SteelSeries has just announced and launched its first earbuds with the Arctis GameBuds. As usual when trying them out, I carelessly disregarded everything one might expect me focus on. Instead, I solidified my opinion based on a particular and peculiar fact: these earbuds actually fit my weird little ears.
Look, there's a lot to objectively like about the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, but the simple fact is I've never been an «earbuds» kind of guy, so hearing about all its features didn't really spark joy in me, you know? But what did spark joy in me was the fact that, after getting used to the push-and-twist movement required to fit them, these things fit snug as a bug.
I long ago abandoned all hopes of owning and using earbuds because of my strangely small ears with what must be the most disastrously designed ear canals on the planet (I've even had a doctor comment on my narrow ear canals, so it's not just me). They always slip out.
That's why for the longest time I've used bone conduction earphones: because they sit over my ears, not in them. The Arctis GameBuds have me reconsidering this decision now, though, because like Cinderella's slippers, these GameBuds fit my ears like a… glove?
Given I'd committed all earbuds to the flames years ago and hadn't regularly used any for a long time, I did struggle a little to insert them properly right away. Doing so involves placing them gently into your ear and twisting slightly. Seeing me struggling and looking sheepish, a SteelSeries rep actually put them in for me at first—an experience I shall treasure. but before too long I got the hang of it.
I sat, I stood, I even moved with these things in my ears, and not once did I feel the telltale slip and slide of a bud about to pop out.
SteelSeries says it's designed these things using «over 62,000 ear scans» to «build the perfect design». When I heard that I thought that's probably the usual marketing fluff, but after having them fit snugly and confidently in my ears, I
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