SteelSeries is celebrating the 2024 Lunar New Year with the arrival of a snazzy new headset: the Arctis Nova 7 Dragon Edition, which sports a dark red and gold colour palette, and a dragon scale design. Notably, the headset has been designed in collaboration with designers and managers of Chinese and Taiwanese heritage to ensure the headset design is authentic, and not merely using the aesthetics of culture for flourish.
After a week hands-on with the headset, thanks to the SteelSeries team, it’s fair to say the Arctis Nova 7 Dragon Edition shines – and that’s it a worthy addition to the Arctis Nova family. This is essentially a design revamp with all the base features of the Arctis Nova 7: full-bodied audio quality with a nice base and crisp tones, 360 degree spatial audio, strong battery life, and multiple connections (wired, wireless over Bluetooth, and 2.4GHz) for easy use.
It’s also very comfortable – one of the most comfortable headsets I’ve had the chance to test. It’s got plush earcups which are small and comfortable, and the dragon scale patterned headband is soft and supportive, even after hours of wear. This inner lining is also adjustable, which is a rare feature in the headsets I’ve tested.
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Of course, its other most striking feature is the design itself, which looks very neat in person. The red shade of the headset is fairly subtle – more a crimson-maroon colour – with shades of shiny white-gold on its earcups. The dragon design is a nice touch, and again, it’s great to know it was designed with cultural authenticity in mind.
Per details revealed by SteelSeries, the design centres around Lóng, the Chinese dragon who represents one of the twelve Zodiac animals. “The dragon’s body wraps around the Chinese character for ‘dragon’ and sits atop a stack of lucky clouds (xiángyún),” SteelSeries said. “Hidden beneath the dragon that is emblazoned on the speaker plates, a circular version of the Chinese character for good fortune (Fú) adorns the ear cups, while the headband takes the shape of a dragon’s scales.”
There is also a secondary pair of magnetic earcup coverings with the SteelSeries logo included – although the dragon design is too cool to put away in the box.
With its detailed design and colourway, and its suite of features, the Arctis Nova 7 Dragon Edition is a lovely addition to the Arctis Nova headset lineup – and while you shouldn’t rush out to replace your basic model just for a spot of great design, it’s certainly a tantalising new option in the series.
A SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Dragon Edition was provided to GamesHub for the purposes of these impressions.
