Roccat Elo 7.1 Air review: "Good sound, cool features, great price point"

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air headset is sleek, lightweight, and puts out some pretty darn good surround sound, without any cumbersome wires. Since Roccat is now essentially part of the Turtle Beach headsets empire, you'd certainly expect a good quality product from them, and you won't be disappointed. With good sound, cool features, and a great price point, the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Wireless PC headset is certainly on our radar, so let's break down how it stacks up and see whether it's going to be one of the best PC headsets for gaming of 2020.

Design

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Wireless headset is wireless, and its USB dongle easily connects to your PC. Its self-adjusting metal headband is meant to fit all head sizes and stretches easily as you slip it over your ears. Because of this design, they grip your head well, offering a snug fit that can last through many gaming or head-banging sessions. 

The leatherette headband and ear cups are soft and breathable, and despite its lightness, the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air feels durable. The ear cups are on hinges and fully rotate for a fairly light fit - despite that, this headset did get a bit pinchy on my glasses after a couple of hours, even with the ProSpecs Glasses Relief System (but it's important to note these are more comfortable than many other over-ear headsets, often the bane of a glasses-wearers' existence). 

The buttons on the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air headset are a bit oddly placed. I often found myself fumbling to adjust the in-game volume and accidentally hitting the voice chat volume instead. The power button is rather small while the mic mute button is huge in comparison, which meant I pressed the latter rather than the former more often. The detachable mic means no flip-to-mute, but at least the mute button is large!

Features

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Wireless headset is the top-end wireless model for the brand, and you can tell. It boasts 7.1 channel surround sound that's incredibly immersive (Roccat calls it "visual audio") and pumps it out from powerful 50mm drivers. 

The microphone is a highly sensitive TrueSpeak microphone with variable mic monitoring so you can hear your own voice in the headset (and not be so shouty), and noise-canceling that will pick up your voice easily without also picking up any background sounds. 

The Stellar Wireless connection that connects the headset to the computer via the USB dongle is incredibly strong, and the USB-C charger that comes with it will help re-charge your headset faster than you can say "Warzone."

This Roccat headset also has AIMO intelligent lighting, which adds organic synchronized light that mimics whatever you've got playing at the moment.

Performance

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air has the same "superhuman hearing" feature that all Turtle Beach headsets now boast, and you can definitely tell. I could easily hear my enemies' footsteps in Call of Duty: Warzone and guess their whereabouts with some impressive accuracy. That's thanks in large part to the 50mm drivers, which deliver fantastic and immersive 7.1 channel surround sound. 

Download the software to mess about with the equalizer and set your preferences in your own profile to maximize the potential of this headset - although I was a bit bummed that you can't hear the audio changes live (you have to press 'apply'). 

You can use the same software to customize your headset's light settings, shifting from a flashing rainbow of lights to a gentle undulating pulse of a single color. The headset also has AIMO intelligent lighting that will respond to what's on-screen with a fairly accurate color adaptation (although I've never understood how that's more immersive as I can't see the damn thing). The RGB colors don't perfectly match my Razer accessories, which may bother some people, but is a non-issue for me. 

The TrueVoice technology seems to pick up and relay an accurate version of my voice, which can often be seriously distorted to the point of sounding like a chocolate-wasted five-year-old. The mic is easily detachable if you don't want it in your face, and the USB-C charging cable makes for lighting-fast recharging, even if the 24-hour battery life means you won't need it all that often. 

Overall - should you buy it?

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Wireless PC headset is a great value headset that offers a deep bass, punchy sound, and customization options that are both fun and functional. At just $99.99 / £89.99, it's a reasonably priced accessory that's fairly comfortable and one-size-fits-all - and a great fit for any gaming PC, including the very best gaming PCs. While this glasses-wearer found them a bit pinchy after a couple of Warzone rounds, they're overall pretty comfortable and remained firmly on my head even when I was thrashing about to Vin Diesel's new EDM song (look it up). 

The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Wireless PC headset is certainly a contender for those looking for good sound quality, a simple, easy fit, and a reasonable amount of comfort at a price that isn't all that daunting. While it might not be on of the very best gaming headsets out there, it's invigorating to see the Turtle Beach influence injected into a ROCCAT headset, and I'd say it might well earn a place on our best PC headset guide.