Asus ROG Delta S Wireless review: Comfort, style, and great sound

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Expert's Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

The ROG Delta S Wireless combines comfort, style, and great audio, making for an immersive casual gaming experience.

Price When Reviewed

199.99

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Retailer Price

$157.99 View Deal Asus $199.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket

There’s an instant appeal to the ROG Delta S Wireless, which gamers will recognize right from unboxing — from the headset’s uniquely shaped earcups, to the thick foam padding, swivelling cups, and strong metal headband, this headset oozes comfort and style.

That swagger is only accentuated by the headset’s ripper sound quality — its 50mm drivers are loud and produce an audio signature that you’re going to really dig when the action gets intense. Mind you, as far as gaming headsets go, its functionality is best suited for causal gamers. Enthusiast gamers may sorely miss features like simultaneous Bluetooth and a chat mixer wheel which the ROG Delta S Wireless doesn’t have.

ROG Delta S Wireless design and build

Bold D-shaped earcups dominate the Delta S’s look. These appear big and bulky but try on the headset and its 11.2 ounces (318 grams) feel surprisingly lightweight. The headset’s moderate clamp pressure helps with comfort; it held my ears without squeezing them in too tight.

The set’s bulkiness is due to the thick memory foam pads that stick out a full one inch from the base. It’s a lot of foam, but it worked a treat for me, providing my ears with more comfort than I’m used to.

The memory foam is covered in a plush 100 percent protein leather that feels decadently smooth, but it can get a little hot. When the heat became too much, though, I simply had to swap the default cups out for a second pair of more breathable “Hybrid mesh” covers that came included in the box. These slid over the outer cup rims but did need a bit of coaxing to fit on.

Putting the headband through its paces, it proved very well made. It’s comprised of a strong and flexible metal that you can easily bend through 180 degrees. There’s a lot of vertical adjustment in it too, and the earcups swivel and tilt easily in their yokes, which incidentally are also made of metal.

ROG Delta S Wireless

To sum up the Delta S Wireless’s styling, it’s quite minimalist. There’s no futuristic RGB, but it still looks aplomb with its simple black and white color scheme and ROG logos on each earcup. It fit in perfectly with other black or white gear in my collection, like my white Alienware Pro Wireless keyboard, so if you’ve got anything like that, stylistically it’ll sync nicely.

ROG Delta S Wireless connectivity

If you want just one headset to use across a collection of gaming devices, the ROG Delta S Wireless could be just the ticket. It’s compatible with PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, as well as the Nintendo Switch and mobile devices — but not with Xbox consoles.

For connectivity, you get two wireless options: low-latency 2.4GHz Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This means it’s a cinch to switch between your cell phone and a gaming device on a whim — a simple flick of a switch is all that’s required. You can also connect the headset’s USB-A to USB-C cable to your USB port for a wired connection, which is the best option if you want to charge as you play.

To hook up to Wi-Fi, the device comes with a small USB-C dongle. But you also get a USB-A adapter in the box. I found this really handy for my older laptops that don’t have USB-C ports. What was also handy was the hidden USB storage compartment in the right earcup. I’m always impressed with devices that have dongle storage compartments since they help prevent dongle loss, so the headset scores valuable points for that feature.

ROG Delta S Wireless controls and microphone

The Delta S Wireless’s controls are located on the headset’s left earcup. They include a volume wheel, on/off switch, and selector switch for connectivity. Navigating the controls is simple enough, thanks to their neat vertical configuration.

That’s how the headset is conventional. When it comes to the microphone, however, the Delta S Wireless is anything but. In fact, I spent a minute or two looking for a boom mic in the box, but it turns out it uses an omnidirectional beamforming mic located inside the cups instead.

Testing out the mic showed it to be a bit hit-or-miss. With the AI Noise Cancellation feature turned off, it picked up my voice loudly and clearly, despite not being located right over my mouth. But it also picked up background noise — in my case the sound of my TV blabbering away behind me, which didn’t inspire a lot of confidence for distraction-free team chats.

Switching the AI Noise Cancellation feature to ON did reduce the background noise quite a lot, but it also seemed to compress the audio more than I would have liked. Consequently, I was left wishing it had a boom mic, which might have helped isolate the unwanted sound a little better than the current setup.

ROG Delta S Wireless software

Settings adjustments can be made in the Armoury Crate app, which can be a little confusing to navigate at times, but the app does provide a ton of options to personalize your sound setup.

There are a multitude of presets available to choose from, including for specific game genres like racing, FPS, and RPG games. There are also generic presets for multimedia types like music and movies, and these work well. Or, if you can’t find what you want, you can easily create and customize your own presets and save them in the app for later.

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I was well pleased to find 10 bar EQ presets covering a variety of different types of music — everything from techno to hip hop. The Delta S Wireless doesn’t support high-res audio, but you can really get close to studio-grade sound from them with the presets — as I found out with the Blues preset and my BB King tracks.

In Armoury Crate you can also turn the Virtual Surround Sound and the AI Noise Cancellation on or off. Overall, there’s a lot to discover and for the best sound quality, it’s definitely worth your time.

ROG Delta S Wireless gaming performance

Launching a game of Apex Legends allowed me to try out the Delta S Wireless’s audio quality, which is clear and precise with a full-bodied soundstage. The 50mm neodymium drivers are a real ear splitter. On low volume, they sound about 30 percent louder than headsets like the EPOS H3PRO Hybrid and Razer BlackShark V2 Pro, which is quite impressive considering how much memory foam they have to project through. Consequently, I had to adjust my system volume lower to find the right level.

Listening closely to the headset’s tonal range revealed it had quite good acoustics across the spectrum. The mids sounded warm and rounded, while treble tones were bright and zingy. The bass too is better than in some premium units I’ve tried — it really brought drama to my load-up music, creating a sense of foreboding while I waited for games to start.

When it comes to functionality, the Delta S Wireless looks like a heavy hitter, but it’s actually more of a lightweight. Perhaps I’m a little spoiled for options, but I found the headset to be lacking the kind of functionality I’d normally lean on for a deeper more immersive gaming experience — features like a chat mixer and simultaneous Bluetooth functionality. That said, that slimmed down functionality is reflected in its $199.99 price tag. While options with a fuller suite of functionality can cost upwards of $300 — like the mighty SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless headset — for what you’re paying here the Delta S Wireless seems about right on point for the kind of plush casual gaming experience you get for your money.

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On the upside too, the ROG Delta S Wireless has both a decent signal range and a long battery life. In Bluetooth mode I got approximately 20 meters away before my signal started to break up, which is a little less than the advertised 25 meters, but it still allowed me to grab a snack from my kitchenette while listening to Discord.

My headset lasted 27 hours before the battery died — which is two hours more than the 25 hours it’s rated for. When I did run out, a mere 15-minutes of fast-charging was all that was needed to add an extra three-hours charge back into the set. That proved extremely useful for charging on short breaks between games.

Should you buy the ROG Delta S Wireless?

The ROG Delta S Wireless has a likeable two-tone gamer-centric aesthetic and a comfortable and robust design. It also has a commendable audio quality. While it doesn’t provide quite as much deep game functionality as some premium headsets do, like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, for example, the Delta S Wireless still elevates any causal gaming experience with its long list of premium features. If you’re after a headset that’s straightforward to use but with the convenience of dual wireless connectivity and great cross compatibility, then the Delta S Wireless is an excellent option.