EPOS H3 Review

Product Manufacturer: EPOS

Price: $179

Estimated Time With Gear: 30–40 hours

What Is It? Wired gaming headset for PC and consoles

Compatible With: PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, Oculus + more

As the first gaming headset to be released solely by EPOS as they separate themselves from being a part of Sennheiser Gaming, the EPOS H3 has a lot riding on its quality.

I’ve been using the EPOS H3 for all my gaming needs for the past week, and I’ve come away impressed with just how comfortable the headset can be. Straight out of the box, this is a small, ultra-light and simple headset. It has one job only: to be as comfortable around your head while you use it — for which it succeeds. I’ve worn the headset for upwards of 6 hours straight and haven’t had a single issue, whereas other headsets I usually wear would start hurting my ears or the top of my head after that amount of time.

EPOS H3 retail packaging — A nice snug box holds your EPOS H3 headset. Photo supplied by the author.

EPOS H3 box contents with cables and manual — There’s a small box holding the two cables and a small instruction manual. Photo supplied by the author.

The headset comes in either “Onyx Black” or “Ghost White.” Either colour is a simple splash of paint. I’ve been using the white H3, and as someone who doesn’t usually like white headsets, the smaller design and frame of the headset helps this headset look lovely on your head or on show.

The headset comes with two sets of cables out of the box: one 3.5mm jack to use with your gaming consoles, phone or laptop, and a TRRS cable to use with your PC. There’s no extension on the headset to plug these into; they go straight into the side of the headset so you can pack away the headset and cables nicely between use.

EPOS H3 (Ghost White) on surface, alternate angle

Having the cables separate from the headset also means you can easily order replacements if something happened to your headset.

You can control the volume of the headset by turning a dial on the right cup. I’m not in love with this system as there’s not enough feedback as you’re turning the dial to know where you are on its scale. I also found I had to use two fingers to turn the dial and struggled to use one efficiently.

My major criticism for the headset is the overall volume. On both console and PC, the max volume for the headset was much quieter than any other headset I use every week. It’s not unusable, but I always had the H3 at max volume when I don’t get close to 100% on my other headsets. As such, I wasn’t impressed when listening to music either. The H3 is most definitely a gaming headset, not an all-rounder.

Watch the EPOS H3 feature video on YouTube

The mic isn’t detachable on the H3, which is disappointing. However, it does deliver solid audio quality, with people I played games with telling me it sounded as good or the same as other headsets I’ve used recently. You can quickly mute the microphone by lifting it, and there’s a click to let you know when you’ve reached the mute point. The bidirectional mic is also an excellent choice for a headset microphone as it helps mute the background noise around you for your teammates.

At $179, the EPOS H3 might be a hard sell for those with a budget in line for a gaming headset. A few headsets are slightly cheaper that include better sound quality, but the build and comfort of the H3 are superior. Ultimately it comes down to what you’re most interested in, and if you spend most of your gaming time online with friends for hours on end, the H3 and its comfort might better suit your needs.