Razer Blackshark V2 Pro 2023 Review

Headsets are an important part of my gaming setup. One of the first things I do every day is turn on my PC and then I put on my headset. It stays on pretty much all day and I don’t just use it for gaming. For me, the quality of music I listen to throughout the day is also important. Razer has just announced a new Blackshark V2 Pro and recently I have already had the opportunity to test this headset.

Beforehand, you should know that the Blackshark V2 Pro is aimed at a specific group of gamers. Those who want to get the most out of their games and especially a lot of competitive gaming. Think Valorant, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, CS:GO and Fortnite. I mention those games for a reason, because in Razer Synapse there are special settings for the equilizer. I will come back to this later.

What’s in the box

As always, we first look at what comes with the headset. The pretty box contains only what you need. Besides the headset, that’s a USB-C cable, a dongle and a microphone. By the way, the headset is hardly distinguishable from previous variants of the Blackshark V2 Pro. From its appearance, you won’t see that you are dealing with an updated version of the successful headset. However, you will notice it in use and the features that are possible via Synapse. The aforementioned microphone, according to Razer, ensures very high quality on a professional level. Now, I must honestly admit that I did not notice this directly during my use and that may be because I am nowhere near anything resembling professional gaming.

In use

Now I do have to say that I really enjoyed using the new Razer Blackshark V2 Pro. As I mentioned in the intro, I wear a headset as much as seven to ten hours a day and therefore it has to fit well. Not all headsets I have used in the past stay comfortable on my head for such a long time. Fortunately, the Blackshark V2 Pro does. Your ears will get a little bit warmer during use than without a headset, but the cushioning ensures that it never gets annoying or irritating. It also helps that the headset doesn’t feel heavy on your head. This is not only due to the weight of the headset, the band that rests on your head is also soft and very comfortable.

While gaming, you can use the headset in stereo or THX Spatial Audio. Stereo is mainly for competitive gaming, but Spatial Audio gives a better sound in my experience. Especially for music, I prefer to turn on the Spatial Audio option. Via a sound test I checked which frequencies this headset can handle and I came up with a range of 40Hz to 15,000Hz. I have to say that I have a slight ringing in my ears, so it could very well be that higher tones are audible as well. I just don’t hear them.

Getting back to gaming, you really notice a difference with this headset. Sound comes in clear and it allows me to stay focused while playing. I’m obviously not a professional shooter player, but during a game of Valorant, the audio is still really nice with V2 Pro.

Razer Synapse

Finally, I should mention the software that makes sure the headset stays up to date and where the equalizer can be set. Normally, I am absolutely not a fan of these kinds of pieces of software that are left on your PC like bloatware. Synapse just gives you so many extra options that it really is a must have when using a Razer product. For the Blackshark V2 Pro, this program gives you the option to turn on profiles specific to shooters. Of course, it is also possible to create your own profile and assign it directly to the games you play often. For me, it mainly came down to manually adding a little more bass to the sound, so that the music was set a little more to my preference.