A PC gamer has a hard life. The number of peripheral choices is staggering. Do you want to focus on comfort? Performance? Aesthetics? What do those terms even mean? They’re all subjective.
TekNMotion Intruder Headset
A gaming headset is an important choice, especially if you play games that really push it. There are all manner of headsets at different levels of cost and features out there; at the top end you have 5.1 and 7.1 surround headsets with bright LEDs and optical audio, while at the low end you have cheap plasticy things that may as well be disposable.
Today we’re looking at the Teknmotion Intruder, a headset that falls somewhere right in the middle of those two extremes.
A gaming headset for the middle ground
The Intruder doesn’t immediately scream “premium”. It feels very light and the headband seems, for lack of a better word, mundane. It does have a relatively striking look about it, though; one of the first things you notice is that this headset is definitely “sleeker” than other clunky ones.
That could be good or bad, depending on your ears. If you have large ears, this is not the headset for you. The earcups are small, tight, and hot. If you have small ears, it’s not uncomfortable to wear for longer periods of time (except for the heat buildup; the ventilation is inadequate).
The headband is equally middle-of-the-road. It’s a little small, and if you have a large melon you’re going to want to skip this one. Basically, this headset is comfortable if you have a small head and small ears.
The sound quality is decent. It lacks a lot of bass depth that other more expensive headsets offer, and it’s just simple stereo; no “5.1 THX Dolby Certified” anything here.
In essence, it’s just an average headset. The mic quality is fine. The sound quality is fine, but as a standard PC gaming headset, it’s not going to “wow” anyone.
The killer app
Here’s the thing that sets the Intruder apart from most other headsets in this price range, and the feature that may make this a killer app for certain people:
The headset is compatible with devices other than PCs. It’s compatible with tablets, mobile phones, netbooks, and handheld game systems. It comes with detachable breakout cables for tablets, iOS devices, and PC devices. When you plug these in to a PSP or Nintendo DS, your gaming experience changes a lot. The fact that you can take these from your DS and then on to your gaming PC is a pretty compelling feature. They are billing it as a “mobile gaming” headset, and in that use case, it may be one of the better ones on the (admittedly very small) market.
Recommendation
This is not a premium headset. It’s not exactly the most comfortable headset. However, it will work with all of your devices, it comes with a travel bag, two different sized mics (one short one and one on a boom), and plugs for all of your devices. It’s cheap, and it works well enough. It looks cool enough to wear on a plane or in the subway (and the completely-over-the-ear cups actually act as a primitive form of noise cancelling). While I won’t go out of my way to recommend the Intruder, they’re not too expensive and they’ll get the job done.
The TekNmotion Intruder Gaming Headset for Tablets, Smartphones, PC and Mac
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