HARDWARE REVIEW

Razer Hammerhead USB Type-C In-Ear Headphones Review

by Luke Walsh, March 20th, 2018

Razer is well known for a wide range of gaming headsets, you’ll probably expect the last thing to have as a gaming headset is the Hammerhead Pros. These look like traditional in-ear headphones that you’d get with your mobile phone and these are exactly what they are meant for. Gaming on the go or listening to music is something you’ll be able to do with the Hammerheads for your Pixel 2, OnePlus 5 or other USB Type-C device.

At £79.99 it certainly looks like a product Razer but in the style of some of your usual in-ear headphones with an in-line microphone, flat cable design with a flare of fluorescent green wrapping. There’s a textured ring around the body of the earpiece which makes it easier to hold and gives it a nice look. Further down the line is the microphone and volume control which is contained in a plastic casing. Continuing down, you’ll find a small black ring that allows you to change the cable tightness so it fits better on the chin.

Compared to the first generation of Hammerhead headphones the V2 personally looks a lot sleeker. Along with this, each earpiece is made of metal and a smart design choice of having them magnetized so that the cables don’t get too uncontrollable. This combined with the flat cable makes it seem like it would be much harder to get tangled up in your bag, more so when it’s inside the included hard carry case.

Razer designed the Hammerhead Pro V2’s to be for those who love music and gaming on the go it does a pretty good job at both. In terms of overall sounds, they pack a decent punch but coming more from the bass than treble. Even with the audio leaning more towards the bass I never found it to be too overwhelming. Listening to songs like Nico Vega Beast vocals, guitars and drums were all easily distinguishable from each other without being drowned out. Trying something different Vocaloid was next as the music would be a good test of the higher notes. Again, the Hammerhead Pro V2’s were able to produce some crisp noise at both the lower frequencies and the higher. I was actually quite surprised how impressive the sound quality was for these headphones not usually being a fan of in-ear style headphones.

From a gaming perspective, the slightly punchier bass makes games feel decent on mobile for the types of games you’ll play. The only issue I had is compared to the more traditional over-ear headset the direction of sound was not as great. You’ll get a lot of emphasis on sound but the fidelity of the location is harder to discern.

What this does mean though is the noise cancellation is quite good, even in fairly busy places they did drown out most of the noise. When typing up this review with them in, I was unable to hear the mechanical keys on my Razer Ornata on just above 50% volume. If you do drop below 50% though, you will start to get some noise from external sound. This might be a deal breaker for some not being 100% bulletproof for sound suppression but if you want complete noise cancellation why buy these type of earphones in the first place.

Comfort and in-ear headphones usually for me are a no-go. I rarely find some with the correct tips that are able to stay in my ears, even when I am sitting at a desk not to mention if I am on the treadmill or outside. Trying the different types of tips for the Hammerhead V2s I found the default ones the best for staying in my ears and noise suppression. Even though I still find them not as comfortable as over ear to wear I’d have to give points to Razer for them being one of the most comfortable in-ear headphones I’ve tried.

They stayed in for writing this whole review which would be twice as long than most. If I had one gripe about them would be the fact the ring that allows you to make them tighter stops near the top because of the volume controls. It would have made more sense to have this underneath so if you wanted a snug fit up to your chin you could. This would make them much nicer to run with making them more versatile outside of listening to music or games.

The one thing to watch out for is compatibility if you have an Android phone as not everything works as listed on the Razer website. Using a Google Pixel 2 XL, there were no issues being able to skip YouTube videos by double tapping the centre button or holding it down to bring up Google Assistant. These little pieces of functionality make the Pro V2’s quite versatile but only if your device supports it.

Razer is always trying to improve their devices and although I’ve not had extensive use with the previous generation of Hammerheads even I can see the clear improvements. Some of these come from previous user feedback which is always great to see.

Being able to game on the move was Razer’s goals and delivering decent audio quality while being extremely portable which they have succeeded. The device has exceptional powerful bass that is able to still keep separate from other tones and build quality you expect nothing less from the company. If you are looking for decent headphones for your new USB-Type C phone then these are worth a look