While Edifier may not (yet) be a household name, we’ve seen their continuing foray into the world of gaming audio and speaker systems over the past few years. Across the board, this is a company that are excelling at visually appealing products, with an eye – or ear – for audio detail that sits amongst the best in the industry. With the G5 Max, they’re pushing that even further, producing an eye-catching high-res wireless, multiplatform headset that’s immediately one of the most comfortable products on the market.
The G5 Max is quite obviously a gaming headset. Where some companies like Turtle Beach and Steelseries are shifting their designs towards headsets that fall in line with more general consumer trends, Edifier are still certain that gamers want headsets that speak very specifically to them. The G5 Max continues in that vein, rocking what can only be described as a sci-fi, ultra-futuristic look that wouldn’t be out of place slung across Keir Dullea’s head in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or flung down by an irate rebel in The Empire Strikes Back.
Our review unit only strengthens that vibe, its stark white contrasting with the cold metal adjustment hinges and the black leatherette of its headband and soft ear cushions. Detailing is provided by silver threaded stitching through the headband, with an embossed Hecate logo across the top, and both G5 Max and Hecate logos at the base of the headband and on the earpieces themselves. They’re bold, and immediately striking, and while I can’t say that I absolutely love the design language, I can see a lot of people vibing with its strong gamer-forward looks.
What I particularly like, though, is the otherworldly soft-touch plastic of each earpiece, and the RGB lighting of the Hecate logo that pulsates within it. I don’t really know how they’ve made plastic that’s both cold and yet gentle and softly tactile, but every time you pick the G5 Max up, you feel as though you’re grabbing something that’s a little bit different.
The G5 Max has a wealth of connection possibilities, working across PC, Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, and PS5 with its 2.4Ghz wireless dongle, while the Bluetooth 6.0 makes it ideal for mobile and pretty much anything modern that spits out audio. The dongle has a pretty major party trick, with a detachable USB-C mini-dongle that you can remove from the USB-A housing. The dinky USB-C dongle is perfect for the Switch 2 and ensures that you’re getting the absolute best connection while you’re out and about.
The G5 Max’s other party trick is its battery life. This is a headset that will last an absolutely insane amount of time, capable of 305 hours of Bluetooth playback and 227 hours via the wireless dongle. I’ve been reviewing it for the past few weeks and it’s still not run out, which is a truly remarkable feat for a headset that’s not going into an overnight dock and doesn’t have a secondary battery to swap in. It’ll actually be a surprise when I finally have to charge it.
Comfort levels are very good indeed, though it does seem as though the G5 Max is particularly set up for people with a slightly larger head, or a voluminous hair do, just because of the natural way the earpieces fall. At 305g it’s heavier than something like Sony’s WM6, but considerably lighter than Apple’s AirPods Max – admittedly not that hard. Against comparable gaming headsets, it also undercuts recent favourites like Turtle Beach’s Stealth Pro 2 and Steelseries’ Arctis Pro Wireless too, and through multiple hours of wear, it never became too heavy or remotely uncomfortable.
There’s also a removable boom arm, and the noise cancelling mic is excellent, proving its worth through game chat and a recent radio interview, where it sounded exceedingly clear and crisp, capturing a considerable amount of detail. You could definitely use the G5 Max for streaming, or a spot of light recording, as an easy alternative to dragging out your full mic setup.
With the cool visual design, unbelievable battery life and excellent comfort levels, it’s a welcome discovery to find that the G5 Max also sounds pretty good, too. I’ve reviewed Final Fantasy Resonance over the past couple of weeks, and the classic Final Fantasy orchestration sounded fantastic through Edifier’s latest headset, carrying all of the drama and impact that you’d hope for. The G5 Max is a surprisingly well-balanced headset, with its 53mm drivers capable of providing clear, well-rounded bass, accurate mids and detail in the top end that doesn’t stray into thin or harsh notes.
There’s two sound modes that you can switch between as standard, moving between Game and Music modes by triple pressing the ‘G’ button on the left earcup. You can customise both your EQ settings and lighting via the Hecate app, which is available for both iOS and Android, and it’s easy enough to connect via Bluetooth and tinker with each of them. There is a delay between your changes to the EQ settings that is a little disconcerting, but you can still dial in the right tones. To be honest, the Game EQ mode sounds good for general use, even if it is quite mid-forward.
I’ve spent a lot of time listening to the new Dead Poets Society and President albums via the G5 Max and its high-definition LHDC codec support, and through both of them there was a great separation between the instrumentation and an enjoyably wide soundstage that gives your music space to breath. If you’re on PC, you can take that expansive quality even further, with the G5 Max able to take advantage of THX 7.1.4 virtual surround sound via the dedicated drivers. You’re out of luck on console and Mac, though, and the ConneX app doesn’t play nice here either, with both Bluetooth and dongle connections failing to register the G5 Max, at least during our review time.
The lack of noise cancelling is possibly the only downside to taking the G5 Max out and about, and its lightweight build doesn’t lend it a great deal of passive noise cancellation. If you play or listen in busy, loud family or public environments, this may not be the headset for you. That said, you can always turn them up – they get significantly loud, even for someone who’s ruined their ears playing in bands for years, and I can currently hear nothing of my family who are baking/chatting/doing homework. It would almost be peaceful if I wasn’t listening to the new Glasswaves album.
At their £159 RRP, the G5 Max sit right in the middle of the pack, and they absolutely deserve consideration, particularly if you’re looking for long-term comfort and insane battery life. Alternatives include the Arctis Nova 5 from Steelseries, which probably pips it in terms of audio, but doesn’t offer the same level of comfort, or the Razer Blackshark V3, which has similar levels of connectivity, though misses out on the adaptable dongle, and its 70-hour battery life is impressive, but a million miles away from the G5 Max.
