14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since it acquired RIG three years ago, NACON boosted the brand all over the world by adding new products to the lineup. More importantly, RIG headsets cover all price tiers from the most affordable to the premium segment that offers the best audio features money can buy.
The new RIG 600 Pro HS is the latest headset launched by NACON in the low tier segment. The headset can be paired with PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, smartphones, tablets, Nintendo Switch and PC, but a different version is available for those who want to use it with their Xbox consoles.
NACON’s RIG 600 Pro HS doesn’t stand out when it comes to design, and the fact that the material on the cups looks very cheap doesn’t help either. On the bright side, the headset feels very comfortable and even after many hours of wearing them I didn’t feel any discomfort.
The build seems very solid, although I wouldn’t try to step on them because the glossy plastic will most likely snap. The headset comes in a simple package that includes two USB cables and a Bluetooth dongle.
Unfortunately, I have yet to see a pair of wireless headphones that comes with such a short USB cable, so you’ll definitely need to buy your own cable if you want the charging process to be as smooth and comfy as possible.
All the controls are positioned on the left cup, but there’s a reason for that. From the top down, the headset features a Bluetooth button, multi-connection toggle, volume wheel, power on/off button, and USB port. The microphone is hidden in the right cup, which is something not many wireless headsets come up with.
I did appreciate the fact that the mic is not in front of my mouth when retracted and it’s also small enough to not even see it with my peripheral vision, but that approach poses another challenge that I’ll discuss later on.
Overall, the RIG 600 Pro HS headset has a solid build, but the glossy plastic and nylon-like material that covers both cups look rather cheap. There’s one other negative thing that I’d like to point out and that’s the flat power on/off button. It takes quite a few seconds to power on the headset because it’s hard to pinpoint the button without looking at the left cup. A simple solution would have been to add a protruding power on/off button rather than a flat one that’s almost impossible to identify without looking at it.
Moving on to the actual sound, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the audio aspect. The RIG 600 Pro HS don’t sound too well right out of the box, but playing with some of the settings in the Navigator App did the trick for me.
Unlike other headsets that mainly focus on bass, the RIG 600 Pro HS is clearly a mids and highs frequencies type of headset. However, the NACON’s headset has enough bass to make the listening experience quite immersive, especially when playing games.
Of course, the headphones sound even better with Dolby Atmos enabled and I encourage everyone who purchases this headset to use it for the best sound experience.
One advantage that NACON’s headphones has over other wireless headsets is that the sound changes you make while using the RIG 600 PRO Navigator App on your phone will stay with you even if you connect the headset to your PC or PlayStation.
Not many wireless headsets retain the sound settings from your phone to be used on another device that it hasn’t been paired with yet, so I’d say this is a huge benefit that RIG 600 Pro HS users are getting.
One of the main selling points of the RIG 600 Pro HS is its dual mode connectivity feature, which means that you can connect the headset to two devices and, in theory, should receive sound from both simultaneously. Unfortunately, NACON’s headset can’t output from two sound sources at the same time. I’m not sure if this is a hardware or software issue, but it makes dual mode almost useless.
As far as the boom mic goes, it’s as I feared. Because it’s far away from my mouth, it sounds very distant and, sometimes, even muffled. Even fiddling with some settings didn’t improve the experience, so it’s clearly not the best design approach. However, I’d say that the flip-up mic is serviceable enough to worth the trade off of having it right in front of my mouth.
When it comes to battery life, NACON claims the RIG 600 Pro HS should offer up to 18 hours of continuous usage with 2.4GHz and 24 hours with Bluetooth. I got about the same numbers, which isn’t good, but not too bad either. Considering the headset charges fully in about 2 hours, I’d say battery life won’t be an issue.
Conclusion
The best qualities of the headset are definitely the great sound (especially when used with Dolby Atmos) and the very light, yet solid build. I'd recommend installing the RIG 600 PRO Navigator App before using the headset because the factory setting don’t sound too well. Also, be ready to spend a bit more for an additional USB cable because the one included is extremely short.
