SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 review: The devil’s in the detail

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 is an affordable wireless headset that’s made unique through its AI Noise-Cancelling mic, but is let down by exactly the same element.

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 is one of the newest additions to the Arctis series, providing music lovers and games alike with a high-quality headset filled with the newest technology, easy-to-learn software, and enough comfort to wear for hours.

So, designed with comfort and adaptability in mind, does the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 live up to some of its predecessors like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X or the wired SteelSeries Arctis Nova 3? The headset comes in two different console flavors, and we’ve had our hands on the Xbox variant of the headset.

Key Specs

• Connectivity: USB-C, Quantum 2.0 High-Speed Wireless
• Driver diameter: 40mm Nova Acoustic System
• Frequency response: 20Hz – 22,000 Hz
• Weight: 268g
• Compatibility: PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation, Mobile, Nintendo Switch
• Features: AI Noise-Cancelling Mic, Gaming-Grade Wireless, Fast Charge
• Price: $119.99

Design

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 isn’t exactly the prettiest headset. Its utilitarian design prioritizes comfort through its lightweight nature. Subtle inlays of color pop and hide all of the features that the headset has on offer. Sure, it doesn’t have any flashy RGB or cat ears, but who really needs that stuff on a gaming headset?

Lightweight

One of the primary positives regarding the design of this headset is its lightweight design. Coming in at just 268g. This is much lighter than the HyperX Cloud III and the Logitech G Pro X 2 Lightspeed. But, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 manages to pack all the expected quality into a small, sleek, and comfortable weight.

Its wider head strap allows the headphones to simply rest on your ears rather than pushing them into your head. The focus on streamlining the design of the headphones with its smaller mic and simplistic buttons makes headaches a thing of the past.

Hidden mic

One of the highlights of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4’s design is its hidden microphone. Tucked seamlessly into the left-hand side of the headset, the mic keeps itself away from your face and out of your eyesight when you’re playing a game without needing to talk.

When you do need to talk, its smooth cable allows for quick and easy activation with little hassle and a solid yet movable position. On top of this, the mute button, which is located just above the mic, emits a bright red light leaving no confusion or frustration when wondering why your friends just aren’t hearing you.

Comfort in mind

Combining the hidden microphone and lightweight nature, there’s one element that truly grants the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 its premium status: comfort.

As previously mentioned, the headband is uncharacteristically wide, meaning the headphones simply sit on your ears rather than pushing at them. On top of this, the adjustable stretch headband provides an ideal fit no matter the size of your head. This keeps the headset light, well-fitting, and extremely comfortable, rivaling plenty of other premium brands and designs.

Features

The design complements the headset’s features extremely well, with SteelSeries managing to find that ideal balance between high quality, low price, and extreme comfort. It’s also got a variety of useful elements that help set the headset apart from its competitors from fast charging to the AI-powered noise-cancelling microphone.

Exceptional wireless design

Despite the addition of an impressively fast charge, gaining 6 hours of gameplay for just 15 minutes of charging, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 has impressive battery power, lasting 36 hours. To complement this, we found our headset to last multiple days while wearing it throughout the work day and gaming sessions after, making those 36 hours feel much longer than advertised.

To help manage those pains of your headset dying in the middle of a game, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 implements a useful light system, highlighting whether your battery is full, half full, nearly dead, or just about to die. It’s an extremely useful detail that proves to be just another small yet significant addition to this high-quality headset.

Along with the SteelSeries’ battery power, one of the most important elements for wireless headsets is its range and latency. Luckily, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 excels at both, providing a clean, responsive, and effective wireless connection that remains stable even when you’re up to 40ft away. We found no issues with the latency too, as you’d expect from a 2.4Ghz connection.

AI-Powered Noise-Cancelling Mic

The AI-Powered Noise-Cancelling microphone is the primary selling point for the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4. It boasts reactive noise-canceling based on what’s happening around you and allows your gaming experience to be all the more immersive.

The quality and detail of the microphone itself are impressive. However, its bidirectional nature means that the mic will still be picking up some noise from the outside world, no matter how much AI-powered software is baked into the headset. Sure, louder, prolonged noises get drowned out, but our friends could still hear the clacking of our keyboards in the background.

Lack of Bluetooth

Not all headsets are all about gaming, with many modern designs handling themselves to a variety of platforms and mediums. So, when we discovered the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 has no Bluetooth capabilities we were fairly surprised.

Sure, it has a USB-C multi-platform dongle, providing seamless transitions to multiple platforms, but that lack of Bluetooth feels like a missing part that could be vital to many.

Software

Steelseries

While the mic is certainly the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4’s selling point, no headset is truly worth buying if it doesn’t have great audio. The Arctis Nova 4 has great audio, introducing software that allows your experience to be fully customizable, from gaming to music to the chat and the mic itself.

However, despite being fully customizable, we found the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 to be lacking in its bass and depth. Sure, the music and games felt immersive and powerful, but it needed more detail to it, with some elements feeling rather flat, no matter how much adjusting we did.

That’s not to say the audio is bad at all, rather not quite living up to other premium headsets despite the easy-to-navigate and effective software.

Gaming Performance

For gaming, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4 is ideal, its adaptable microphone allows other players to hear you loud and clear and the high-quality audio worked particularly well on games like Call of Duty, where steps are vital to success.

On top of this, the chat mix dial on the right ear enables you to quickly and efficiently alter the volume of your chat in comparison to the game, letting you turn the voices down in tense moments, or turn them up when their advice really counts. The dial is a great aspect that further proves it’s all about the little things for the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4.

Noise-canceling woes

Few elements are more important than noise-canceling in gaming. For many titles, you need to be able to hear gameplay elements like footsteps or abilities in Overwatch. While for others, it’s all about immersion, meaning noises from the outside world must be entirely dulled out.

Sadly, the microphone setup’s AI noise cancellation is a bit of a letdown, as it can pick up noises from things like your keyboard and mouse while gaming, much to the annoyance of our teammates. Louder sounds do get drowned out thanks to the SteelSeries AI features, but it’s not the perfect experience that many will be looking for.

The Verdict: 4/5

Ultimately, with a lightweight design, extreme attention to detail, and an undeniably comfortable experience, I found myself extremely impressed with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4. Its good audio, mixing features, and wireless design coalesce into a stellar headset. If it wasn’t for the lack of a Bluetooth connection and sensitive bidirectional mic, it would have been perfect.

If you click on a product link on this page we may earn a small affiliate commission.