Razer Kraken 7.1 V2 upgrades the comfort and sound but keeps the sub-$100 price

Razer, a gaming-product company, is updating just about all of its major products for the holidays, including the Kraken gaming headsets. The headline here is that they now have 50mm audio drivers, but it’s still the entire package that makes the Kraken so popular.

The Kraken 7.1 V2 is out now from the gaming-hardware manufacturer Razer. It fits alongside the company’s standard Kraken and its ManO’War headsets to provide a reasonably priced solution for virtual surround sound. But Razer also built it for comfort, and that is one of its best features.

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What you’ll like

Nice audio that works with PS4

The Kraken 7.1 V2 is going to meet most of your needs. It handles bass tones, chat voice, and surround sound particularly well.

Thanks to the USB power, the headset can deliver some strong, temple-vibrating low notes. But even through those rumbles, the Kraken 7.1 V2 still does its job as a communications device and delivers clear voice audio. The surround also works really well. I think it’s easy to feel like virtual 7.1 is kind of a cheap imitation of the real thing, but I can’t help but notice how much faster I am at identifying incoming opponents thanks to Kraken piping in directional footsteps. That’s an advantage I never want to live without again.

Additionally, all of these features work with the PlayStation 4. You just need to plug it into the USB port on the system itself instead of the DualShock 4, but it’s worth it if you can make that work with your setup.

Comfortable

One area where Razer has really established itself is in the weight and comfort of its headsets, and the Kraken 7.1 V2 benefits from the companies engineering prowess in this regard.

Even after hours of nonstop use, the Kraken never causes chafing. It sits snug and secure on your dome. It’s light enough that it shouldn’t cause any fatigue in your neck, and it simultaneously has a firm enough design that it doesn’t wobble as you move.

What you won’t like

Audio is muddy when dealing with multiple sounds at once

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While I like the overall audio quality of the Kraken, I did notice that it struggles to distinguish various sounds all happening at once. During loud, action-packed gaming sequences, it was no longer easy to pick out enemy movement from gunshots and explosions. The end result in these loud moments is a wall of sound that comes across as compressed or squashed together.

Conclusion

I think the Kraken 7.1 V2 does just about everything that I want. I’m not going to use it outside the house, so I don’t mind that it doesn’t have a play or pause button on it. But I do like that it deliver excellent communications and game audio in most circumstances with a few, rare exceptions. At the same time, I also adore the form factor. Packing great sound into a lightweight, comfortable headset is a a winning combination that makes the Kraken 7.1 V2 an easy recommendation.

Razer provided GamesBeat with a sample pair for the purposes of this review. The Kraken 7.1 V2 is available now for $100.