Razer Barracuda V2 Pro review: Razer's most normal headset might be its best

Making a great gaming headset is as complicated as you want to make it for yourself, and while the very best on the market sometimes do have oodles of features, there's a lot to be said for keeping it simple.

That's not an approach that I really associate with Razer, which has long made a habit of adding feature after feature to its accessories. Still, with the Barracuda V2 Pro it's taken a rare step back and just made a gaming headset without frills.

Don't get me wrong – it has the features I want given the price bracket that it's landing in, but this isn't full of RGB lighting, haptics or anything else. It gets the job done – and done well. I've been using it for a couple of weeks to see how it stacks up.

Price and Availability

The Razer Barracuda V2 Pro was unveiled in October 2026, and you can order it now from a range of stores, and directly from Razer itself if you like. It's priced £199 in the UK and is also $199 in the USA.

A few years ago, I'd have said that made it a really premium option, but the simple fact is that the headset market has shifted into a more expensive bracket now. In a world where headsets with a 50%+ higher asking price are available from most big brands, this Razer sits at the top end of the mid-range sector.

Design and Features

The Barracuda V2 Pro looks a heck of a lot like the previous-generation Barracuda Pro, and that's no bad thing. Some of Razer's most premium headsets can be a little, well, massive, but this one skips any issues on that front by remaining pretty slimline and restrained.

Right now you can only get it in black, although I wouldn't bet against a white version arriving at some point. It's a headset that's marketed almost entirely without any images of its microphone attached, but don't worry – that removable mic is very much included in the box.

Once it's attached, this is a headset that arguably looks exactly like the image an AI generator might spit out if you asked for one, only a little more restrained and with a blessed absence of RGB frippery. I actually mean that as a compliment, too: it's stealthy and simple.

The Barracuda V2 Pro is pretty light, at 285g, and that means it's got a fairly plastic build to cut down on weight. This has upsides and downsides, unsurprisingly.

It feels nice to wear for decently long periods, with a good amount of cushioning on the ears and headband, but does have a hint of flimsiness to it thanks to the materials chosen. Its armbands and their adjustment ratcheting are sturdy enough, though.

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On the right earcup you'll find a pairing button for the Bluetooth connectivity on board, as well as a mode-switching toggle to turn active noise-cancellation (ANC) on and off.

The left earcup is busier, featuring a textured power button, volume keys, and a mute switch, as well as the USB-C charging port and mic connector.

Without that microphone you can use beamforming mics instead, but you'll be inflicting needless annoyance on your teammates, since the upgrade to the proper microphone is massive.

That ANC is worth mentioning, meanwhile. While I think at this price you really do need to be including the feature now, not every comparable headset does so, and it's great to therefore see Razer squeezing it into a slim package.

With ANC switched on, you'll get 50 hours of battery life, while turning it off ups this to 70 hours, both of which are very impressive figures.

Finally, for standard console connectivity you'll want to use the included USB-C dongle (there's also a USB-A adapter), which actually stores away in the earcup of the headset, behind a removable panel. This confused me on the first unboxing, but I suppose is a neat enough choice if you're ever going to travel with the headset.

Sound and Performance

A headset looking nice and stealthy isn't worth a huge amount if it can't back that up with good sound, though, and the Barracuda V2 Pro does a very solid job on that front, too.

Razer has popped 40mm drivers into the earcups, and they're pretty darned impressive. I played about half a dozen hours of Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen on them, along with hours of Battlefield 6 and some Ace Combat 8, and never had a complaint about their rendering of in-game audio.

Spatialisation is really quite strong in the right game (and thanks to a recent update, BF6 is such a title), while the overall volume and detail are both in the right spot. In fact, I often found I had to turn down the headset a little when it got too loud – and that's one small duff note, since it didn't seem to save my choice of sound level when turned back on (on my PS5 Pro anyway).

It's worth saying, though, that I'd put this sound quality pretty confidently at the right level for the price being charged, rather than it being a hack or shortcut to a better deal. That is, you're getting sound that's impressively worthy of this asking price, but you get a clear improvement when you move to something pricier yet, such as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni.

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The inclusion of ANC is welcome, as it really does help with immersion. I think this sort of ANC can be its best implementation, making gaming more absorbing than ever, and in this case it was pretty capable when fighting against a robot vacuum or the washing machine in the background.

The removable microphone is, as I've mentioned, miles better than the included beamforming mics, but it's still not the most persuasive piece of the puzzle here. Having used the Logitech G Pro X3 Lightspeed recently, it's clear that Razer's microphone is merely fine, rather than being exemplary like Logi's version.

This Razer's comfort levels are very solid, though, and that does mean that this feels like a slick enough headset when you're wearing it. I also like that Razer permits you to tweak settings via its app on iOS or Android, making it easier for those with just a console to get their EQ dialled in precisely.

Verdict

It's quite rare, in my experience, to see Razer do so little to mark a headset of this type out from the crowd, but I think its approach to the Barracuda V2 Pro is the right one.

It can jam crazy features into other models, but having a headset like this – which keeps things really simple – is an attractive counterpoint.

It's handy that it does the basics well, too, with really solid sound and comfort, and build quality that impresses despite the relatively modest material choices.

The microphone is nothing to write home about, though, and its price does feel a little high, but that doesn't stop this from being a very solid headset option for those who like its design.

Also Consider

I've mentioned the two headsets I'd offer as alternatives already in this review. The first is the Logitech G Pro X3 Lightspeed, which doesn't have ANC but broadly outdoes the Barracuda V2 Pro in a few other ways. I prefer its sound, marginally, but its microphone is a big upgrade. Still, it's a little more expensive.

If you do have a bigger budget, my top pick for the best gaming headset (bar none) is the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni, which works with every device you could care to name, and sounds phenomenal doing so. It's also incredibly comfortable, has great ANC, and a swappable battery system that keeps you gaming forever. All that for a fairly chunky price, mind you.