If you’ve been lucky enough to grab yourself an Xbox Series X as well as the official Xbox Wireless Headset, we have good news: Xbox Insider patch notes just revealed an update that improves the headset’s mic performance.
In addition to several bug fixes for the console itself, the release includes a firmware update for the Xbox Wireless Headset that increases mic monitoring levels, making it easier to hear yourself when you speak.
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Mic monitoring can be very helpful during games, where in the heat of the moment it can be hard to tell how clearly your friendly chat, tactical calls and/or vexed yelps might be heard by teammates. While our gaming editor Marshall didn’t have a problem with the Xbox Wireless Headset’s mic monitoring level when testing for his review, evidently some Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S owners felt it was a little too quiet.
This update should therefore make your own voice louder to yourself, so you can be more confident of your voice chat coming through clearly on the other end.
The update also reduces the volume of status tones, which our review did identify as a problem. “The notification sounds for activation, pairing and low battery are all obnoxiously loud, and there’s no way to lower the volume,” wrote Marshall. This update should hopefully satisfy anyone else who found the Xbox Wireless Headset’s beeps and boops too harsh on the ear.
While the Xbox Wireless Headset has already earned a spot among the best gaming headsets, it's not perfect, so we're glad that this update does seem to make meaningful improvements to an already very good peripheral.
If you’d prefer not to spend more on our current top pick, the SteelSeries Arctis 7X, it could be a very encouraging sign that Microsoft is continuing to improve its $99 headset after release.
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