Razer BlackShark Gaming Headset Series - Review

Much like the standard Razer Blackshark V2, the Razer Blackshark V2 Pro retains much of the design principles, sound quality, and features while adding some much-needed wireless capabilities. The Razer Blackshark V2 Pro for Xbox is virtually the same headset, with the most prominent change being official support for Xbox consoles. It features the same design and most of the technology, albeit with a few shortcomings. That being said, this is a great gaming headset for avid games and competitive console players alike, offering robust sound, a sturdy design, a high-quality microphone, and multiple connectivity options. While the particular version I reviewed prioritizes seamless Xbox integration, the Blackshark V2 Pro still stands as a fantastic headset.

Razer Blackshark V2 Pro (Xbox) – Design and Features

The Razer Blackshark line of headphones are geared towards Esports athletes and competitive players, providing a comfortable headset for extended gaming sessions, great positional audio, and a crystal clear microphone for communication.

The headset’s unique design features a steel-reinforced headband frame paired with metal sliders to easily adjust the height of the earcups. The earcups pivot nicely on the attached hinge, making the entire headset feel extremely sturdy and durable. Although it’s a bit heavier than previous Blackshark V2 headsets at 330 grams, it still feels fairly lightweight.

Both the headband and earcups are made from memory foam wrapped in a soft, mesh weave, which helps with breathability. I found the headset to be very comfortable during my testing, as the memory foam portion of the headband allowed it to rest lightly on top of my head without adding extra pressure. This may be attributed to how the headset distributes its weight, though, as the earcups do sit snugly against your head to keep everything in place. While this does create a tight seal around your ears to help isolate external sound, I found it placed a lot of pressure near the back of my jaw that was uncomfortable during extended sessions, but a quick repositioning of the headset around my ears helped to alleviate this issue.

It features a minimal amount of buttons and knobs on both sides of the earcups, allowing you to stay dialed in while playing and not fumbling the controls trying to adjust something. On the left earcup you’ll find the power button near the bottom with a mute toggle above it, the USB-C connector for charging, and the 3.5mm auxiliary port to connect the detachable microphone. There’s also a large multi-function audio dial on the outside of the earcup that controls volume, and you can control your game chat and audio mix when used with Xbox. The right earcup features the SmartSwitch button which allows you to toggle between various connections.

As far as connectivity goes, the Blackshark V2 Pro Xbox Edition utilizes Razer’s Hyperspeed wireless technology, which delivers high-quality audio over a 2.4GHz wireless connection with the included USB-C dongle. The 2.4GHz USB-C receiver allows it to work across all Xbox models including Xbox Series X|S and the Xbox One family, as well as PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and mobile devices with a USB-C connector. If the device you’re using doesn’t have a USB-C port, you can utilize the included USB-C to USB-A adapter for compatibility with the included receiver.

Additionally, it features Bluetooth 5.2 which provides a low-latency wireless connection for PC, Mac, and handheld gaming and mobile devices. It also supports simultaneous connections, allowing you to seamlessly swap between the Razer Hyperspeed wireless-connected device and a Bluetooth device by double-pressing the SmartSwitch button on the right earcup. This button can be used to swap between various onboard EQ modes, including custom profiles for various games like Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty, for example.

At the heart of the Blackshark V2 Pro is Razer’s fantastic 50mm Triforce Titanium audio drivers. Naming conventions can often sound like just marketing jargon, but the sound quality is seriously impressive. The drivers are divided into three sections (hence the “Tri-” in “Triforce”) that balance highs, mids, and lows to give you a fuller overall sound and deeper bass. It also supports Windows Sonic spatial audio on both Xbox and PC, giving you a great surround sound experience across games, movies, and music. On PS5, it supports PlayStation’s Tempest 3D audio, as well.

Sound quality aside, one of the best features of the Blackshark V2 Pro is the HyperClear Super Wideband microphone, which is still present on this edition of the headset. It features a unidirectional pickup pattern to isolate vocal audio while reducing unwanted noise to ensure your voice is crystal clear on the other end. It utilizes a much wider frequency (100-10,000 Hz) than most headset microphones, allowing for a greater vocal range that’s typically reserved for standalone microphones. In fact, while testing this headset, my friends had a hard time distinguishing my vocal audio from the Blackshark V2 Pro and my Elgato Wave:3 microphone, something I was able to confirm firsthand when comparing sound recordings between the two in Audacity. The microphone is also removable, so if you don’t need it, you can simply pop it off when not in use.

Naming conventions can often sound like just marketing jargon, but the sound quality is seriously impressive.

The Blackshark V2 Pro features a USB-C port for charging and offers up to 48 hours of battery life on Xbox and PS5, with up to 70 hours on PC. Additionally, a short 15-minute charge will give you another six hours of listening time, allowing you to quickly top-up the headset’s battery as needed.

But, while this is a Blackshark V2 Pro in name, the Xbox edition is missing one of the best features from the 2023 edition of the headset — the THX Spatial Audio that provides 7.1 surround sound with custom-tuned audio profiles for dozens of popular competitive games. If you absolutely need a headset for Xbox, this is a great option, but if you primarily play on PC or PS5, your best bet is to get the standard Blackshark V2 Pro (2023 edition) as it supports literally the same set of devices, with Xbox being the only exception.

Razer Blackshark V2 Pro (Xbox) – Software

Unlike the vast majority of Razer headsets, the Razer Blackshark V2 Pro Console Edition doesn’t integrate with the Razer Synapse app on PC for tinkering with the audio settings. Instead, it opts for the Razer Audio Setup app on PC and Xbox.

It’s a very pared down version to what you might be accustomed to if you’ve used Razer Synapse before, as it’s missing a lot of the more in-depth audio settings. On PC, it’s very clearly just the Xbox app ported over, as it actually requires a controller to navigate some of the menus. I actually had a couple moments where I couldn’t interact with certain portions of the app using a mouse and had to plug in a controller to finish some of the configuration.

While the customization may be limited, what you can do is adjust EQ settings by swapping between different presets such as game, movie, music, and custom, as well as choose between three preconfigured Esports modes for Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Call of Duty.

Additionally, you can adjust microphone volume and enable or disable vocal monitoring in the headphones, select a timeframe for the headset to power off automatically after idling for some time to preserve battery life, and enable a Do Not Disturb mode, which blocks incoming calls over Bluetooth while gaming.

Razer Blackshark V2 Pro (Xbox) – Gaming

Like most modern gaming headsets, the Blackshark V2 Pro For Xbox is ready to use right out of the box. After plugging in the USB-C receiver and toggling it to “Xbox” mode, it was instantly recognized on my Xbox Series X. While I downloaded the Razer Audio Setup app, I found most of the useful features could be accessed directly from the headset itself, and found options in the app to be mostly redundant.

When it came to audio quality, everything sounded great. I spent a good chunk of time testing out the EQ profiles across different games, including Fortnite, which has its own Esports EQ profile. While I wasn’t able to discern a massive difference swapping between the custom-tuned profile and the standard gaming profile, footsteps seemed to be slightly more discernable and explosions were reduced a bit overall.

This is a great headset for those who care about their audio experience, Xbox or otherwise.

On the PC side of things, I hopped into Destiny 2 to continue my endless pursuit of gear in the aftermath of The Final Shape and found the surround sound to work exceptionally well in both PvE and PvP. I was able to identify my enemies’ locations easily as I explored the various planets, and could easily get the drop on my enemies in the Crucible as I waited for them to round a corner. I also spent some time in Valorant where I found the surround sound audio to be serviceable as it seemed a bit loud all around, even with Windows Sonic enabled.

Using the Blackshark V2 Pro as a set of standard Bluetooth headphones for audio was a surprisingly good experience using the default music EQ setting. I was pleased with how crisp each song was, and the headset produced a good amount of bass with little to no distortion at all. And, because of the noise isolating seal created by the earcups, there’s virtually no sound bleed from the headphones. I imagine those looking for a versatile headset that can work for both gaming and music will be pleased with this option.