The new Razer Opus is another beautiful piece of Bluetooth-powered headphone that has the usual design you’ll find on other big audio device makers on the market such as Sony or Bose.

Even though Razer continues to be the gaming hardware brand with fancy RGB lights and alien-design aesthetics, the Razer Opus is a pretty decent over-ear headphone with minimal design. If you get yourself the white color, you’ll barely notice the logo engraved on the handles of the headphone – that’s how minimal the design is.

It’s certain that Razer is targeting a different audience with the device which is made of good premium materials like soft lining and metal frame. The matte plastic finish also adds up to the premium feel compared to the glossy finish you often find on cheaper headphones.

The headband gives good support and general comfort when worn and the cushioned ear cups also give support without causing pressure. Long-term usage will often leave some marks on your hair due to the headband pressing in on your hair but the overall experience has been great so far.

Design-wise, Razer Opus has physical buttons compared to touch controls on others and it has support for a 3.5mm audio jack which can be used in the place of Bluetooth – or in situations when you need the lowest latency possible.

I like the positions of the controls which are often easy for me to reach with my right thumb and the curvy design means your entire ears can sit right inside the ear cups.

From the side, I like the look and feel of the Razer Opus but from the front or back, I sometimes find it looking big especially as there is a gap between the stem of the headband and the side of my head.

While that space is certain, being able to take more than 1 finger to me is too big but if I put on a face cap, the space gets closed out a little bit. Also for people who have long hair or big hair, there will be a good blend.

But the Razer Opus isn’t just about the design but also about the technology it comes with. We’re talking about a 40mm driver, and pretty long-lasting battery life. There is also active noise cancellation which performs pretty well during my short test with the headphone.

You’re also stuck with the Bluetooth as there isn’t support for a 3.5mm audio jack. Though there is certainly a low latency, you can enjoy a beautiful gaming experience with this device. The Opus isn’t the best on the market but it’s definitely interesting, outputting a pretty decent amount of audio quality.

Design aesthetics of the Razer Opus

There are pretty little to no noticeable differences between the new and older model of the Razer Opus which is an interesting thing to note. The design is tried and trusted which is probably why Razer is sticking with it. Another cool thing I like about the design of the headphone is how well it’s balanced on my head.

Although it can look big sometimes, the fact that I’m able to adjust the size to fit the size of my head is another thing I find interesting about the headphone.

There isn’t much pressure when I put this on my head for a long time thanks to the soft cushions around the ear cup. The fitting of the ear inside this makes room for the ANC to also work perfectly which is another decent thing I like about the Razer Opus.

Hauling the headphone is also a pretty simple thing. You can either do so by merely placing it around your neck and rotating the ear cups around their axis so it doesn’t seem invasive. There is also a small box with which you can carry the headphones.

Another design difference compared to the previous model is that the cups do not fold over the headset. Also, there is no longer a separate storage case in the kit, only a USB-C / USB-A cable for charging. In general, this decision is understandable – Opus X costs less than previous headphones, so no additional buns were put in the box.

The toughness of the leather materials used on the headphone is still questionable. I mean how long can you make use of the device over time. A good scenario is during a mild rainfall or exercise and your body is sweaty.

Even on a normal day, if you are the type that sweats a lot, there is a possibility that you’ll sweat and those could have a long-term impact on the leathers of the ear cups.

Also, they are not replaceable and Razer didn’t provide additional ones with the product out of the box so you’re basically stuck with what you have.

Other noticeable things on the headphone as stated earlier are the position of the buttons which are easy to reach. There are four buttons on the headphone and they’re all positioned right close to one another allowing for easy access when needed.

Control

You can control playback using the buttons on the headphones themselves: they are easy to distinguish by touch thanks to a small protrusion on the center key. Only 4 buttons:

• Power button: Long Press turns on/off the Razer Opus while a short press activate between ANC and Ambient mode.
• The Plus and Minus buttons are for volume up and down
• The middle button is a multifunctional button. One Press pauses the track, double skips to the next track and triple skips to the previous

There is an accompanying mobile application that can be downloaded on both Android and iOS platforms. From there, you can set up the device’s equalizer with a number of ready-made presets to enhance the audio output of the headphone and other cool settings – though the app doesn’t do a lot.

Functions

The Active noise cancellation works pretty well enough on the device and its ability to ease off external noise in your surroundings. When compared to a smaller TWS headphone, the audio quality might be debatable especially when compared to other brands that fall within the same price range as the Razer Opus in the tiny TWS earbuds world.

The reason I’m saying this is basically due to the designs of TWS earbuds which often protrudes into the ear canal. Normally, even without using ANC, they are often good with noise isolation whereby over-ear headphones will often require more support to hold off ambient noise from getting into the ears.

The ANC inclusion on the Razer Opus definitely gets the job done in a very good way. unnecessary chatters and environmental noise such as those you get from ceiling fans or car honks from outside of the loud bangs from your neighbor’s apartment are reduced to the barest minimum.

Using the Razer Opus in public places gave good noise isolation. There are usually some surrounding sounds you just don’t want to deal with and this device is able to deal with all of them by simply tapping on the button then everything goes silent.

There is of course the Ambient mode which allows you to listen to your environment better using the reverse technique of the ANC which basically uses some computer algorithm to translate external noise into silence.

There is no automatic face detection which works by automatically turning off your songs when you take off the earbuds and then continue from where you stopped when you put it back on your head.

Making calls with the Razer Opus

This I must say is very amazing and I can assure you the best audio quality on the other side for those receiving your calls. I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t have the support to connect to multiple devices at once just like my recently reviewed Edifier W800BT Plus headphone.

Although it’s easy to just place my phone and walk away from it while making calls without the fear of any unnecessary interference, there is also a noise-cancelling microphone that allows your recipients to listen to your voice clearly without any issue.

I tried all of that. Sometimes, I would leave my smartphone in the bedroom and walk to the kitchen to do other things while on the call. It’s amazing that my voice is often picked much loudly compared to the plate clattering or water dripping in the sink and other tiny background sounds in the kitchen.

Audio quality of the Rzer Opus

Out of the box, Razer is generous enough to equip this device with big 40mm drivers that operate at the 20Hz to 20kHz range offering a pleasant audio output.

Speaking of sound separation, my go-to song is usually “What to do by Travis Scott” and there is a part where I often spot good headphones and that’s where Travis Scott said “But still!” immediately after the first verse by Don Toliver.

The two words were said in the background and it’s well separated from the instrumental or even the entire song itself. So whenever a headphone picks it up in its original form, I know it’s got some quality.

There is also a good bass output on the Razer Opus with a good balance with the singer’s vocals and other instrumentals. Being a hip hop fan, I definitely enjoyed those punch and aggressive 808 sounds from old school tracks like What they want by DMX and Sisqo or even pop songs like Don’t call me Angel by Arianna Grande. The part where Miley Cyrus said, “Even though we!” at the end of the song is often not well picked up by some headphones because they often just mix the beat with her last vocals.

Gaming is excellent with sound coming from both sides of the headphone creating the 3D surround sound experience. I think if Razer had implemented the Spatial audio experience on this device, it would have been amazing but that’s a story for another time.

Overall, I think the audio output is amazing and it’s really interesting to the point where I can say it sits conveniently in the B range.

Battery life of the Razer Opus

The Opus comes bundled with a big battery that gives you about 30 hours of usage when you turn on noise cancellation mode despite listening to music at a mid-level.

Usually, I put on the ANC and then play songs at the lowest range possible to balance up my work with what I’m listening to. However, I often increase the sound to the top when I’m inspired to enjoy the experience in full.

30 hours of battery usage isn’t a dealbreaker and you can get over 40 hours of battery usage with the ANC turned off but also it depends on the volume you are dealing with which can have an impact on the battery life.

During my time with the Razer Opus, the battery worked pretty well and I was able to drain the power after over two days of continuous music playback with some gaming and internet media consumption as well all of which contributed to the battery drainage before an eventual recharge that took about 2 hours.

Should you buy the Razer Opus

Yes if you can afford it because there are some pretty decent over-headphones on the market that costs really less while offering almost the same level of quality audio experience.

Although the ANC technology onboard sort of gave the Razer Opus some credibility among potential buyers, its audio output isn’t the best of the best.

Of course, there is definitely no best of the best – but the Opus has tried to be many things at a time especially from its manufacturer known for making gaming accessories for computers.

I guess the exclusion of the 3.5mm earphone jack and the lack of THX certification are things that dwindled the price tag of the Razer Opus and well if those two mean nothing to you, then you can try out the Razer Opus and grab yours from the company’s official website through the link below.