EPOS H3PRO Hybrid
- Battery Life
- Wireless: Up to 30 hours / Bluetooth: Up to 38 hours / 3.5mm✃: Up to 29 hours
- Microphone
- Dual Microphone 🔥
The Epos H3PRO Hyಞbrid is a gaming headset featuring wireless connectivity, designed for use with a range of systems.
The last trip I went on I packed three different headphones. First, I packed my Samsung Galaxy wireless earbuds so I could listen to a book on the plane, but then I remembered how lousy the Switch’s bluetooth is so I also packed a pair of wired earbuds. Then I remembered I had ﷽to record a podcast while I was away, so I bought a headset with an attached microphone too. Three different kinds of headphones. When I got back home I tossed all three in the closet and put on my favorite wireless over-the-ear PC headphones, sat down in꧋ my race car-style gaming chair, and quietly wept. What have I become?
If you’re as gamer-pilled as me, you probably have a stash of headsets and ear buds that are all great for different reasons, but none of them are great at everything. But the Epos H3PRO Hybrid aspires to be the one headset to rule them all, and after spending a week wearing it non-stop, I have to say it comes pretty close. It doesn’t quite check every box on my list, but as far as all-𝓡in-one headsets go, the H3PRO Hybrid might be the solution you’re looking for.
The headset gets its namesake from its ability to connect to your devices via Bluetooth, low-latency wireless, a wired connection, or a combination of wired and wirel🧸ess if you need to connect to multiple devices simultaneously. The Hybrid’s greatest strength is its versatility, and throughout the week I’ve used it on my PC, Switch, Steam Deck, PS5, Xbox Series S, and my phone, all through different connections. The detachable, five foot audio cable is durable and makes it easy to connect to my portable device or Xbox controller, even if the headset doesn’t have a charge, while the included wireless dongle maintains a solid connection to my PC and PS5. Bluetooth is also a great option for a phone or laptop if you’re just watching a movie and you don’t care about latency. One of the coolest features is the dual connection setup, which allows you to bluetooth to your phone while simultaneously connected to a device via wired or wireless. You can take a phone call or listen to an audiobook while you play a game and balance the audio separately. I’ve been using this to listen t꧂o music while I play Picross X on the Switch and it works perfectly.
The H3P🍷RO Hybrid also has the benefit of not looking too much like gamer gear, which makes me a lot more comfortable taking it out of the house. Once you detach the microphone and cover the port with the included magneticꦐ disk - an accessory I’m definitely going to lose eventually - it almost looks like any other wireless headset. Mine has a nice white-and-gray color scheme with cloth accents on the ear cups and headband, and aside from the hinges looking a little too techy, they blend in well with your typical Beats or Bose headsets.
The headset creates a tight seal that blocks out sound quite well, but the built-in ANC noise cancellation adds even more sound deadening. It also has virtual 7.1 using a proprietary Binaural Rendering Engine, which doesn’t seem as good as Do💙lby Atmos, nor is the headset compatible with Dolby Atmos, unfortunately. Still, there are tools for fine-tuning the audio in Epos’ desktop gaming suite, and I didn’t have any trouble customizing the presets to match my preferred levels in both 2.0 and 7.1 mode.
The headset is everything you could need, but it isn’t quite everything I’d want, especially for the price. I love the idea of taking the H3PRO Hybrid with me on trips, but it doesn’t come with a travel case to protect it or carry all the necessary accessories. Right now I’ve got the audio cable, the wireless dongle, the microphone, and the cover plate just rattling around at the bottom of the boꦛx it came in. If your headset has that many accessories, it should also have a container to keep everything in. The headphones don’t fold flat either, which makes them difficult to pack, and uncomfortꦚable to wear around your neck.
It also isn’t easy to tune when you’re away from your PC. The Smart Button can be programmed to either cycle through four presets or toggle 7.1 on or off, but not both. There’s also no voice prompt to te💝ll you which preset you’re on, so it can be hard to tell if you’ve swapped to Movie or Esport mode until you cycle through the options a few times. When I’m at home, I’d really like a charging cradle to drop them into. Between the audio cable and the dongle adapter ꦫI’ve already got two new cables to manage, now I’ve got to find a place to charge it too. As much as I like the idea of an all-in-one headset, I’m probably going to end up sticking with my Astro A50 for now because it sits in a cradle on my desk, always charged and ready to use.
Audio is highly subjective, and headphon🍌es aesthetics even more so. But if you like the look of the H3PRO Hybrid, I can tell you that they sound incredible and they’re packed with every feature you’d expect from a high-end headset. Its noise-canceling qualities are some of the best I’ve experienced, and even though they have to fit quite snugly, they’re comfortable enough to wear for long s♏essions. If you don’t mind keeping track of a few extra bits and taking extra care to protect them from damage, this is the closest you can get to a headset that does everything.