Summary
- At a significantly cheaper price point than ASUS other headsets, the Pelta offers great quality for the price.
- The headset is very lightweight and comfortable to wear for extended periods.
- ASUS’ 50mm drivers offer crisp, clear audio quality, and the headset manages excellent 70-hour battery life.
A good gaming headset can be a hefty investment. The ASUS ROG Pelta isn’t dirt cheap, but it’s more affordable than most high-end gaming headsets. Despite its approachable price point, it offers a good level of quality and has several excellent features for its price.
ASUS ROG Pelta
The ASUS ROG Pelta is a mid-range budget gaming headset that is comfortable, has great audio and microphone quality, and excellent battery life. For anybody looking for a quality headset for under $200, the Pelta is a good choice
- Significantly cheaper than ROG Delta II, great quality for price
- Extremely lightweight and comfortable to wear for long periods
- 50mm drivers provide crisp and clear audio quality, especially treble
- Super long battery life with 45 to 70 hours depending on operating mode
- Somewhat lackluster bass with default settings
- Limited adjustability with only three headband positions
- Incompatible with Xbox consoles
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Price and Availability
The ASUS ROG Pelta will set you back $155 if you buy it directly from the ASUS store, but you can get it for a little cheaper at Amazon or Walmart, where it will only cost you $130. It’s also available on the Micro Center and Mobile Advance websites.
There is no possibility of customizing your purchase—the Pelta comes only in black and with a fixed array of accessories, those being a USB-C 2.4Hz dongle and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
Ergonomic Design With a Comfortable Fit
The ROG Pelta is a straightforward design. The mic is the detachable variety that you plug directly into the right earpiece, and it can’t fold or be tucked away like some headsets. All of the ports and buttons are on the back of the right earpiece, easily accessible and intuitive. There is some small RGB lighting on the earpieces that you can modify through ASUS’ Armoury Crate software.
The Pelta has a limited degree of adjustability—it uses an elastic headband, which is quite comfortable on the head, but only has three positions to choose from. The earpieces cannot extend out of the headband like some other headsets. It’s perfectly fine while sitting upright, but the Pelta slides off your head very easily if you lean forward or backward, which is a bit annoying when you’re trying to get the last drop out of a soda can.
The earpiece cushions are oval-shaped and made of a comfortable, breathable mesh and the overall weight of the Pelta is just 309 grams. Due to these two features, it’s very comfortable to wear even for long periods of time. I’m not exaggerating when I say the Pelta might be the most comfortable headset I’ve worn. It’s lightweight, the earcups are spacious, and the headband has no hotspots.
Crisp, Clean, and Immersive Sound and Mic Quality
The Pelta has 50mm titanium-plated diaphragm drivers with 20 Hz–20 kHz range, offering crisp, clear sound free of distortion whether you’re playing an explosive game like Helldivers 2 or a quieter adventure like the Oblivion remaster. In my opinion, the treble is quite potent and clear with the Pelta, but the bass is a little lacking in its default settings. It’s not bad by any stretch, but doesn’t really boom as much as I’d like, personally.
Of course, that’s only with the default settings. Using ASUS’ Armoury Crate software or even your own Windows OS, you can edit all sorts of things, including the bass. Overall, the sound quality of the Pelta is excellent and easily comparable to more expensive headsets, whether it’s game noise, music, or the voices of your teammates in-game.
The call quality is also superb—the Pelta uses a 10mm super-wideband boom microphone that easily registers your voice clearly even when it’s far from your face. With its default settings, it can even pick up other small noises in the room with you, though you’d probably want to change that in Armoury Crate. At any rate, in my two weeks of testing, my teammates never complained about being unable to hear me or tell what I was saying.
It’s worth noting that the audio and mic quality varies just slightly depending on what mode you’re using. The 2.4Hz mode has the best sound quality, while Bluetooth and wired connections have a little more latency, though they are both still quite good. Really, only an audiophile would notice the difference.
In my experience, the audio performance from the ROG Pelta was consistent whether I was using it with my Android, my PC, Steam Deck, and the Nintendo Switch. Unfortunately, it has no ability to connect to an Xbox Series X/S, so bear this in mind if you are an Xbox player looking for a headset.
Days Worth of Battery Life in Every Mode
The battery life on the ROG Pelta is extremely impressive. During a day of housecleaning, I put them on at 72% to listen to music via Bluetooth. Over five hours later, the battery charge had only dropped to 69%. The battery drains a little faster in 2.4Hz mode or with the RGB lighting on, but I only had to charge it one time during my two weeks of testing, and it recharged very quickly, getting hours of game time out of just ten minutes of charging.
Officially, the ROG Pelta has 70 hours of lifetime in 2.4Hz mode if the RGB lighting is off, and 45 hours if RGB lighting is on. Its Bluetooth connection lifetime is even longer. Admittedly, I didn’t wear the headset for 70 hours straight to confirm this, but I can definitely attest to its longevity, at least going over 30 hours of gaming and music with no need for a recharge at all.
The Competition
There are lots of different gaming headsets available in the $130-$150 price range, but frankly, it’s probably best to compare the ROG Pelta to is own companions, the ROG Delta S and Delta II. The Delta II is almost twice as expensive, but has a much deeper, punchier overall sound, and much stronger bass for sure. The Delta II also has dual Bluetooth, meaning it can connect to two different devices at the same time and play audio from both, and it has a 3.5mm audio jack, so it can connect to Xbox whereas the Pelta can’t.
The Delta S is much closer in price to the Pelta, but only has internal mics in the earpieces. The sound and mic quality have been panned by many people online, generally labeling it average or dissatisfying at the very least. Considering that it’s almost the same price as the Pelta, I’d choose the Pelta over it.
There are plenty of other amazing gaming headsets out there to choose from though. I firmly believe the Pelta is one of the best options for someone looking in the $130-$150 price range, but I’m sure there are other respectable sets in the competition.
Related
Should You Buy the ASUS ROG Pelta?
If your primary concern with getting a gaming headset is money, I wholeheartedly recommend the ASUS ROG Pelta. There are definitely more expensive headsets out there that are better than the Pelta in some way. However, at the $130-$150 price point, I firmly believe the Pelta is a solid choice.
It’s incredibly comfortable, the sound and mic quality is great, and it’s very easy to set up and use. The few issues it does have are minor enough to easily ignore.
The only reason you shouldn’t buy the ROG Pelta is if you want a gaming headset to use with an Xbox, since this headset is incompatible with those consoles. Otherwise, I can genuinely recommend the Pelta to anyone looking for a sub-$200 gaming headset that still feels like a high-quality machine.
ASUS ROG Pelta
The ASUS ROG Pelta is a mid-range budget gaming headset that is comfortable, has great audio and microphone quality, and excellent battery life. For anybody looking for a quality headset for under $200, the Pelta is a good choice
