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StarCraft13 years agoTerrence "MrBlue" Wong

Call down the thunder



First Impressions
The Razer Banshee is of course named after one of the units from the Terran race, a personal favorite unit of mine. When the Banshee arrived, I quickly tore open the cardbox that held it during transition from Razer offices to my doorstep. Just from the packaging alone I can tell I'm in for a treat. It just looks that awesome.

After taking out the headset, the first thing I noticed was that its really big. Like massive, probably one of the biggest headset I've seen before. The next thing I noticed was the odd shape of the ear piece, we usually see a circular or oval earpiece but the Banshee's was squarish in shape. Pretty unique to say the least. Overall I think it looks pretty cool really.

One of the major selling point of the Banshee as well as most of the SC2 suite is the APM lighting whereby the lights will "blink" or rather transition between different colors depending on your APM level. The lights also alert you when your being attacked or when certain events happen in game. We'll cover more on that later.

Putting it through its pace



Now that the first impression is over, lets move on to the actual review. The Banshee is connected to your computer via a USB port instead of the usual 3.5mm jack due to the built in sound card. I've tested the Banshee for music playback as well as for playing games-namely StarCraft 2 and DotA. Sound from the Banshee is really nice, a nice amount of bass comes through when I'm watching shows or listening to music so I'm really digging it.

One of the downside to the Banshee is that the sound coming from it is rather soft, well relative to my SteelSeries Siberia V2 which I tested it with. Had to adjust the volume up to a pretty significant level before I can hear at the same loudness. Besides that they have pretty similar sound qualities, in fact I find that the Banshee wins over the Siberia V2 in this part.

To some users, actually a lot of users, comfort will be very important when it comes to buying a headset. I can easily say that the Razer Banshee is one of the most comfortable headsets I have ever tried on. At first I have doubts that it'll feel comfortable due to the fact I have rather large ears(at least I think I do), but I was pleasantly surprise to find that it fits my ear nicely. Each of the earmuffs cover my ears fully with quite some breathing space as well. The Razer Banshee is so comfortable that I can wear it for hours and still keep it on me.

Also if you have a big head(no offense meant to anyone), this will be the headset for you, the Banshee can extend quite a fair bit so you'll feel comfortable no matter what. The extension also looks in place nicely so you wont have to guess which is the sweet spot for you. That being said, the design of the Banshee isn't the kind that you can easily bring around with you for LAN events, if it came with a case that would make it easier for transportation.



The headset is made up of two parts, the earphones and the microphone. To test the microphone I jumped on Skype with some of the crew with a one to one call. Initially they reported that my sound was pretty distance, but that was due to me not bending/setting up the mic properly. After moving the microphone closer to my mouth they could hear me clearly over Skype. We also tried it out with more than two people on the call. I think the highest amount we had was a six person Skype call during a DotA match. Even in the most heated battles, my crewmates were still able to hear me loud and clear over the call.

One thing I didn't like about the Razer Banshee's microphone is that it doesn't really bend to the front of your mouth because the earmuffs itself is too big. Not really a problem since you can talk clearly still, but I'd like to have the microphone right in front of my lips. Also the microphone is removable if you fancy not having the microphone connected while your gaming.

Some paragraphs up I mentioned the APM lighting system that the Banshee has. I took it for a spin as well and I'll be honest here, its pretty useless. Sure it'll be awesome knowing how much your APM is with the blinking lights but besides showing off, it doesn't serve any other purpose. And if you ask me, a better way of showing off is beating the crap out of your opponents rather than showing how much APM you have. The other thing that the lighting system does it that it can light up different with different events in the game. Like say it can light up red when a building its being built and yellow when your under attack. This I can find some uses to some of the newbies to the game that need some guidance at the start. But the thing is with the Banshee, you can't see the lighting since you'll be wearing it on your head. Unless you have some miracle eyesight that will bend, it'll probably be useless as well. I can however see how the lighting system will help with newbies on the other StarCraft 2 gears, the Razer Spectre Mouse and the Razer Marauder keyboard.



Almost forgot to mention about the software suite, Razer's StarCraft 2 gaming gear all have one standard software suite meaning you just need to install one program to control all three of your gear if you have them all. Something that i really like, since Razer has always created individual software suite for each of their products. If you have more than two Razer gear(which I believe most of us do), it can get a little cluttery at times. another thing that is great about the software suite is that there is a full Mac version, a very welcome sight to Mac users like me. The software suite allows you to customize the lighting on the Banshee, if you fancy Red, just head into the software suite and change it. Besides that, it allows users to change the equalizer settings for the Banshee, want more Bass? Change it in the software suite. If you have the other two StarCraft 2 gear, your able to set different Macros for your keyboard and mouse

Conclusion
So in conclusion, the Razer Banshee is a really good headset to have around but I think there are other offerings from Razer that is more worth the money, for example the Razer Carchaisis and Razer Megaladon. The Razer Banshee would be nice if your a StarCraft 2 fanatic and would like it as a collection.

Review in a nutshell
ProsCons
-Removable Microphone
-Comfortable despite its look
-Fair amount of Bass
-Fits any head
-100% Mac compatible
-Microphone a little short
-APM lighting kind of useless
-Alert lighting kind of useless on a headset
-Not exactly portable

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