noise-isolating seal without having you feel as if you’re under the wheel of a car.

The same squishy feeling extends to the headband. It doesn’t attempt to redirect pressure with something like a band from a Steelseries’ headset. Instead, it’s reminiscent of the Sony XM3 cans I’ve used for years. Thin, light, yet somehow comfortable.

At 315g, they’re light enough for all-day use. They also proved surprisingly comfortable during the ups and downs of a run at the gym.

Externally, the headset has all the IO you could want for a multi-platform solution. It’s one of the most versatile headsets I’ve tested. It’s also one of the most intuitive and user-friendly.

With dedicated buttons and toggles, you won’t need to refer to the manual to pair another device. Once you adjust to their position on the edge of the cushions, you’re set.

However, you won’t find any handy media controls to deal with that problematic playlist you’ve been meaning to clear out for months. Paired with the lack of folding or rotating cups, they come so close to being the perfect pair of travel cans for the world-trotted gamer, but fumble the bag at the last hurdle.

Inside the simple but sleek cardboard box is the headset, the USB-C 2.4Ghz dongle, a USB-A adapter for it, a USB A-to-C cable for wired use and charging, the microphone, and its wind guard. Outside of the included logo sticker, the whole package is easy to recycle.

What’s missing is a traditional 3.5mm lead. There’s no option for analogue audio here to easily hook up to your controller’s jack or your Nintendo Switch. It’s USB or nothing in that regard.

Features

• Active noise cancellation
• Multi-device support
• Detachable microphone

The Alienware Pro headset features large 50nm drivers, active noise cancellation (ANC), a detachable boom microphone, and multi-device support. 2.4Ghz wireless is there for lag-free listening, Bluetooth for mobile devices, and you can even hook them up to devices like a PlayStation 5 wirelessly or Nintendo Switch via Bluetooth or directly through USB-C.

And no, you can’t use the 2.4Ghz dongle on the Nintendo Switch.

There’s a wonderfully tactile volume wheel on the left cup. These things can get loud. What you won’t find are on-device playback controls; which was a problem when I decided to leave my phone charging inside while I dealt with garden work. The Bluetooth signal, however? Flawless.

Connecting is also a breath of fresh air. Instead of messing around with presses and holds, the three-stage wireless switch uses a spring mechanism at the bottom. Flick it up for 2.4Ghz, down for Bluetooth, and pull it further to initiate Bluetooth pairing.

Though battery life will be massively affected by the optional active noise cancellation efforts, the 750mAh cell still massively outperforms most of the competition.

Advertising a maximum 75 hours of playtime over Bluetooth with ANC off, you’ll still get a whopping 70 over 2.4Ghz. ANC knocks both options down to the 30-hour range, which is still fantastic, and a 15-minute cable hookup can give you another 8 hours worth of juice..

In practice, the Alienware Pro headset didn’t die on me once during a whole week of home and away usage. There’s no hot-swappable battery like what can come in clutch on the Steelseries Arctis Pro, but I never needed one.

Sound Quality

• Clear, punchy, and loud audio
• Sound, microphone, and noise cancellation are all customizable
• Good background isolation

50nm drivers ensure the Alienware Pro headset can get loud and punchy without distorting. These are closed-back phones, so noise leakage even at higher volumes is kept to a minimum. The cups, while relatively small in statue, still form a great fit, keeping your listening entirely private.

In practice, sound quality is exceptional. Whether over 2.4Ghz wireless or Bluetooth, games and entertainment come through as warm, detailed, and with plenty of directional separation. In a professional setting on games like Overwatch 2, it was easy to discern the footsteps of a particular enemy and even predict exactly who would come around the corner first–and when.

In quieter, moodier situations with the survival horror title Resident Evil 2, distant groans and nearby shuffles were pronounced, with occasional gunfire rebounding well and the metallic jangling of shells bouncing along the floor adding depth to the whole experience.

Electing for some late-night viewing, I even hooked them up via Bluetooth to my XGIMI Horizon projector. Vocals vital to the atmosphere of a true crime show came through clear as day with easily enough on the low-end to highlight hushed tones, tense courtrooms, and gravelly voices.

Fine-tuning the experience means turning to the Dolby Access app. The Alienware Arena software only includes microphone tweaks and settings you can change on-device.

Accessing Dobly Access through it, however, unlocks what is normally a paid license to the Atmos codec. You can only lightly change the sound profile of its own presets to bounce between detailed, balanced, warm, or neutral flavours, but there’s something endearing about its simplicity.

The detachable boom mic, while wonderfully flexible and rigid both, isn’t the best. Like so many others in this form factor, it produces a heavily compressed sound with notable background fuzz whether you enable noise cancellation or not.

You won’t be too loud or quiet with its default options, and your friends won’t really struggle to understand your commands, but it sounds incredibly average for a gaming headset. This isn’t one you’ll be launching a content creation career with.

For calls on the go, the noise cancellation microphones will attempt to pick you up with similarly unimpressive results.

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