Corsair Gaming H1500 Review

Corsair Gaming H1500 Review

Manufacturer: Corsair
UK price (as reviewed): £74.99 (inc VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $79.99 (ex Tax)

The Corsair Gaming H1500 is a rebrand of the Corsair Vengeance 1500 V2, but that's a headset we never got around to seeing, so with the recent launch of the Corsair Gaming brand now is as good a time as any to get to grips with it. It does also mean that many Vengeance branded peripherals will start to to have stock cleared by retailers, so there may be a good bargain or two out there in the coming days and weeks if they haven't been snapped up already.


The H1500 is the lowest of two headsets currently under the Corsair Gaming moniker, the main difference being that the H2100 above it is also wireless. The H1500, meanwhile, uses a single USB connection to provide Dolby 7.1 surround sound effects through its neodymium 50mm drivers. As we saw recently with the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z60, Dolby DTS Headphone:X 7.1 is the latest headphone surround sound technology, so hopefully the H1500 isn't too far behind the competition. That said, there is of course more to a gaming headset than the Dolby surround technology it uses, and many will prefer a true stereo output anyway.

The rebrand brings with it the new Corsair Gaming logo and a move from a black and blue colour scheme to a black and yellow one. The bumblebee look probably isn't to everyone's taste, so it's good the yellow is not overdone. The H1500 utilises a plastic frame, so build quality isn't as good as the aluminium-based Qpad QH-90 or Kingston HyperX Cloud, but it's nevertheless solid, and feels a little more robust than Turtle Beach's recent effort as well.


The earcups utilise memory foam in a micro-fibre wrapping that is said to conform to the contours of your head without binding or pinching. The headband also has its share of soft foam, this time in a synthetic leather cover. In use, the headband is certainly soft, but even so we felt the weight of the headset a little more than we'd have liked, especially when compared to other models we've looked at recently. Thankfully, the earcups are also comfortable. Our ears fitted inside well, but bigger ears may have issues, though there's at least plenty of depth inside them.

There's enough height extension to keep most satisfied, and the earcups can rotate so that they face forwards, which makes the bulky headset a little easier to pack up and transport. The earcups are also suspended such that they can pivot a little, and this means they adapt to your head shape very easily. All in all, it works well, but at the same time nothing feels too loose. The pressure exerted by the H1500 is well balanced such that your head doesn't feel crushed or uncomfortable, but equally even rigorous head shaking wasn't enough to dislodge it, so you need not lose sound in more heated gaming moments.


The uni-directional, noise-cancelling microphone is fixed to the headset, but it can be moved upwards out of the way when you're not using it. It features an impedance of 2.2k Ohms, a frequency response of between 100Hz and 10kHz and a sensitivity of around -44dB.

The 3m USB cable is definitely on the long side, but the basic in-line controller sits close to you and also has a clip so you shouldn't have to fiddle too much to reach the mic mute or volume up and down buttons. The bright blue light on the in-line remote will flick between red and blue when you mute it – you need to press the button for this, as folding the microphone itself up doesn't automatically mute it. The cable is non-detachable but is braced at the junction in the left earcup to stop it coming loose. You can use the headset as a plug and play device but to get the most of it you'll need to download Corsair's lightweight software.