When Sony brought out its first Inzone headsets in 2022, it felt overdue – how could Sony not have its own gaming headsets, given its success with the PlayStation 5?

Well, we’re now more than a year on from the premium H9, H7, and H3, and the lineup is getting filled out further with a new mid-range wireless option – the H5. I’ve used it for a fortnight to see how it holds up.

That same design

The H5 looks a heck of a lot like the H7 and H9 at a glance – it’s got the same core silhouette and earcup shape to it. However, this is the first headset to launch in both black and white colourways.

The others are getting black versions to match that now, too, so your choice is widening throughout the Inzone lineup, with all of them looking much like the others.

It features a padded headband and earcups, with a microphone that you can flip up and away from your face when you’re not in use, rather than a fully removable or retractable one.

The headset is nice and lightweight at 260g, and while its cushioning is noticeably not as plush or superior as the stuff on the much more expensive H9, it’s still soft enough to be comfortable.

I’ve worn the H5 for three-hour sessions without any issues or clamping problems, which is a marker of its design, and the headband can easily be adjusted to suit larger or smaller heads.

Buttons on the earcups let you turn the headset on and off, and you can adjust the volume on the fly with a raised wheel. That raised bump makes it easy to find, although it’s still perplexingly a bit fiddly to actually move while the headset is on your head.

Sony hasn’t really messed with the formula much for the H5, so it’s a pretty successful porting of an established design, although its feeling in the hand is quite plasticky, which reinforces the fact that this is a cut-back version of the H9 and H7.

Sounding solid

When shopping for a mid-range headset, though, a slightly cut-back build quality isn’t really the priority – it’s more about whether you can still get great sound without paying a premium price.

To make sure I’m not blurring the lines, the H5 doesn’t sound as good as the H7, let alone the excellent H9. However, it does get close enough to the former to make a pretty good place for itself.

With 40mm driver units, the H5 can sound nice and rich when you’re connected and playing a game with a good sound design with nice full tones.

It isn’t the bassiest headset I’ve tried, but there is relatively solid balance here, and it also has decent performance in the higher ranges.

The one sonic downside of that plasticky build is that isolation isn’t the best – external noise can quite easily leak through while you’re playing, which can be a bit of a bummer (although it depends on where you’re playing, obviously).

Still, using the H5 to play the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 beta has been a pleasure, and it’s also been a good companion through the early hours of Lords of the Fallen’s 2023 reboot.

While the first title relies more on split-second audio feedback to let you get the drop on enemies, the eerie environments of the latter are also at their best with a proper headset on like this.

The H5 basically sounds almost exactly right for a $150 headset, and that’s coming after trying dozens of competitors in the last few years.

The one area where it does fall down a little is where the microphone is concerned – so often an area where cost-saving does hit you. The H5’s isn’t terrible, but it’s just a little muffled and crackly, and the competition from SteelSeries, in particular, really outclasses it.

Limited features

The biggest variable for a wireless headset of this ilk when it comes to features is its battery, and the H5 posts the sort of numbers that should make it a non-issue.

You should get around 28 hours of playtime on a charge, which is just about what I expect at this point – although other options with battery life tops out at more like 50 hours.

Still, 28 is more than enough to get most people through even a heavy week of gaming, and the USB-C charging can top it up completely in around 3.5 hours, too.

If you need it, there’s also a 3.5mm jack for wired audio, too, so you should have a backup even if the worst should happen and you get caught without power.

While its integration doesn’t make a huge difference, the fact that this is a Sony headset also means it has a set of buttons to let you adjust the balance between your party chats and the game audio without tapping through menus, which is really appreciated.

You connect the headset to your PS5 using a USB-A dongle, which I would probably rather was USB-C too at this point – especially since the PS5 Slim will now come without a USB-A slot on the front (there will still be one on the back).

I found connectivity to be nice and strong, with no drops or crackling, making for a smooth experience.

Verdict

The H5 is a really sensible headset from Sony’s own team – it offers a well-priced package for PS5 owners and PC gamers alike, one that arguably undercuts the slightly older H7 a little.

Don’t necessarily come to it expecting best-in-class audio, but it performs very well for the price. A limited microphone is its only real weakness, but solid sound and battery life make it a good pick nonetheless.