Razer Kaira Pro for PS5: Specifications
Compatibility: PC, PS4, PS5, Mobile
Drivers: 50mm
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
Wireless: Yes
Weight: 12.9 ounces
When I first read about the Razer Kaira Pro for PS5, the device sounded like a sure contender for one of the best PS5 headsets. The Razer Kaira Pro for the Xbox is one of the best Xbox Series X headsets you can buy, and I expected the device’s PS5 counterpart to follow suit.
It turned out I was half right. Like the Kaira Pro for Xbox, the Kaira Pro for PS5 offers excellent sound and a comfortable fit. Unlike the Kaira Pro for Xbox, however, the Kaira Pro for PS5 includes unnecessary haptics, which drive up the price, as well as complicated customization features and cumbersome navigation options.
The Kaira Pro for PS5 can be a worthwhile investment – if you can get it on sale, if you want to ignore the haptics, and if you get to grips with the myriad of navigation options. But with so much of the best gaming headsets already optimized for use with the PS5, the Kaira Pro requires too many compromises for a strong recommendation.
Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 review: design
If you’ve seen the Razer Kaira Pro for Xbox, then the Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 should look pretty familiar. Like the Xbox version, the PS5 Kaira Pro is a somewhat plain-looking gaming headset with a padded headband, oval ear cups, a plastic chassis and expandable steel arms. There’s a detachable headset, a charging port and a slew of navigation buttons. The only major difference is that while the Xbox version was black and green, the PS5 version is black, white, and blue. The only minor difference is that the Kaira Pro for PS5 has glowing RGB Razer logos on the ear cups, which is “cool” or “unnecessary” depending on your taste.
What immediately struck me is that the Kaira Pro for PS5 has a few more buttons than the Xbox version, and that peripheral was already quite busy. The right earcup houses a detachable flexible microphone, a USB-C charging port, a power button, a volume rocker, and a microphone mute switch.
On the left earcup is a HyperSense button (for tactile feedback), a game/chat mix button and a button that controls equalizer options, pairs Bluetooth devices and changes wireless modes depending on how long you hold it.
If that sounds a little confusing, well, it is. The headset has a lot of buttons and a lot of functions. It can be difficult to keep track of them all, especially since many of the buttons and dials feel almost identical. Figuring out how to use the Kaira Pro for PS5 took a few hours, unlike the Xbox model, which was pretty intuitive right out of the box.
Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 review: Comfort
The Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 is easy to wear for long periods of time. With its generously padded headband and soft leatherette ear cups, the headset feels comfortable whether you’re working for hours in front of a PC or enjoying a marathon gaming session on the couch. You can extend the headband thanks to sturdy steel bars, complete with numbered notches. This makes it easy to find a good fit and adjust it to your liking every time you wear the headset, even if you share the device with roommates.
My only criticism here is that the ear cups can rotate extensively, so much so that they can feel loose. They stay in place pretty well once the device is on your head, but maneuvering them into place can be a bit of a challenge.
Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 review: Performance
One advantage of the Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 over its Xbox counterpart is that the PS5 variant plays well with both PCs and PlayStation consoles. While the Xbox version is tuned to Microsoft’s quirky wireless protocol, the Kaira Pro for PS5 over USB-C works with a PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, cell phone, or just about any other system. It also has Bluetooth, although Bluetooth isn’t ideal for gaming due to its increased latency.
As such, I’ve played several games with the Kaira Pro on both PC and PS5. On PC, I tried games optimized for the platform like Age of Empires IV, Eternal doom and Final Fantasy XIV. On PS5, I opted for more traditional console experiences, such as: Nioh Remastered and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok.
Overall, the games sounded great, with a standard soundscape dutifully balancing music, sound effects, and voice work. The device’s FPS equalization mode made footsteps and gunshots sound a little more direct in Doom Eternal; otherwise, the default setting worked just fine for villagers chipping in a medieval gold mine in Age of Empires, or two samurai warriors clashing with their katanas in Nioh.
For music, the device worked well enough, although it’s not a hardcore audiophile headset by any means. I listened to songs from Flogging Molly, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Rolling Stones and GF Handel. The Kaira Pro for PS5 presented the tracks with a good balance of bass, treble and vocals, although the Bass Boost equalization option felt a bit too muddy for my taste. The fact that the headset has a Bluetooth mode means you can use it with both iOS and Android devices, which can come in handy if you like to listen to music on the go.
Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 review: Features
Since the Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 can connect to PCs, I assumed I could use the Razer Synapse software to adjust software profiles, set equalization profiles, adjust the RGB lighting, and so on. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that the headset does not have such functionality. If you want to customize the Kaira Pro’s lighting and sound options, you’ll instead need to connect it to your phone via Bluetooth and use a specialized mobile app.
This process turned out to be much more miserable than I expected. After I paired the Kaira Pro with my phone, the Razer Audio app was unable to recognize the headset for love or money. I eventually realized that the Audio app won’t recognize the Kaira unless you disconnect it from your phone’s default Bluetooth interface and then do a Bluetooth search directly in the app. Sometimes the search finds the Kaira, and sometimes it doesn’t.
Even if the software works as intended, there isn’t much you can do with it. You can adjust exactly one custom EQ profile or adjust the lighting. That’s about it. It’s far from setting up apps for individual profiles or creating complex lighting patterns in Synapse.
As discussed above, the RGB lighting on the ear cups is a bit pointless as you can’t see them while wearing the headset. But the ear cups have another feature that’s even more annoying: Razer HyperSense. As I discussed in my Razer Kraken V3 Pro review, HyperSense is a tactile feedback protocol that makes a headset buzz around your ears in response to in-game stimuli. Not only is this feature extremely annoying, but it’s an absolute murder on the battery life of the Kaira Pro. With lights and haptics turned off, you can get a respectable 30-50 hours from the device. If you have them on, you are lucky if you get more than 10.
The Kaira Pro for Xbox didn’t have HyperSense features and frankly didn’t need them. I don’t think most gamers want to spend the extra $50 on a headset to get a feature that simulates a big, angry fly constantly buzzing around their ears.
While the Kaira Pro for PS5 works with both USB and Bluetooth, it doesn’t handle either one perfectly. You can’t use the USB and Bluetooth channels at the same time, so forget about listening to a podcast or taking phone calls while playing a game. On at least two occasions, the Kaira Pro refused to confirm the USB connection until I paired the headset with a Bluetooth device first. Pressing the pairing button sometimes switches channels, sometimes restarts the pairing process, or sometimes adjusts the EQ options. The Kaira Pro for PS5 isn’t the easiest headset to navigate.
Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 review: verdict
On the one hand, the Razer Kaira Pro for PS5 retains the same basic design and features that made its Xbox counterpart such a success. On the other hand, the new additions make the headset harder to use and also much more expensive. The PS5 variant of the Kaira Pro should be an easy recommendation, but I found myself eager to put it down for good once I’d finished testing.
Part of the problem is that the PS5 just has a lot more excellent wireless headsets available than the Xbox Series X. For $150 you can get the SteelSeries Arctic 7P, which is much more customizable; for $200, you could get the HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless, which has a much better battery life. The Kaira Pro for PS5 gets the basics right, but in such a crowded market that might not be enough.
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