The Roccat Syn Pro Air wants to be one of the best gaming headsets in the business, and it has a lot going for it on its spec sheet: 50mm drivers, a 2.4GHz wireless receiver, enhancements including 3D audio and Superhuman Hearing, and plenty more besides.
This headset only works wirelessly, and only really with Windows, because you need the associated Neon software to properly configure it. You can use it up to a point with a PlayStation 5, but you don't get any of the fancy audio extras that we've just mentioned.
It also comes in at a respectable price, somewhere between the budget and the premium headsets on the market. Does all of this make it the right gaming headset upgrade for you? Our in-depth Roccat Syn Pro Air review should help you decide one way or the other.
Roccat Syn Pro Air review: design and setup
It has to be full marks to the Roccat Syn Pro Air for the design and polish of the headphones, which are stylish and neat without being overly flashy in any way. Plastic dominates, but we like a lot of the aesthetic touches here – from the sliding mechanism used to change the fit of the device to the foam padding around the ear cups and along the top band. Hold the Syn Pro Air in your hands and it feels lightweight (it tips the scales at 390 grams), but without feeling cheap.
The quality feel continues when you put the headset on: it's comfortable and snug to wear, and won't weigh your head down after half an hour of gaming. We actually spent several hours at a time with the headset on without having any issues, and of course the wireless connectivity helps here – the Roccat Syn Pro Air comes with its own USB-A dongle that establishes a 2.4GHz link (a USB-C adapter is included in the box too). The headset is designed so that you can use it while wearing glasses as well.
Setup only takes a few minutes, though you need to download the Roccat Neon software for Windows first (the only other supported platform is the PS5, which needs no extra app). This is a relatively new application from Roccat – it's actually still labelled as beta software – but it gives you access to all of the various features of the device, from equaliser settings to the colours of the lights around the side of the ear cups. You've got a very decent 16.8 million colours to pick from, and they add an extra bit of class to the headphones (not that you'll see the lighting a lot of the time). There's support for the AIMO ecosystem, though only one lighting animation effect at the time of writing, so hopefully Roccat adds more.
There's no 3.5mm audio jack here, so it's a wireless connection or nothing – there is a USB-C port, but that's only for charging up the headset, applying firmware updates and so on (you get a cable in the box). Around the back there are wheels for adjusting the audio volume (on the left) and the microphone level (on the right). Overall, while the design of the Roccat Syn Pro Air isn't ultra-premium, it's clean and understated in an appealing way, and these headphones feel built to last.
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Roccat Syn Pro Air review: features and performance
The Roccat Syn Pro Air headphones make use of 50mm Nanoclear drivers and you can really hear the quality of the audio when gaming, listening to music or watching movies. The balance between quiet and loud, bass and treble, and every other extreme you can think of is really well done – we don't think anyone is going to have any complaints when it comes to the sound that they get in their ears from this headset.
A couple of cool features enabled by the Neon software are Superhuman Hearing, which boosts dialogue and other quiet sounds, and a 3D audio mode that adds a more immersive feel. The 3D audio is definitely noticeable, and we liked the way it changed the dynamics of music and games audio – it feels a lot more like you're listening or playing in the middle of a cinema. Your mileage may vary though, and it's likely to be a feature some people love and others just don't bother with.
In short, you shouldn't have any worries about the sound quality of the Roccat Syn Pro Air: from Red Dead Redemption 2 to Spotify, we really liked the soundscapes the headphones produced, and you've got plenty of tweaking options in the Windows software. We didn't notice any problems with the connection stability, and the headset seems to have decent range as well (our small study room didn't pose any issues for it).
The included microphone is removable, which is a welcome touch – when it's not in place, the socket is covered by a simple cap. We had no complaints about the quality of the microphone audio either, which sounded crisp and clear every time we tried it (and we checked with the people we were speaking to as well). Roccat says the battery life is 24 hours of constant use between charges, which we got relatively close to – that number is no doubt based on keeping the lighting off.
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Roccat Syn Pro Air review: price and verdict
Check the widgets embedded on this page for the latest deals on the web, but at the time of writing you're likely to get the Roccat Syn Pro Air for around £130/$150/AU$200 – that's not bad for a gaming headset like this, though there are a lot of other devices around a similar price point, so the competition is tough. While there are certainly more expensive gaming headsets out there, you've also got cheaper ones to consider, and which option is right for you really depends on how much you value good quality audio.
Most of what the Roccat Syn Pro Air had to offer really impressed us, including top-notch audio for games, music and movies. You've got quite a few audio settings to play around with on Windows, plus a couple of really useful enhancement features, and everything comes through crisp, clear and well-balanced. Battery life is good, and the headset is comfortable and lightweight to wear too.
On the downside, you are somewhat limited in terms of the devices this can work with and the connections you can make – we always like to see a headphone jack included, just in case. The Neon software, meanwhile, is promising but is obviously still a work in progress: we can't really award this headset full marks until some more lighting customisation options have been added, because it's pretty slim pickings at the moment.
Those are rather minor complaints though, because ultimately the Roccat Syn Pro Air delivers stable, quality, wireless audio for your games and everything else you run on Windows (or a PS5). Setup is simple, the headset is well designed and well built, and we're happy to recommend this as one of the best gaming headsets around right now. With a few more software updates, it's going to get even better.
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