PowerA FUSION Wired Gaming Headset with Mic - Headphones with On-Ear Controls for PC, Xbox, PS4, and Mobile Devices - Black

Product Information

At least the Asus ROG Strix Fusion 700 features Bluetooth for connecting to smartphones, tablets and games consoles. It’s nice to have the option to use the Asus ROG Strix 700 wirelessly, and the built-in 900mAh battery should last around eight hours if you use the RGB lighting, rising to 17 hours with the lighting turned off. The 7.1 mode also works with music, and with certain genres this again adds a nice effect. So it won’t replace a physical 7.1 setup, but it’s definitely worth gaming with the mode switched on. I witnessed audio cues that I’ve never witnessed before whilst playing games that I’ve played countless times beforehand. I’ll not bore you with the specs because in truth, I don’t fully understand them. I’ve always judged through firsthand use rather than what’s written on paper. My judgement here, if not already clear, is that FUSION is absolutely worth its price, and then some. The headset is must have. Not only does it put you in the game with deeper bass and crisp highs, but its microphone is brilliant too.

You do get some RGB lighting here, but it follows through on the overall minimalistic vibe of the headset. It comes in the form of a pair of strips that line the headset’s ear cups, which (by default) cycle through a spectrum of colour. It can be changed with Asus’ intuitive Armoury Crate software – and, all in all, the Aura lighting here looks rather smart indeed. The earphones are well-cushioned, sturdy and comfortable. While I’m still not a fan of having both of my ears covered, I wore them for well over three hours and never felt uncomfortable or felt any sort of pain. Playing Rainbow Six Extraction, my squad-mates also appreciated the ROG Fusion II 500’s unusual but effective built-in mic setup. It has no microphone boom, but instead uses two hidden “beamforming” microphones that target the wearer’s mouth, along with AI-based noise cancellation. It delivered clear voice-chat, and should be able to do so even in extremely noisy environments; it certainly excelled in moderately noisy environments such as a lounge in a shared house with music playing. Comfort In the world of gaming peripherals, however, this doesn’t mean a huge amount. More often than not, subtlety is in shorter supply when this particular brand of product design is on the table.On the subject of lighting, there are plenty of gaming peripherals known to offer eye-catching light shows, but unlike the rest of the Strix Fusion line, the Wireless remains in the dark. The Asus ROG Fusion II 500 is the brand’s latest wired gaming headset and it’s been designed with the audiophile-level gamer in mind.

As for its construction, the Fusion II 500 is pretty well made, although in contrast to other headsets, it can feel a little bit plastic. Perhaps the inclusion of some more metal would have helped to make the Fusion II 500 feel more premium. Nevertheless, the plastic used is hard-wearing and smooth to the touch, and feels decent overall. There’s a decent amount of padding sitting around the ear cups and a small leatherette strip on the headband. All of this, combined with the 310g weight, makes the Fusion II a comfortable headset to wear for long periods, and allows the unit to offer up some brilliant passive noise isolation, too. Asus even throws in a second set of ‘hybrid’ ear cups that feature a mix of both leatherette and mesh in their design. In my experience, these offer a similar level of passive noise suppression compared to the standard ear cups that come fitted to the Fusion Wireless out-the-box, but they also help minimise heat (and by association sweat) build-up too.I tested FUSION out on a range of different titles; DOOM, Fortnite, Final Fantasy X, Call of Duty, and even used it for some music and Netflix. The headset’s 50mm drivers do an outstanding job at delivering (stereo) sound, which when grouped with the cups’ noise isolated design, makes for some remarkable achievements. Each and every audio cue from whatever media you’re enjoying, comes through crisp and comes through loud. The only niggling complaint that I have is that the headset can take a minute to warm up, so to speak. This aspect of its performance is especially apparent when you put the Asus ROG Strix Fusion 700 into 7.1 virtual surround sound mode. Asus promises that the ROG Strix Fusion 700’s virtual surround, developed in conjunction with audio specialists Bongiovi Acoustics, will be a step above that of its rivals.