The Arctis Nova 5X Is the Affordable Universal Gaming Headset I’ve Been Waiting For

Eons ago, I worked a retail job selling gaming headsets (among other things) during the PS3 era. Even back then, I was annoyed that most headphone manufacturers had virtually identical versions of the same headset, distinguished solely by whether they were compatible with the Xbox or PlayStation. The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5X Wireless may not be the first headset to put this particular nuisance to bed, but it’s my favorite.

The core of this particular problem comes down to how the different console manufacturers handle wireless audio. Bluetooth is the default system for wireless audio on most devices, but there’s just enough of a latency issue that gamers would notice. Especially if you play online competitive games, where split-second timing matters.

Both Microsoft and Sony have their own proprietary wireless audio systems to deal with this problem, but, surprise, they’re not interoperable. Worse yet, it’s usually too expensive to bother adding support for both into a single headset, since most gamers tend to have either one console or the other. Fortunately, the Arctis Nova 5X Wireless has a handy solution to this problem.

Enter the Dongle

The Arctis Nova 5X headset is designed for the Xbox Series X/S (as denoted by the “X” in its name), but the USB-C 2.4-GHz dongle has a small switch that lets it swap between Xbox compatibility and … everything else. You can use this headset with your PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC, heck even your phone just by plugging this little guy in.