Razer BlackShark V2 X – Review

With many of the newer generation of gamers trying to make it on the esports scene and become one of the big names that people flock to watch, or earn a spot in one of the top clans, headphones that match that desire are paramount to success.

But what makes a headset good? And, more importantly, what makes a good headset, good for esports?
Now – whatever your opinions on this, one thing is for sure. There are companies out there that know what makes a good headset and what makes a good esports headset and Razer is one of them.

Razer enters the esports scene with their Blackshark range of headsets. These headsets have been designed for quality audio and communication in esports use while ensuring comfort and a not-so-big hole in your wallet.

Being a fan of Razer – I jumped at the chance to spend some time with the Blackshark V2 X headset when it was offered to me for a review.

Design and Performance

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of the Blackshark’s performance, let’s take a moment to look at its design.
The Blackshark V2 has a traditional over the head band with a slight twist. Razer opted to use a wire type mounting for the ear cup to the headband. This, and the volume knob located conveniently on the outside of the left earcup give the Blackshark V2 X a bit of Vietnam pilot feel to the them. Which I don’t mind in the slightest.

Although not a wireless, or USB headset, the Blackshark V2 X doesn’t come with a shortage of gear. The headset comes with an attached mic and wind guard, an attached 3.5mm audio jack, a splitter cable for those devices that need split audio and mic, a carry bag and, of course, the usual user manual and stickers.

Razer chose to steer clear of RGB on the Blackshark V2 X, so there is no Razer Chroma support for them. However – no RGB does not mean boring in any sense! The Blackshark V2 X comes in black, white and Razer Green, as well as many other options in the other Blackshark headset ranges.

With memory foam on the earcups and thicker padding on the headband, this headset will sit snug for hours of esports gaming and weighing in at only 240g, you’d barely even notice you’re wearing them.
The memory foam earcups also serve to enhance the passive voice cancellation on the Blackshark V2 X as the foam moulds to fit your head around your ears, creating a “noise-tight” seal.

As expected with a headset from Razer, the Blackshark V2 X headset boasts 7.1 Surround Sound, but only on a 64bit Windows 10 device, as well as the patented Razer Triforce 50mm drivers that we’ve come to love in the newer headsets from this brand. This Triforce driver allows the Razer engineers to custom tune each driver as though there were three of them. This allows for the individual replication of high, mid and low audio frequencies which, in turn, results in richer trebles, brighter sound and powerful bass. If you don’t believe us – we got this info straight from Razer and we have it on good authority (our own) that it really is as they say!

Razer knows communication is key in esports and, keeping that in mind, they attached the Razer Hyperclear Cardioid mic onto the Bladckshark V2 X. This mic offers greater speech pick-up and background noise cancellation – ensuring your comms come through crisp and clear. The mic is also attached to a bendable, omnidirectional boom which allows you to position it just right for maximum effect and comfort.

With the Blackshark V2 X using a 3.5mm jack, it means that the headset can be used with any device that supports 3.5mm jack input. Now – unless you haven’t yet moved away from your dial-up connection and Yahoo is still your favourite search engine, you would know that pretty much EVERY device supports 3.5mm jack inputs but just for the clarity’s sake, I’ll list the supported devices here.
PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and mobile devices that have a 3.5mm port.

My Experience

My personal experience with the Blackshark V2 X headset from Razer has been nothing but good. From the opening of the box to the very sad packing it up and sending it back to Apex Interactive, the Blackshark (cheesily named the Greenshark because of its colour) served me well in my non-pro/esports player capacity.

That being said, this by no means means that I barely used them. Quite the opposite in fact.
I adopted the Blackshark V2 X headset into any and every aspect of my life that I could and it performed admirably on all fronts.

When I say I adopted this headset into every aspect of my life – I mean it.
I used this headset for:
– Gaming – on PC and Xbox.
– Movies/videos – on mobile, PC, and Xbox.
– Music – on mobile, PC, and Xbox.
– Zoom – only on PC.
– Discord/Voice comms – on PC and Xbox.

While most of the use of this headset was for gaming and music on my PC, the Blackshark V2 X gave clear dialogue in movies, and a crisp voice in comms and Zoom and not once did I receive complaints from those who needed to hear me that my voice was coming through crackly or unclear.

While not having RGB didn’t bug me, especially because RGB would clash with the green of the headset that I got for review, this may be a negative hit for some of you who firmly believe that more RGB means more frames, skills and headshots. It also doesn’t include Razer Hypersense (haptic feedback) which, again not a biggy for me, might be another red cross on your list.

Since this is an esports/gaming headset, I’ll focus on my experience while in the game with them.
I found the Blackshark V2 X to be incredibly comfortable and I barely noticed it on my head after hours of prolonged use. The headset can be easily adjusted to fit even neanderthal-sized craniums like mine in a matter of seconds as the earcups slide along the wire supports. One minor OCD point is that I did struggle to “balance” the headset a bit. Meaning, I struggled to make sure that the left and right earcups were exactly, and I mean EXACTLY, the same distance from the headband to make the headset fit as symmetrically as possible. With this being said though – even when unbalanced, the headset is incredibly comfortable.

At its price (currently around the R1000 to R1200 mark at South African retailers), the Blackshark V2 X is probably the best headset you can buy in that price bracket, as well as some higher-up brackets, based purely on the performance of this headset. And while this headset is cheaper, Razer certainly didn’t take any shortcuts or make any compromises on its quality of it.

Final Verdict

While not on the same tier as the Kraken Pro in terms of features and form (as well as budget), I found the Blackshark headset to tick all the boxes I needed it to, and then some. So please don’t feel that if its isn’t R2500 or more, it’s a bad headset as the Blackshark will happily break that wall down for you.

As previously mentioned, the low price, great performance, low weight and high comfort factor, design (both colour and pilot vibe) are all great contributing factors.
If you’re looking to make your start in the pro-gamer or esports realms, or to upgrade/replace your current gear (and don’t mind cables), the Blackshark V2 X will help you achieve some of those dreams, and help you look good while doing it.

All in all, we give the Blackshark V2 X esports headset from Razer and solid 3.5 out of 5!

Once again, a massive thank you to our friends over at Apex Interactive SA for trusting us with another incredible piece of tech.