Unleash the Dragon Year on your ears: SteelSeries Dragon Arctis Nova 7

It's just a recolour — albeit a pretty cool one. Using traditional festive dragons as a premise for a new look isn't necessarily a home run, so it's always good to see a tasteful interpretation of a bold theme. 

As you would have guessed, the SteelSeries Dragon Arctis Nova 7 is a tip of the hat to Chinese New Year, especially the Dragon Year. I'm pretty sure this would have been less likely to happen if this was the year of the Mouse (even though a mouse is called a mouse), but it is what it is.

Aside from the Chinese iconography associated with wealth and good fortune, dragons often do the badass stuff in all fictional undertakings, be it in print, on screen or video games. 

While the idea of a gold dragon on the speaker plates, which in turn conceal a lithograph of the Chinese character depicting fortune below, might be a bit much for some, the canny thing that SteelSeries did here is to include a spare pair of matching plates with just the SteelSeries logo. In other words, it can be worn as a simple pair of red headphones with gold accents — Biking Red and Fort Knox gold- if you want to know the exact Pantones.

It helps that the Dragon Arctis Nova 7 has more in common with regular headphones than gaming headphones, looks-wise, so you won't feel self-conscious wearing these out. What's more, the features that make it great for gaming also make it great for regular use. The only downside is that it only has passive noise isolation by virtue of its over-the-ear design.

The Nova 7 is designed with a retractable microphone, so you can use it like regular everyday headphones. That aside, the bidirectional ClearCast Gen 2 Mic is designed to filter out background noise (also with the help of Sonar ClearCast AI), so it's well adapted for calls.

And because the headphones support simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connections, you can easily switch between mobile devices, PCs or consoles, and take calls while in the middle of a game. 

The battery life of up to 38 hours, along with its ComfortMax System for comfort (four adjustment points, rotating earcups, stretchy overhead band, AirWeave memory foam ear cushions), makes it particularly suitable for marathon sessions of anything. 

The limited edition (168 units for Singapore and 168 units for Malaysia) Dragon Arctis Nova 7 goes on sale on Feb 16 for $359 | RM1,099. If your significant other is really into red gaming gear, it's also pretty decent for a late Valentine's Day gift. You can also pre-order now from Shopee. The offers are:

• Shopee SG (now till Feb 16): free limited edition SteelSeries T-shirt while stocks last.
• Shopee My (now till Feb 14): free SteelSeries Prime Mini mouse and a free limited edition SteelSeries T-shirt while stocks last.

ALSO READ: Jabra Elite 8 Active review: For whatever life throws your way

This article was first published in Potions.sg.