One of the most essential items a gamer can have is a headset and looking for a new one is like shopping for a car. Unless you’re going for something cheap and replaceable, it’s a multi-year commitment that can cost you hundreds of dollars. It’s your source of communication and makes use of one of the most vital senses when it comes to playing a game. It dictates how well you can hear enemies trying to sneak up on you, but it can also immerse you in a battlefield or the driver’s seat of a supercar. With that said, I got my hands on Razer’s Kraken V4 Pro headset to see if it is an adequate headset.
Videos by ComicBook.com
At $399.99 MSRP, the headset is a very premium accessory. It’s extremely comfortable with a soft headband and ear cups, serving as a nice cushion for extended sessions. It also packs a lot of fancy features such as RGB lighting, a customizable OLED screen that allows you to easily change settings and volume, and haptics that vibrate the headset according to sounds in whatever it is you’re listening to. However, even with all the bells and whistles, it’s not without flaws, thanks to lackluster elements such as the microphone.
Rating: 3.5/5
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| High-quality sound that captures every nitty-gritty audible detail. | The microphone is not of high enough quality for the price. |
| Haptics are highly immersive and customizable | Random, inexplicable connection issues |
| Comfortable to wear for long periods | Requires a fair bit of tweaking to get an optimal battery life |
| Compatible with multiple devices that can easily be switched between |
Razer Kraken V4 Pro Boasts Impressive Sound
To be very clear, I am not a total audiophile. I wear headphones almost all day, every day, and have for many years, but I am by no means a sound expert. However, I know what I like as an average consumer and I can tell the difference between something that’s bad or mediocre from something that is stellar. The Razer Kraken V4 Pro is definitely the latter.
The first thing I did when I got the headset was I booted up Top Gun: Maverick and watched the final set piece where Maverick and Rooster engage in a dog fight with other fighter jets. There’s pulse-pounding music from Hans Zimmer, massive machine guns blasting away, and of course, the sounds of the jets themselves. It’s the perfect audio cocktail to demo something like this. With this headset, it was like I was sitting back in the IMAX theater in May 2022 when I first saw the film. Everything is clear, but has the respective weight you want and really grips you with bass-y booms.
On PC, the headset also supports THX Spatial Audio. That means select games can take advantage of 3D audio, allowing for a much more detailed and rich audio experience. I played quite a bit of Battlefield 6 with this setting enabled, and it was an unbelievable experience. The sound of a jet roaring over my head or a tank exploding truly felt like it was happening to me in real life. It was that clear. The depth of sound is remarkable and a total treat for the senses.
The haptics take it a step further and immerse you in the experience. It’s not just random vibrations; it’s correctly tuned to be the right intensity based on how high your volume is and the sound it’s pulling from. You’ll get bursts of vibration from a burst-fire rifle or a really extended one from a big explosion or loud hit of a drum. I feared that the haptics may grow annoying, but they never did. I did get a slight ache in my head when I was really pushing the headset, but once I lowered the volume, it was far more tolerable.
You can also customize the intensity of the haptics without messing with the sound at all, tuning them to a more comfortable level to ensure it’s not distracting you too much. If you don’t want them at all, they can even be turned completely off.
Razer Kraken V4 Pro Is Highly Customizable and Very Flexible
There’s a great deal of customization across the headset with the ability to tweak the RGB lighting to your liking. You can adjust brightness, patterns, and more all within the Razer Synapse app on PC. Not only that, but you have the ability to toggle between different sound presets. There are presets for music, movies, and games, as well as a custom option where you can tweak it to your heart’s desire. Generally speaking, the headset will automatically detect what preset it should be under based on whether or not a game is running or if you’re listening to music through something like Spotify.
The headset is also easy to use across devices. My Razer Kraken VR Pro mainly sits at my desk and is connected to my PC, but one night, I wanted to play my Steam Deck in bed while my girlfriend watched TV. I simply grabbed it off my desk, pressed a button on it, and switched it over to Bluetooth mode and it immediately connected to my Deck. I didn’t notice any kind of change in quality or have any issues using it. It was the exact same experience, but now from the comfort of my bed. It’s a fantastic headset for the Deck itself, too. The only issue you may have is that there’s a volume notch on the back of the headset, and if you lay on a pillow, it may rub against it and unintentionally adjust the sound.
The Razer Kraken V4 Pro is even able to connect to multiple devices at the exact same time. Say you’re in a game and you get a phone call, but don’t want to pause the game. You can connect the headset to your phone and take the call without losing audio from your game. It’s a pretty impressive feature, though one with somewhat limited usage. Razer suggested that this would be good for things like Discord calls, but consoles have native Discord support these days, and PC players are unlikely to use their phone for it either.
Razer Kraken V4 Pro Has Some Egregious Flaws
As noted earlier, this is a $400 headset. For that kind of money, you’d hope that this thing is the best in class in every department. Unfortunately, it’s not. The microphone quality is pretty mediocre. The first time I joined my friends in Discord while using it, someone said, “Are you using an Xbox 360 mic?” Obviously, that’s not the first thing someone wants to hear if they spent that much money on a headset.
The actual design of the microphone is quite nice, as it easily retracts and extends from the headphones, meaning it can be hidden when not in use. It also displays a red light when you’re muted, so you’ll never forget to unmute yourself. However, the sound quality is subpar. It sounds echo-y and like you’re speaking through some kind of filter. It’s simply not up to snuff for the price or even for a much cheaper headset in 2025.
I experienced some other annoyances with the headset as well. There were multiple times when I got on my PC to play with my friends and the headset would not detect anything from my microphone. I could hear everything just fine, but my voice wasn’t being picked up. I couldn’t figure out what was causing this, no matter how many settings I messed with on my PC, Discord, or Razer’s app. Unplugging the OLED control hub and plugging it back in a couple of times seemingly did the trick, but it’s hard to say if that was really what solved it.
The battery life on the Razer Kraken V4 Pro was also abysmal out of the box. The headset was dying or coming close to dying about twice a day. Eventually, I tweaked a bunch of settings to lower the intensity of haptics and turned off RGB lighting entirely, which ultimately got it to a better place. By default, the battery life is not even close to the advertised 50 hours. If you’re okay with sacrificing some bells and whistles to keep it alive for longer, it will go much further and be more convenient to use.
Is the Razer Kraken V4 Pro Worth It?
I don’t know that I’d recommend anyone spend $400 on a headset, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for this. If you can get it on sale, I’d say it’s definitely worth considering because it is a truly astonishing audio experience with a lot of ways to play around with it. However, things like a mediocre microphone, random connectivity issues, and a weak battery life with default settings make it hard to tell anyone to rush out to get one at full price. It’s a good headset, just not a great one when you take into consideration every aspect of it.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Image courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
