Should I Buy… Sony PlayStation 4 Platinum Wireless Headset?

If you're considering a premium headset to go with your PS4 (and one that will seriously augment your experience), deciding what to choose can seem quite daunting nowadays. There are dozens and dozens of PS4-compatible headsets with massively varying prices, many of which claim to the 'best'. Worse still, you'll soon be swamped if you dive into Amazon unaware of what sets some apart from others. That's where our guide to the best PS4 headsets comes in. One of the very top picks is the Sony PlayStation 4 Platinum Wireless Headset, and, given it's high ranking, you might think the 'should I buy' approach to this headset is largely redundant. However, to ensure you're fully informed - particularly ahead of the PS4 Black Friday deals that are just around the corner - this page will shed a bit more light on why it's so good. This is the headset I use personally, so I can tell you without any strings attached that it's genuinely great.

Addressing the main point first: this genuinely is a premium and very high-quality headset for your PS4. Away from the 'official' benefits you'll get (see below), the audio experience is truly excellent. I bought the Platinum a couple of years ago when my friend finally got a PS4 so we could chat properly while playing coop games online. Not only did it excel at that in the first instance, I soon started using it as my go-to headset for single-player games as well. And, after testing headsets for GamesRadar+, the Platinum remained the benchmark for how others performed. Was the sound quality, range, and depth up to the Platinum's standards, as well as the surround sound quality? Does my voice carry over as clearly to my friend as with the Platinum? Do I have the same control over the audio and the same features as on the Platinum? And so on and so forth. I can't think of many other PS4 accessories that are so roundly good.

In other words, its audio quality is legitimately excellent; it's rich and covers all the audio spectrum well in terms of clarity and balance. It's also got deep bass and clear trebles, with a punchy middle. There's no game sound it can't produce brilliantly. This is because it is designed only with games in mind. It is a true gaming headset, pretty much exclusively. It's also got one of the best features that 's regularly missing from other headsets: a function to alter that allows you to alter the emphasis of in-game audio vs chat audio. 

Official benefits

Straight off the bat, it's worth mentioning the the Platinum headset does genuinely offer quality with that stamp of approval from Sony. Official products can sometimes get a bad rap for luring you in with the promise of reliability, the best compatibility and the like, but not here. The official companion app that you can download to your PS4 and align with your Platinum headset offers the chance to adjust your preferred audio settings manually, as well as load preset profiles designed for genres of games, but also to load pre-designed, game-specific profiles designed by the studios themselves. These include ones for God of War, MLB The Show, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. You can also get it for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, but this title actually takes things further audio-wise and demonstrates a further unique quality the Platinum headset offers: 3D audio. This is one of the most alluring but perhaps the most elusive feature. 3D Audio is an enhancement of the 7.1 virtual surround sound the headset offers, delivering even more crisp, positional sound from every angle. For example, in the beginning of Uncharted 4 while in Nate's attic, you can hear Elena shout from what genuinely feels like downstairs. Funky, eh? Only a few titles embrace this fully, but it is a very neat feature and one that cannot be offered by other sets of cans. 

On a more basic level, you can still use the Platinum for other tasks too as it has a solid Bluetooth adapter for PC and a good old audio jack for mobile devices. And it should be said that there is a Gold Wireless headset too, but this doesn't quite have the niche benefits of the Platinum. (It's still excellent though, for those on a smaller budget than the Platinum's price tag.) If you can pick either of these up o nthe cheap, alongwith one of the best PS4 Pro bundles or best PS4 bundle deals, then you'll off to a seriously spectacular start with your PlayStation experience.

What else is there to know?

Downsides? There are a couple; excellent as it is, it wouldn't be totally accurate to say that there are none. The app could provide a few more game tie-ins, but it's a relatively new addition so it's kind of acceptable in that respect. Plus, there's enough scope to adjust and customise settings to create your own profile if you're that way inclined, so the option for flexibility is there. Also, who is to say whether this will be compatible in its simplest, or fullest, sense with PS5? We just don't know. I sure hope so as its quality isn't going anywhere, and PS5 games are likely to go that extra bit further with 3D audio, surround sound, and overall audio detail. If you have one eye on this then it is something to consider - but not something to get too worried about.

Overall - should you buy it?

In a nutshell, this is absolutely one of the best headsets for PS4 going. It's one of my personal favorite purchases and acquisitions that I have made and I use it almost daily, or every time I get time to play. Even though I had to convince myself slightly in order to stretch my budget, I have 100% not looked back since. It is worth every penny. With PS5 on the horizon (and with the PS5 price unconfirmed as of yet), it might feel like a calculated gamble. However, if this headset drops in price over Black Friday to within your budget, you should absolutely get it anyway. Simply put, it's one of the best headsets for PS4 you can get right now.