LED Lighting + Software Control
LED Lighting + Software Control
For a company, that (along with Corsair) was perhaps 'the' advocate for RGB's rapid rise to power, the lighting on this unit is actually fairly understated. It comes in the form of just two angular light bars located on the trailing edge of each ear cup. These are capable of the full 16.8 million RGB color range, as is to be expected. The Aura software has, thankfully, seen a major reliability bump since I last used it. Whilst I no longer have the Strix X370-F motherboard inside my PC, I can still test the software with the headset alone. I am happy to report that the full suite of color options is available here. The headset defaults to a rainbox effect, which - to be honest - I used for nearly the entire review, as it was so nice (in my own home). Other options available are Static, Colour Cycle, Comet, as well as your good old 'Syncs to music' option. To be honest, unless you have a very specific need for all of your colours in your rig to be matching, I think most will just do as I did, and use the default rainbow mode.
In a word, the software worked flawlessly as standalone. I had no issue with it doing as told, and when I needed 'RGB Off', I could do so with a single click. You can see in the photos, for yourselves, that the RGB is very tastefully done. I would never even think to call it 'gaudy,' though some may argue (not without reason) that merely having RGB on your audio peripherals in the first place is gaudy on merit alone. I would agree with that, but it's there and I happen to like what Asus has done (just like last time).
Naturally, the 700's come with Asus' Aura Sync tech, which allows the lighting to be paired across several compatible devices. I don't, sadly, have any other Aura ready parts or kit ready to test with. However, there is the mobile application. How does it do? Well, first, enable Bluetooth on the phone and headset. This is easy enough on the 700's, being activated by a small button to the rear of the left cup. Once the app finds the device, it is permanently paired. I have to say, it does well. Changing RGB settings on the app was very easy and they applied as expected. I don't even have a gripe, here. It's a very small download, works well and as expected.
In the next section, we will test out the headset using a variety of modern titles.
