Hardware Bistro

Product: 3H
Manufacturer: SteelSeries
Supplied by: SteelSeries
Price: 39USD/RM140
Launch Date: NA

 

Most of the good headsets are quite bulky in order to provide first class audio experience for the users. However it may not ideal for carrying them around. Today we will introduce you a foldable headset from a famous gaming brand; SteelSeries. SteelSeries 3H is a 2+1 channels gaming headset which is a pretty small foldable lightweight gaming headset.

 

Company Profile

SteelSeries is all about gaming. Our mission is to create performance enhancing gaming gear, created for and by leading professional gamers. We continuously strive to better ourselves, and work with leading professional gamers from 3 different continents to create our products.

Our staff is distributed throughout the world, working from offices in Europe, North America and Asia. The SteelSeries headquarters are located in Europe (Copenhagen, Denmark), and host the primary office facilities for the company. The headquarters handle all planning, production and partner coordination.

 

Features

- Foldable lightweight gaming headset
- Retractable non-directional microphone system
- Comfortable to use, easy to transport
- Developed in co-operation with professional gamers
- Strong bass for optimal in-game sound projection
- 40 mm SteelSeries SunDancer (LCP) Units

 

Specifications

Headphones
- Frequency response: 10 - 27.000 Hz
- Impedance: 50 Ohm
- SPL@1kHz, 1Vrms: 102dB
- Cable: 2 m (6,5 ft.)

Microphone
- Frequency response: 50 - 18.000 Hz
- Pick up pattern: Non-directional
- Sensitivity: -40 dB
- Impedance: 2.2K Ohm

 

Package & Contents

 

As usual SteelSeries product's packaging is very unique and this is same for SteelSeries 3H where it is packed inside a very attractive and nice transparent packaging box. Features, specifications and company profile of SteelSeries 3H are written at the back of the packaging in Multilanguage.

 

The packaging box of SteelSeries 3H is sealed so user needs to tear out the paper layout at the back. Inside the packaging, there is another layer of molded plastic container to hold the SteelSeries 3H firmly. Although the packaging of SteelSeries 3H is quite big but SteelSeries 3H headset alone only used up half of the area which is quite impressed us with it foldable feature.

 

Nothing much comes along with SteelSeries 3H except a SteelSeries products catalog, sticker and a warning notice. User's manual is not really required for a headset furthermore SteelSeries 3H is a simple analog headset without any additional USB sound card like other SteelSeries headsets; 5H v2 USB and Siberia full-size headset USB.

 

SteelSeries 3H

 

SteelSeries has quite numbers of headset and some of them are very famous and popular among other gaming headsets such as SteelSeries 5H, SteelSeries Siberia, SteelSeries 4H and etc. SteelSeries 3H is an entry level headset among SteelSeries headsets. Although SteelSeries 3H is an entry level headset but SteelSeries is very creative and has a very good R&D team to make this headset very different and unique than others. The most significant feature of SteelSeries 3H is foldable which is hardly found on other headsets.  

 

The size of SteelSeries 3H in foldable stage is extremely small; just around a man's palm. The headband of SteelSeries 3H can be folded into half and both of the earmuffs are folded and inserted inside the headband. By doing so SteelSeries 3H can be kept easily and good for carrying it to Lan Party, Starbuck and etc.

 

Here are the ways to fold and unfold SteelSeries 3H; insert the earmuffs toward the headband. SteelSeries 3H just looks like a normal headset in unfold stage and you hardly able to imagine that this headset can be folded into such small size, compact.

 

Now let us focus on the earmuffs of SteelSeries 3H. Earmuff is very important for a headset as its comfortbility will direct impact its performance. Why we said so is because if the earmuffs of a headset is not comfortable then user will stop using it sooner or later especially for long hours of wearing. Although SteelSeries 3H is an entry level and small headset but its earmuffs are still well designed and made by soft sponge. Besides that the earmuffs aren't big but it still very comfortable for wearing it.

 

The headband of SteelSeries 3H can be adjusted in order to fit everyone. However there isn't any marking of the adjustment so it could be hard for users to remember the exact length they require and user need to fine tune the adjustment again after folding the SteelSeries 3H.

 

The headband of SteelSeries 3H is basically consists of two major parts; holders and pad. The holders are made by plastic which is the structure of the headset and the wiring is hid here too. While the pad is made by soft fabric to increase the comfortbility of the headset. Such headband design is quite popular and being widely used for most of the latest and high end headsets nowadays.

 

A right headset should consists of audio output and audio input so mic is included for SteelSeries 3H. The mic of SteelSeries 3H is retractable and hid inside the left earmuff. Such retractable mic design is very good as user can hide the mic when it is not being using and pull out instantly when it is needed. Besides that the mic is non-directional where user can bend the mic into any direction that he/she likes.

SteelSeries 3H's audio jacks aren't separateable from the headset and there are two audio jacks; mic (red) and line out (black). We'll still prefer the standard audio jack color (green for line out and pink for mic) to avoid any confusion. The audio cable of SteelSeries 3H is quite thick and even thicker than our virtual 5.1 headset so user can have higher expectation of this headset since it is quality made.

 

Installation, Testing & Performance

Headset is a simple product so there isn't any installation is required; plug & play. Furthermore SteelSeries 3H doesn't come with any additional USB sound card where driver installation is required. Let us forcus the performance of SteelSeries 3H.

 

Test Bed

Notebook: Dell Inspiron E1720
Processor: Intel Mobile Core 2 Duo T7500
Memory: Kingston 4GB HyperX 666MHz DDR2
Hard Drive: 120GB 2.5" 5400RPM 8MB Seagate
Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS
Optical Drive: DVD RW
Operating System: Microsoft Window XP SP2
Benchmark Software: HDTech, CrystalDiskMark
Ambient Temperature: 27 Degree Celsius

 

Now it's time for us to find out the performance of SteelSeries 3H. For the music and gaming, SteelSeries 3H performs as good as it looks; the base is there, sound is clear. SteelSeries 3H is optimized for gaming since this is a gaming headset and you will able to find significant improvement during gaming over those non gaming headsets especially for shooting games like CS. For movie, SteelSeries 3H is still acceptable but it is not an ideal headset especially for those are already addicted with 5.1 sound system as SteelSeries 3H is just a 2.1 headset.

Besides the performance, we also would like to talk about the comfortability of this headset. Despite in fact that SteelSeries 3H's earmuffs are quite small but we didn't have any problem for wearing it for long period. This could be due to lower pressure of the headset's structure. This is extremely good as if the headset is not comfortable then it will be a waste even for the best performance headset.

 

Conclusion

We have tested quite numbers of headsets and SteelSeries 3H is definitely worth for it with its reasonable price (39USD) and outstanding performance. Although SteelSeries 3H is an entry level of headset but with its unique foldable design, we're really impressed; we believe you are too. Besides that other great features of SteelSeries 3H are light weight, retractable & non-directional mic. If you don't want to spend too much on a headset or looking for a portable headset then SteelSeries 3H should be in your consideration list.

Pros:

* Foldable
* Light weight
* Retractable & non-directional mic
* Comfortable for wearing long period

Cons:

* Missing volume, mute controller

 

Thanks to SteelSeries for providing this sample for us to review.

 

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