Razer Barracuda Pro Review – A Sound Investment

The Barracuda lineup from Razer is getting an upgrade in the form of the Razer Barracuda Pro, which we had put to the test for this review. In this review, we’ll also look at whether the Razer Barracuda Pro is worth getting over its predecessor from 2021, the Razer Barracuda X.

Specs

Packaging and Design

While not exactly an enhancement to audio quality by any means, I love the fact that the headset comes with its own hard casing. This makes transporting the headset so much easier as everything from the USB cables to the dongles can be neatly arranged in the casing. I don’t need to mix up my cables anymore and I love it.

As for its actual design, the Barracuda Pro retains many similarities with the Barracuda X. It features a minimalistic design throughout its matte black body that also does a great job at preventing fingerprints. Note that there is no RGB lighting, so there won’t be any flashing or colourful displays as you play your games.

However, one thing that definitely needs getting used to is the weight. The Barracuda Pro weighs in at 340g, which is a lot more than the Barracuda X’s 250g. I have a pretty big head for an Asian man in his 20s, and I already found the weight needs getting used to for extended wear. Even for me, you can really feel the headband pushing your head down—a problem that I didn’t really encounter with the Barracuda X.

On the plus side, the ear cups are really comfortable and does a great job at accomodating just about any head shape or ear size. The issue with the headset is its weight—so if you’re someone who’s 180 cm+ tall, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

You can find most of the functions and their corresponding buttons on the left side of the Barracuda. These include the charging port, power button, volume adjustment knob and microphone mute button. On the right, there is the button for the SmartSwitch feature, which I’ll get into more in the next part of the Razer Barracuda Pro review.

Functionality and Compatibility

Hands down, one of the best features of the headset is SmartSwitch. Essentially, what it does is that it allows you to seamless switch between several devices that are connected to the headset, without taking it off. For example, you can be listening in on a Zoom meeting on your laptop, answer a phone call on the fly or just swap to music on your phone when it’s not your turn to speak. It’s incredibly convenient and I’m surprised why more headsets don’t have this function built-in

The noise cancellation is also superb. You can choose to set the noise cancellation between 10 levels—with level 1 noise cancellation being on par with that of wireless earbuds and level 10 inflicting the same vacuum-like pressure of being in a soundproof room (like a room in a recording studio) localised entirely in your ears. Level 10 noise cancellation does its job to a T—unless someone is shouting nearby, you won’t hear anything. That said, the pressure caused by the lack of sound can feel overwhelming, so it’s usually better to set noise cancellation to somewhere in between.

The noise cancellation also extends to the headset’s microphone. It’s so effective, during a call with a friend, I was using a hairdryer and the sound from that was cancelled. I was talking with my friend just fine without the noise from the hairdryer being picked up on his end.

That aside, the Barracuda Pro also inherited the Barracuda X’s compatibility with other devices. Just about anything can be connected without any installation or troublesome setup, like PlayStation consoles, Nintendo Switch, PC and mobile devices.

Audio Performance

Basically flawless. It doesn’t matter what kind of sound I challenged the Barracuda Pro to play—it played it with absolute quality. From bass to high pitchy tunes, the headset delivers everything you want in a high-quality product.

The same goes for immersion. For FPS addicts, in-game footsteps sound like they’re coming from the room next door. It’s crisp and accurate.

I already found the base audio settings to be top notch, but for those of you sound engineers out there, you can further tweak the audio settings through the Razer Audio app. Besides playing around with the equalizer, the app is also where you can adjust other features like adjusing the noise cancellation levels or switching around the various modes for the headset, like Do Not Disturb mode to stop pesky calls from interrupting your journey to get Chicken Dinner in PUBG.

Battery Performance

Thankfully, the Barracuda Pro’s battery performance is reflected in its increased weight and size. I was able to use the headset for about 30 hours before being notified to charge it. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge the device.

For those who use their headset intensively, you can even charge it while using it without too much hassle or obstruction.

Closing Thoughts

That is pretty much it for this review of the Razer Barracuda Pro. Its audio quality is one of the best out there and the features that it provides, like SmartSwitch, make it an excellent investment for hardcore gamers. The only things pulling it down are its weight (and by extension, comfort), which I feel is definitely not for everyone as well as its price, which is a whopping RM 1,399.

Compared to the Barracuda X’s price of RM459, and that’s a huge investment. As long as you’re okay with a heavy headset and don’t mind forking out the kind of money that can get you a new Nintendo Switch, then the Barracuda Pro will definitely satisfy all your audio needs, and more.

Learn more about the Barracuda Pro on Razer’s website.

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