Razer Blackshark V3 Pro Review – The ULTIMATE Gaming Headset?

Razer is back at it again with this, the BLACKSHARK V3 Pro, and it’s Razer’s ultimate esports headset. At least at first glance, it looks really good. But of course, looks can be deceiving, so let’s take a look at it and see if it is as good as it looks! Starting with a little tour. The headset actually comes in three flavours, PC, Xbox or Playstation, with corresponding stitching on the headband for Xbox and Playstation. For this PC version you can get it in black or white, with my preference obviously being white here, meaning it comes with really nice black accents – a lovely contrast I think. The headset it a little bulky in size, but decently light weight. Not as light as my AudioTechnica ATH-W1GL’s I use personally, but still decently light. 

Controls wise you get a big knob on the left ear cup – sticking out somewhat awkwardly, but that does make it very easy to find. That’s the volume dial – although we’ll come back to that in a minute. Below that is the USB C port which can either be used with a regular USB C cable for charging or running wired, but can also be used with the other included Type C cable that terminates in a 3.5mm jack, meaning you can use this fully wired too. Above that is the power LED and power button, then the mic mute switch which is nice and easy to find – oh you also have the mic port on the front of the left earcup too. It’s all going on over here! On the right ear cup you’ve got the profile switcher button which doubles as the Bluetooth pairing button, a “programmable dial” – we’ll come back to that too – and the active noise cancellation button. Yes, these have ANC. Fancy, I know! That’s one of the benefits of getting these “Pro” versions over the regular BlackShark V3 and BlackShark V3 Hyperspeed. The other main differences are this 12mm “HyperClear Full Band” mic is a 9.9mm Super Wideband or Cardioid mic on the other two, the “HyperSpeed” one can’t do simultaneous audio from wireless and Bluetooth, and that version only gets HyperSpeed V1 instead of V2 on this Pro and the regular version. It’s a bit confusing that the “HyperSpeed” version is actually the slower version of HyperSpeed, right? Oh and the ear cushions are a dual later Flowknit memory foam here, versus hybrid fabric and leatherette memory foam on the other two versions. 

As for movement, there is plenty of adjustability for different head sizes, but the ability to turn flat is sadly absent. There is a bit of tilt to fit your head nicely, but they don’t fold flat for easy storage or resting around your neck. I can confirm though that the memory foam earcups are super plush, as is the headband. I did find the Flowknit fabric a little itchy though, but I’m autistic and have sensory issues so that could well just be me. One fancy feature these have to offer is interchangeable earcup plates – the Razer logos can be replaced, be that from Razer’s soon to be coming official options from your favourite franchises, or I believe 3D printed, should you fancy more customisation. Behind the right earcup is where you’ll find the battery, which isn’t hot swappable, but is just a standard 3.7V LiPo cell – a 1200mAh cell specifically – so you should be able to find a replacement easily enough to keep it alive. 

Customisation wise, Razer has thought of pretty much everything. Through Synapse, the only customisable button is that second scroll wheel on the right ear cup. Annoyingly you can only change it to either “Footstep scaling” which pumps up the 125 to 1,000 hertz range, or mic sidetone (aka hearing your mic through the headset), or game/chat balance. I’d like the option to control Bluetooth audio levels, as once you connect to the HyperSpeed dongle, you lose Bluetooth audio control. Still, you have an insane amount more you can customise so let’s get into it. Switching between “Stereo” and “THX SPATIAL AUDIO” is pretty important for gaming, as these headsets now support THX’s 7.1.4, giving much better vertical positioning from the sound. The “Enhancement” tab offers the latency controls, audio mixing, ANC and “audio enhancement” options, the “Mic” tab has an EQ, volume control, “Mic Enhancement” options, and side tone control, and the “Power” tab lets you change the LED on the dongle to show the headset’s battery level. That’s pretty sweet. It’s worth noting that the profile switcher button also cycles through modes built into the headset – “Default”, “Game”, “Movie”, “Music”, and “Esports 1”. 

[ Mic only segment ] Since we’re talking about the mic, this is it. There’s no funny business going on here, this is just how it sounds straight out the box. I think it sounds pretty good. It’s not quite broadcast quality or anything, but it’s more than good enough for Discord. There’s still a touch of tin-can effect on it, missing the very top and bottom frequencies, but as I said it’s pretty good. Now I’ve enabled the “vocal clarity” setting, as this seems to just boost the higher frequencies. To me anyway this sounds worse than the default setting, so personally I’d just leave that off. There is “Vocal Normalisation”, which is actually pretty cool. This is me practically shouting, and it’s still pretty clear. And now I’m talking really quietly, and as you can hopefully tell, the volume is pretty constant throughout. That’s pretty cool. Switching back to default settings, the last thing I want to show you is the equaliser settings, specifically the Broadcast mode. This boosts the bass levels for sure, and actually brings a lot more clarity than you’d expect. I much prefer this thing in Broadcast mode, so that’s where I’d leave it. On the whole then the mic can offer pretty decent audio, and it’s more than acceptable for gaming.

When it comes to the audio quality, for watching content and listening to music, it’s ok, but not exceptional. It’s a little flat – the EQ modes can help with that but I struggled to find one that really suited all content and I don’t like having to cycle through modes for watching movies, then something different for music, then something different for gaming. They’re definitely more than adequate, they just aren’t the best things I’ve ever heard, but since they are quite explicitly esports headphones, let’s talk gaming. First, Razer have found twelve esports pros to make EQ profiles for various games, which you can then enable in Synapse. I just opted for the THX surround-sound option, and for a game like Rainbow Six Siege… My god it was amazing. The directionality was amazing, being able to hear not just around you, but above and below you, with a decent amount of accuracy no less, was incredible! These struck the perfect balance between footsteps, scenery noise and gunfire to be the perfect competitive headset. Genuinely, I was blown away by the gaming experience these things offer. 

As for comfort, these were great for me. I played a lengthy Satisfactory session with these and besides a bit of pinching from my glasses, these were great. The whole moisture-wicking part worked a treat for sure. These don’t have horrendous clamping pressure, but are decently secure on your head – save for front to back movement. There they struggle. I also couldn’t find a comfortable way to only have one ear cup on, but comfort is always very subjective. I’d say these are on the bigger side though – I have a fairly large head, not figuratively I hope, and these feel a little big even for me, so folk with smaller heads might struggle. 

Pricing wise, these top-spec pro’s are a cool £250, which is in line with other top-tier headsets. I’ll leave it up to you whether or not these offer enough value to justify that cost, although happily the standard version is £100 less at £150, and the HyperSpeed version is £100, which still seems like a lot for a gaming headset, but again I’ll leave that part up to you. I do like them, I don’t know if I’d shell out that much for these as my personal split errs more towards a better content and music listening experience than gaming these days, so I’d prefer better outright audio quality, but that’s me. I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below!