ASUS ROG Delta S Wireless Review: Gaming Headset

The ASUS ROG Delta S Wireless is the cable-free take on ASUS's well-regarded wired gaming headset, and this review weighs whether it keeps the formula's strengths. This review is based on that published test, not on a hands-on trial of our own.

Anyone who knows the wired ROG Delta S will not be surprised: ASUS has built on that model's successes for the wireless version. The result is elegant and almost entirely black — a single colourway, with a few lighter inserts around the earcup mounts for a touch of character — and the sobriety throughout is welcome. Structurally, the headset is built around a headband with a fairly flexible metal frame; the earcups spread easily, robustness looks assured, and the pressure on the head stays very limited, the band resting on the crown via thick, pleasant foam and carrying the usual Republic of Gamers logo on its outer face. Each side of the band ends in a rotating hinge that holds the earcups and lets them move: they can be turned 180 degrees to lie flat for storage, and the same flex helps fit the headset to the shape of the head, with 11 clearly notched height positions per earcup. The earcups come with synthetic-leather foam pads by default, but ASUS also supplies fabric-covered replacements that are simple to swap, with consequences discussed below.

As ever, the earcups double as the control and connection hub. The right earcup holds little beyond a neat storage slot for the 2.4 GHz RF dongle, while the left is busier: a USB-C connector for the charging cable, a power and charge LED, the three-position Bluetooth / Off / 2.4 GHz RF switch, a multifunction button that is especially useful over Bluetooth for pairing, play and pause and track skipping, and a well-placed microphone-mute switch. On the microphone, ASUS takes an original route, fitting two beamforming mics — one in each earcup — to avoid popping, add a cleaner look for streamers, and remove any fragile boom or accessory that might be damaged.

One important reservation comes first: the headset cannot be used in wired mode at all, 2.4 GHz RF or Bluetooth being mandatory, and over Bluetooth it is limited to the SBC codec, which is a shame. By way of compensation the battery life is very good — the published test verified ASUS's claimed 25 hours, with a full charge in a little under 4 hours and 15 minutes enough for 3 hours of listening. Bluetooth pairs simply through the left earcup's multifunction button, and 2.4 GHz RF is simpler still: pull the dongle from the right earcup and plug it into the PC, ASUS even supplying a USB-C to USB-A adapter. Detection is faultless, the link latency-free, and the range excellent at around 25 metres.

On pure audio the picture is a little more mixed. The result is very good, but at the near-flagship price ASUS asks, every flaw counts. The bass sits back at medium volume and only asserts itself once the volume is pushed, at which point it adds welcome depth to orchestration and shows real precision — a pity it needs the volume to shine. There is a dip in the low-mids too, all the more noticeable because the mids are otherwise well served, with a pleasing richness of detail that makes test-track vocals impeccable, while the treble is clean bar a slight tendency to saturate at high volume, nothing dramatic. This is demanding listening, mind, measured against the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. For gaming there is little to criticise beyond that relative lack of punch from the soft default bass, felt on both PlayStation and PC but fixable on a computer through the ASUS Armoury Crate software, whose ten-band equaliser partly compensates, with profiles supplied.

Alongside battery settings, the software offers some microphone options, including the ability to disable the AI noise cancellation — better left on, since it proved effective at attenuating ambient noise and works perfectly in-game, reinforcing the excellent capture of the built-in mics. It is not enough in genuinely noisy surroundings, however: conversations on public transport remain usable but no miracle, and at maximum the option alters the timbre of the voice. Finally, the earcup foams are a little narrow, so larger ears will not be best served, and there is a choice to make — the synthetic-leather pads isolate better but grow sweaty, while the fabric pads breathe more freely at the cost of some sound quality.

Where the ROG Delta S was a very good wired gaming headset, the ROG Delta S Wireless is, unsurprisingly, a very good wireless one — and the fact that it cannot run wired at all is probably the biggest disappointment here. In everything else, ASUS has done very good work. Set against the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, tested only days earlier, ASUS struggles to keep pace, coming up a little short at almost every level, but it is also noticeably cheaper: it comes down to priorities, and you will not be let down by either. One caveat to close on — the earcups are relatively small, so anyone with larger ears is duly warned.