We all know what SteelSeries is about so I'm going to save you the fluff and other things that beat around the bush and go straight to the point.

The 3H which I am reviewing today is the junior of SteelSeries's audio lineup offering good performance with no frills for the gamer on a budget and it looks exactly like a regular budget set of cans.

First Impressions:
When I first saw the headset, I was rather surprised that this little thing could even be considered decent for gaming even if it was a SteelSeries product. I've been using large headsets like the Siberia V2 for sometime now so it's rather difficult for me to lose the bias that small things are bad.

Design:
As for the design doesn't stray much from it's intended function which is a small and portable gaming headset. The whole headset itself can be folded to be roughly larger than my two fists balled together which makes it a very very portable set of cans.



When unfolded, the headset still looks small! While it looks fragile don't be fooled, I dropped it from the height of 1.5m off the floor and it was still okay. Then for the sake of trying, I sat on it just to see if it was really strong. End result? No damage at all! I guess with this it's your best bet to take to a LAN party and not worry about it getting damaged during the event.



The cups are not like those of the other headsets you would see from SteelSeries as the small size of the 3H's cups actually rest on the ears. The cushioning are covered with some leathery material. Between these cups, a thin elastic band sits on the top of your head but unlike the Siberia, you have to adjust the height of it accordingly. A more rigid support which can fold in the middle keeps the cups together when in use and collapses when it needs to be folded. Like many other headsets from the company, the mic is integrated into the left ear cup for the user's convenience.



As you can see here, the cables are single length and non extendable. It is also worth nothing that SteelSeries has thought of reinforcing the length of cable behind the audio jacks as well as the Y-split for extra strength. There is also no in-line volume or mic control on it sadly.

Comfort:
Well I would say comfort is an issue regarding this headset. As I mentioned earlier, the 3H's cups are very small and thus they rest on the ears themselves and not cup over them. This may or may not turn people off as everyone has different feels about it. Personally it's not very bad. After gaming a while with it, I could feel it still being there but due to its light weight and the ample cushioning, it's almost negligible. The biggest problem is the heat  and oh yes your ears can and will get hot after using it for prolonged periods of time. The band on top of the head can only be adjusted by pulling the sides to change the length of the legs so it's not very convenient but what did you expect from a RM130 headset anyway?

Testing methodology:
For this review, I used my main gaming rig equipped with a Supreme X-Fi soundcard for the gaming tests while my HTC Touch2 will handle the MP3. The following are a selection of high quality MP3 tracks I used for the test.

Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
Moments Before - DJ Crapsody
Ano hi Time Machine - Long Shot Party
That Girl - David Choi
Mou Ippo - Arashi
Bonamana - Super Junior

Performance:
When I first used the headset for gaming,  I couldn't believe my ears. Sound quality was admirable for the little thing. Bass was quite there with a good amount of treble thrown in making the games sound crisp and clear. Sound positioning wise it felt very much in tune with games as it gave me an unfair advantage to others when I was testing it out playing COD4 and SuddenAttack.  While the 3H is not as good as the perhaps the 5Hv2 when it comes to gaming, bear in mind that this little thing can be gotten for 1/3 the price of the latter.

For music however, songs with a lot of bass in in definitely benefited a lot with the 'thump' that you can actually feel in your ears but when it came to the mid range and treble heavy songs, it does sound a little muddy but nonetheless, still audible. I also used the 3H as a pair of stand in speakers by turning the volume up and leaving it on my desk. As expected from a headset of this caliber, the sound was adequately loud, audible and did not crack even at maximum.

For testing the mic, I used Skype for VOIP chat with my friends. While I do like the concept of hiding the mic inside the left cup, the build of the mic left a lot to be desired as the boom was too short and could not reach my mouth (it only managed to reach my cheek). Call quality was okay though as my friends could hear me loud and clear.



Other thoughts:
Couldn't really say much about the headset generally, it's a good pair to use anywhere provided you can find a place to hide the extra cables. It's not audiophile grade as far as sound quality is concerned either but definitely worth the money if you plan to get some decent cans. The ability to fold and collapse makes it stupidly easy to stuff it somewhere without taking up too much space.



Summary:
A decent performing if not very plain looking gaming grade headset which packs a lot of punch that doesn't cost an arm an a leg. Gamers on the move who have a low budget but want performance that's built to last should place this on their shopping list!

The good:
Cheap
Very hardy
Easily portable
Great bang for buck

The bad:
Plain look
Single length cable
No in-line volume adjustment
Uncomfortable after a while to some

Rating:
Build: 7
Performance: 7
Value: 9
Overall: 7.7/10