Corsair HS80 RGB Wireless review

The entire headset construction is noise-free. There’s not a single creak or squeak here to complain about. Our recent testing with the Steelseries Arctis 7P for the PlayStation 5 has been great but the plastic construction on that feels subpar compared to this Corsair. Once you touch it, you’ll love it. That’s how well Corsair has managed to blend plastic with metal on the HS80 RGB Wireless.

Even the quality of the button and volume wheel on the left earcup will give the much more expensive Sony WH series and Bose QC series headsets a run for their money. Especially the volume wheel. It’s grooved and each turn has an immaculate resistance and a click to it. It’s an analogue audiophile’s kink.

Even the bits that touch your ears have been designed with sensibilities in mind. For instance, the memory foam earpads can easily be removed with a small twist. It works on a locking mechanism which makes it monkey-easy to swap out or do maintenance. Weirdly Corsair’s website doesn’t explain this so you’ll have to run to YouTube and see a video of how to do it without breaking it. Corsair isn’t selling any compatible mesh or leatherette fabrics for the earpads and so the cloth fabric on the earpads is the one and only available. If you’re in a humid environment, it can get a bit warm and stuffy. Nothing that will make your ears feel like they're wrapped in a duvet in the middle of a desert, but it’s good to stay indoors and around an AC. On the flip side, the fabric can double down as a warm hug for your ears during winter. 

Corsair has also been busy peeping over at the competition’s work. There’s a floating headband under the solid headband. It’s exactly what Steelseries did with the Arctis series and it’s a great way to maximize comfort without adding excessive weight.

Finding faults with the Corsair HS80 RGB Wireless is rare. If bringing fantastic build quality was the first step, the audio quality is going to convince your finger to the checkout page. 

Catching footsteps in Valorant is easy for the Corsair HS80 RGB Wireless. That’s usually our go-to test option for checking imaging on gaming headsets. However, it’s not the accuracy that surprised us but the consistency across the frequency range at different volumes. The 50mm Neodymium driver is capable of picking up tiny footstep cues even at lower volumes. It’s surprisingly transparent and open for a gaming headset. 

Loud spikes in shooting games are never too fatiguing either. It’s overall a very balanced sound. It doesn’t have the same wide soundstage as the Steelseries Arctis 7P and could potentially sound closer to stereo than the Tempest virtual surround on the PlayStation 5. That said, it does support Dolby Atmos on Windows PC and that too shares the same fate as it does on the PlayStation 5. If immersion is your poison, the Corsair HS80 RGB lacks a wee-bit in that department, but if you want a detailed and crisp-sounding headset without any congestion, pick these for your adventure games with rich soundtracks. Assassin’s Creed, Ghostrunner, Hades and so on.

The Corsair starts becoming a complete package in terms of sheer quality when you start using the flip-up boom mic. It’s a class-leading microphone for a gaming headset. We don’t throw these claims around easily and the microphone deserves special mention here. It’s clean at picking up every syllable and doesn’t colour your voice or make it sound like a tin can telephone.

It’s easy to recommend the Corsair HS80 RGB Wireless to one and all. Simply because of its fantastic overall quality. Right from the build to the audio and the microphone, there’s not a single fault in these. Well, then what’s the catch? Poor battery life and poor battery indicator. I hope you saw this coming because we haven’t mentioned it yet.

The HS80 RGB Wireless have a very small battery life. Usually about eight to ten hours. It doesn’t have fast charging either so it does tend to make you whip out the cable after a decent gaming session. Even the battery indicator on the iCue app on PC is not very helpful. It reads High, Medium and Low for the remaining battery life which is a shoddy way of doing it. 

The clamping force on the ears is also a tad too strong for my liking and passive isolation is also not the best. Even the wireless range is not great but it does have Corsair’s Slipstream connection which has the lowest latency you can find.

That said, we absolutely love Corsair for the quality it offers but it may turn out to be pricey in India. The US pricing is an absolute steal! It may not have the itsy-bitsy features that make HyperX, Steelseries and even the JBL Quantum desirable, but it packs a very balanced sound for gamers who also enjoy good audio quality.