Edifier G5 Max Review: Epic 305-Hour Battery, but Sound and Mic Fall Short

The Edifier G5 Max is a light, comfortable wireless gaming headset with genuinely stellar battery life, but a dull microphone and a boxy default sound profile keep it from justifying its $150/$160 price. It can be tweaked into decent shape, yet the plastics, the fit and the blunt software presets make it feel cheaper than it costs.

Battery life is the spec that pulls me toward any wireless headset, and Edifier's G5 Max claims 305 hours. After three weeks of on and off testing, including a few nights left powered on to see if the meter would drop, I still haven't plugged it in. Only the original HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless comes close. I also can't work out how Edifier fit such a big battery into a headset that weighs just 305 grams (yes, the numbers match, and no, I don't know why).

Specs

The G5 Max uses 53 mm composite, titanium-coated drivers in a closed-back design. Connectivity covers a 2.4 GHz dongle with a switchable USB Type-C or Type-A plug, wired USB Type-C, and Bluetooth 6.0 with LHDC 5.0 for low-latency wireless. It also supports THX Spatial Audio+ and up to 96 kHz/24-bit wired playback. Mic duties fall to two built-in ENC mics plus a detachable boom.

Comfort and build

The headband is thick and squidgy, and the ear cup armature is solid metal with an industrial feel. Light weight makes long sessions easy. The earpads are soft but baggy, and the covering looks a little fragile, so I have doubts about longevity.

Clamping force is very light. That helps comfort at a desk, but the headset has slipped off my head more than once when I moved around, so I wouldn't trust it outdoors despite the Bluetooth connection. The controls feel tinny, and the clattering plastic on the outside of the ear cups doesn't suit a $150 product.

Looks are polarising. The octagonal ear cups clash with the studio-style headband, and the boom mic tip is large enough that I keep catching it in my peripheral vision. The RGB is restrained, reduced to an "H" logo on each cup.

Sound

Out of the box the tuning is very boxy. That might help in some competitive situations, but it's tiring for everyday listening. The EQ presets in the Edifier Hecate app are heavy-handed: the game-specific options push the upper mids and treble to ear-aching levels while mostly ignoring bass, and the bass preset is exactly as blunt as it sounds. I couldn't find a preset that gave the drivers a balanced sound.

Manual tweaking helps a lot. A small bass lift from neutral, a slight dip around 200 to 300 Hz and a gentle push in the treble sweetened things considerably. The drivers are good at detail, too: footsteps come through clearly and positioning is strong, especially with spatial audio switched on. But most buyers at this price will expect good sound without a toolbox.

Microphone

Both mic options disappoint. The built-in mics only work over Bluetooth and sound hollow, though usable in a pinch. The boom mic is barely better, with a dull capsule. The app offers Mic Volume, Voice Clarity and Volume Levelling, plus a separate mic EQ, but none of it overcomes the capsule. At higher settings the noise reduction leaves a digital wash, and the clarity control adds sibilance while stripping out depth. I've heard better from much cheaper headsets.

Software

Hecate is basic in its interface but feature-rich: parametric EQ, a separate bass boost, volume levelling, THX Spatial Audio+ switching, RGB control, power-off settings, connection switching and user profiles. The app also locked itself into an update loop on first install, which may be a one-off, but stability felt rough.

Against the competition

At $150, the G5 Max lands in the same bracket as the Razer BlackShark V3, our top gaming headset pick. The Razer has a more refined chassis and much better audio straight from the box. Its microphone is one of its weaker points, but it still sounds better than the Edifier's. The BlackShark V3 manages only 70 hours of battery life, which is a fraction of the G5 Max's figure.

The G5 Max earns real credit for battery life and low weight. For this money, though, the sound, mic and build all need more polish than Edifier has delivered.