Razer Kaira Pro Wireless  Headphones Review

The Razer Kaira Pro are fairly simple-looking as far as gaming headphones are concerned. Their oval-shaped ear cups and simple headband design are somewhat reminiscent of the non-gaming-oriented Razer Opus Wireless, especially when you detach their boom microphone to give them a more casual look. That said, these over-ears have eye-catching lime-green accents as well as a light-up RGB Razer logo on the ear cups, which can be customized in their companion app.

These headphones are quite comfortable. They're relatively lightweight and don't clamp too tightly, with a comfortable headband and ear cups that offer a broad range of articulation for different ear shapes. Unfortunately, they're still quite bulky.

The Razer Kaira Pro have a good control scheme. It's easy to use and quite comprehensive. The left ear cup features a mic mute/unmute switch, a volume scrolling wheel, and the power button. The right ear cup has a scrolling wheel for channel mixing, an Xbox pairing button that can also be double-tapped to switch between EQ presets, and a Bluetooth multifunction button. A single press of the latter turns the headphones on and off, pauses and plays media, and answers and ends calls. Double-tapping it turns on voice commands, rejects or swaps calls, enables or disables 'gaming mode', and skips tracks forward. Triple-tapping it skips backward while holding it down for five seconds turns on the Bluetooth-pairing mode. While there's audio feedback for changes to the volume and channel mixing settings, there's no indicator for mic muting and unmuting.

These over-ears aren't very portable, which is normal for gaming headphones. They take up quite a bit of room, even when you detach their boom mic and swivel their ear cups to lay flat.

The Razer Kaira Pro don't come with a case or pouch.

The Razer Kaira Pro are very well-built. They have a high-grade plastic construction and metal ear cup hinges, so they should be able to endure a couple of bumps and drops without issue.

The Razer Kaira Pro are decently stable. They shouldn't have any trouble staying in place during casual listening sessions, but they're likely to move around or even fall off during light to moderate workouts.

• Razer Kaira Pro Wireless headphones
• Boom mic
• USB-C charging cable
• Stickers
• User guide

The Razer Kaira Pro for Xbox have a warm but somewhat uneven sound profile. Their overemphasized bass range is well-suited for emphasizing the thump and rumble of sound effects or EDM music, but some listeners may find it boomy. Vocals and lead instruments may be a little muddy and harsh, while their uneven treble range can result in sibilants sounding alternatively dull and piercing. Thankfully, you can adjust their sound profile via audio presets or a five-band graphic EQ in their companion app.

The Razer Kaira Pro have sub-par frequency response consistency. You're likely to experience significant deviations in bass and treble delivery depending on their fit, seal, and positioning. This could be a bigger problem if you have thick hair or wear glasses.

These headphones have decent bass accuracy. Their overemphasized high-bass range can bring out the thump and rumble of sound effects in action-heavy games, but also adds some a boomy quality to some mixes, and some users may find that they sound muddy. That said, since their bass delivery is heavily dependent on their fit, seal, and positioning, your experience may vary.

The Razer Kaira Pro have okay mid accuracy. The bump from the high-bass range carries over into the low-mids, which can clutter and muddy vocals and lead instruments. The overemphasis in the high-mids can also result in a somewhat harsh, boxy quality.

The Razer Kaira Pro have middling treble accuracy. The alternating bump and drop in the low treble range can veil finer details in vocals and lead instruments. The steep rise in the mid-treble range gives sibilants a piercing quality. Since their treble delivery is heavily dependent on their fit, seal, and positioning, your listening experience may vary.

The peaks and dips performance is sub-par. The extended bump from the high-bass to low-mid range gives a boomy quality to some mixes and muddies vocals and lead instruments. The drop in the mid-mids pushes vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix while the following bump in the high-mids makes them sound harsh and boxy. The steep dip and rise in the treble range can make some vocals and lead instruments sound a little dull and give sibilants a piercing, painful quality.

The Razer Kaira Pro have great stereo imaging performance. Their weighted group delay falls beneath the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. The L/R drivers are also well-matched in regards to phase, amplitude, and frequency response, so objects like voices and footsteps should be accurately placed within the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our test unit, and yours may perform differently.

These headphones have poor passive soundstage. Sound is likely to be perceived as coming from the inside of your head, rather than all around you, resulting in a somewhat unnatural listening experience.

The Razer Kaira Pro are compatible with Windows Sonic Spatial Audio on Xbox, though we don't currently test this feature. You need an Xbox Wireless adapter to use this feature with PCs that don't have Xbox Wireless technology.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is very good. Aside from a slight bit of distortion in the low-treble range at moderate and high volumes, the rest of the frequency range stays within good limits. This results in mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Razer Kaira Pro. These headphones use Xbox Wireless technology to connect to compatible devices and don't come with a wireless USB dongle, so we used a Microsoft Wireless Adapter for Xbox One to pair it to our test PC for sound and microphone testing. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

The noise isolation performance is inadequate. They block out very little noise in both the bass and mid-range, so you're likely to hear passing buses and trucks as well as the chatter of people nearby. They do an excellent job of filtering out high-pitched ambient noise, so you shouldn't hear much of the hum of an AC unit.

The audio leakage performance is adequate. They leak some audio, so you may annoy people nearby if you listen to content at very high volumes in a moderately quiet environment.

The Razer Kaira Pro have a detachable, flexible boom microphone.

The boom microphone has amazing recording quality. Recorded speech sounds full-bodied, clear, and natural.

Update 10/22/2021: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The boom microphone does a good job isolating speech from background noise and it performs very similarly to the Razer Kaira X. People on the other end of the line or online teammates should understand you fairly clearly, even if you're in a loud and noisy environment.

The Razer Kaira Pro have impressive battery performance. They supply just under 20 hours of continuous playback time with their RGB lights turned on, which outlasts the advertised claim of 15 hours, and have an auto-off timer to help conserve the charge when they're not in use. You can also turn off their RGB lights to slightly extend their battery life or use these headphones as they charge via their USB cable. If you like to game for long periods of time but would rather not have to plug in the charging cable to do so, consider the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 (Gen 3) Wireless, which we tested as having a continuous battery life of over 85 hours. That's more than enough for several marathon gaming sessions.

The Razer Headset Setup for Xbox is a great companion app. It features a five-band graphic EQ, audio presets, a five-band microphone equalizer, microphone responsiveness adjustment, and configuration options for their RGB lighting scheme. You can also change the length of their auto-off timer and check the remaining battery life. To use this app on PCs that don't have Xbox Wireless technology, you need to buy an Xbox Wireless Adapter.

Update 10/22/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'PC latency' at 266 ms, 'iOS latency' at 58 ms, and 'Android Latency' at 89 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in different values. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

Update 10/18/2021: We've changed Multi-Device Pairing from 'No' to 'Bluetooth + Console/Non-BT Wireless' as these headphones can connect to an Xbox console and a Bluetooth device at the same time. You have to first pair the headphones to your console and then press the headphones' Bluetooth pairing button to connect them to your mobile device. Once paired to both devices, you can hear audio from both devices simultaneously. As a result, we have updated our review, and the scoring of this box has changed.

The Razer Kaira Pro have great Bluetooth connectivity. They support Bluetooth 5.0, and you can stream music from your phone over Bluetooth while remaining connected to your Xbox. While their Bluetooth latency on PC is quite high, they perform quite well in this regard with iOS devices, so you can watch movies on your phone or play mobile games with little in the way of annoying latency. However, their latency on Android devices could cause some slight syncing issues between your audio and visuals. Note that some apps and devices compensate for latency differently, so your real-life experience may differ.

The Razer Kaira Pro offer excellent non-Bluetooth connectivity. There's very little audio latency, so you can game without experiencing a noticeable audio delay.

Note: The Xbox variant of these headphones over-ears use Xbox Wireless technology to connect to their respective console family. To test latency, we used a Microsoft Wireless Adapter for Xbox One to connect the headphones to our test laptop, which doesn't have Xbox Wireless technology. We can't confirm that the measured latency is similar to when connected to Xbox One, Xbox One S, or Xbox Series S|X consoles.

These over-ears aren't compatible with any wired connections. The included USB-C cable is used for charging the headphones.

You can easily use these headphones on PC if you have the PlayStation variant. You'll get full audio and mic support. If you have the Xbox variant, you'll need to check if your PC supports Xbox Wireless; otherwise, you won't be able to connect these headphones.

Only the PlayStation variant of these headphones support a wireless connection with PlayStation consoles. You'll have full audio and mic support, though.

The Xbox variant of these headphones supports full audio and microphone compatibility with Xbox One consoles when connected via Xbox Wireless technology. Much like an Xbox controller, they can be paired to the console. If you're looking for a dedicated Xbox headset that's fully compatible using either Xbox Wireless or a wired USB connection, check out the Xbox Wireless Headset.

You can't use the PlayStation variant of these headphones on Xbox.

The Razer Kaira Pro don't have a base or dock, though they are compatible with an Xbox Wireless Adapter, which can be purchased separately.