Asus ROG Delta S Wireless review

Our Verdict

70%

This wireless gaming headset offers convenient internal microphones and decent comfort, but you can get better sound quality elsewhere.

The Asus Delta S Wireless is a wireless gaming headset with a very cliched gamer aesthetic and bulky desktop-centric design. It has very deep and wide earcups, but it only weighs 310g. That’s not the lightest headset around, but it’s far from the heaviest either.

The large earcups provide loads of room for your ears, ensuring they don’t get squashed. Having so much width can result in a headset sloshing around on your head but the Asus’ headband maintains a firm grip, plus the pleather finish on the earcup padding helps them not to slip. They’re not the most breathable pads, but a set of replacement fabric pads are included in the box and allow more air through them.

Although the triangle design of the earcups is a little outlandish, the Delta S Wireless is far from being outright garish. Most of the headset is black, with just a silver logo on the outside of each earcup and silver, earcup-holding forks. The use of internal microphones also means there’s no gangly boom mic breaking up the clean lines of the earcups.

For features, the Delta S Wireless includes 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connections, with the former using a USB Type-C dongle. A USB Type-C (charging only) port sits on the left earcup, behind which sits a 2.4GHz/Bluetooth/Off slider switch, a multi-purpose Bluetooth button (play/pause, skip track and pairing), and a volume wheel that can be pressed to mute the microphone.

The internal microphones pick up sound through two tiny pinholes in the front of each earcup. They combine their efforts to actively cancel out background noise, as opposed to the boom arm microphones on most headsets that just rely on the cardioid pickup pattern of the microphone – and its proximity to your mouth – to mask most unwanted sounds.

The noise cancelling does work, but there’s no substitute for a better mic held closer to your mouth – the audio quality is rather thin and not overly clear. It’s good enough for voice comms and taking a call when you’re out, but there’s a definite compromise of convenience over audio quality here.

As for the Delta S Wireless’ headphone quality, thanks to the drivers being slightly setback into the deep earcups, the soundstage is quite wide with an open, airy quality. It’s initially quite a pleasing change from the very closed-in sound of some other headsets. However, there’s a lack of clarity at times, with the mid-range feeling compressed. The result is a slightly muddy sound that ultimately lacks the detail needed to pick out fine in-game audio cues.

Asus’ Armoury Crate software provides plenty of EQ and virtual surround options, along with bit-rate control, a microphone noise gate, a ‘perfect voice’ mic setting and the AI-driven mic noise cancellation. It’s not the slickest software – it’s a little slow to load and not quite as intuitive as the likes of Razer’s software, for instance, but it gets the job done.

Asus ROG Delta S Wireless pros and cons

Pros

• Comfortable
• Convenient internal microphones
• Bluetooth and 2.4GHz connections

Cons

• Microphone not as good as boom mics
• Quite bulky design
• Sound quality lacks clarity

Asus ROG Delta S Wireless specs

The Asus ROG Delta S Wireless specs list is:

Asus ROG Delta S Wireless price

The Asus ROG Delta S Wireless price is $199 (£160), making it an expensive wireless gaming headset, though it has lots of features.

Price:  Expect to pay $199 (£160)

Asus ROG Delta S Wireless review conclusion

The Asus Delta S Wireless is an intriguing prospect, with good comfort and reasonable headphone sound quality. Meanwhile, the internal noise-cancelling microphones are useful for travel and noisy offices but don’t sound as good as conventional boom mics.

Moreover, in terms of travel, while this headset’s design is relatively muted in terms of garish colours, it’s still rather bulky and angular, plus it lacks active noise cancelling to reduce train and plane noise. This isn’t a bad headset, but its mic and headphone sound quality need to be better for the asking price, and it’s up against some stiff competition. For more gaming headset options, check out our best gaming headset list.