Open ear gaming earbuds. That's not a category that realy existed until now. ASUS has recently released the ROG Cetra Open Wireless and I have been reading the spec sheet and initial reviews and there is indeed a lot happening here that is worth paying attention to.
Priced at $229.99 in the US, £184.99 in the UK and €219 in Europe, these are ASUS's first ever open ear gaming earbuds. First ever. For a company that's been making ROG audio gear for years that's a notable thing to finaly ship.
What open ear here means in fact?
The majority of gaming earbuds are inserted into your ear canal. That is the usual method, you have isolation, the sound is enclosed, external noise is shut out. The Cetra Open Wireless does the reverse.
The drivers are not inside your ear, but outside. They are held in place by a liquid silicone hook wrap around your ear and the 14.2mm DLC coated drivers direct audio to your ear without obstructing anything. You are able to listen to the game and listen to the room simultaneously.
That's the whole pitch. When you have ever had ear buds in during a long gaming session and felt that pressure build up or just general discomfort after a few hours, this design eliminates that completely. The reviewer of Toms Guide had them on during an eight hour gaming session and did not feel like removing them. That's not something you hear about regular in ear gaming buds very often.
The tradeoff is bass. Open ear designs physicaly cannot deliver the same low end as sealed earbuds. To compensate, ASUS has employed larger than normal 14.2mm DLC drivers, and by open ear standards the bass is superior than anticipated, but in case you play games with deep bass as a priority these are unlikely to be your choice. The sound signature is being described as intentional and transparent instead of playful and lively by early reviews.
The specifications that really count.
Drivers are 14.2mm with Diamond Like Carbon coating which helps reduce distorton at high frequencies. The standard frequency response is 20 to 20,000 Hz. The earbuds weigh 22 grams collectively which is quite light.
Connection is two-way. You have Bluetooth 5.3 in general use and ROG SpeedNova 2.4GHz wireless in a USB-C dongle in low latency gaming. The connection you want is the 2.4GHz when you are actually playing, the latency is much lower than Bluetooth and it can cope with congested wireless environments better than most.
One thing to mention about the dongle. It supports USB-C passthrough charging which is a first for ROG. The dongle can be inserted into your Nintendo Switch 2 or ROG Ally X and charge your handheld simultaneously using the same port. Small thing but genuenly useful if you game on handhelds a lot.
One of the stronger points is battery life.
16 hours of the earbuds themselves. 48 additional hours in the charging case. Total of 64 hours across both. That is a good figure of wireless earbuds.
There are caveats to the 16 hour figure. That is in Bluetooth mode with the mic off and RGB off. Turn it all on and you are looking at something more like 40 hours total, which is still good but something to be aware of before you think you are getting 64 hours in full gaming mode.
One reviewer tested it in the real world with mixed usage and averaged 10 to 12 hours per charge which is a more realistic figure than the rated maximum.
Microphones and controls
Quad mic setup with AI Noise Cancellation. Initial impressions indicate that mic quality is average on earbuds, not broadcast quality but good enough to use in gaming comms and calls. The noise cancellation works in fairly noisy conditions.
Touch controls are replaced by physical buttons. This is a genuenly good call for a gaming earbud. Touch controls fail to work when your hands are wet or when it is raining. Physical buttons don't. If you've been burned by accidental touch inputs before you'll apreciate this imediately.
There's also wear detection built in which pauses audio when you remove them.
What it works with
PC, Mac, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, ROG Xbox Ally X, iOS and Android. The 2.4GHz dongle supports console and PC connectivity and Bluetooth supports mobile. Two devices can be connected at the same time so you can switch between them without repairing.
It has a removable reflective neck strap to provide additional safety during exercises or travels. And there is Aura RGB with four preset effects and 16.8 million colours should you be interested. It's ROG so that was always going to be there.
IPX5 waterproofing is okay with sweat and rain. Not submersion proof but fine for pretty much any real world scenario you would use earbuds in.
Would you purchase them at 229?
This is where it becomes somewhat tricky. $229 is a lot of money on earbuds that lack ANC, that have been intentionally designed to have compromised bass, and that have a relatively narrow use case.
However, when that is your use case, when you want to spend hours gaming and be comfortable and have situational awareness without being totally disconnected to the world, there is literally nothing like this available at the moment. Toms Guide referred to them as the first and only open earbuds in the world that were gaming-oriented. That's not marketing, that's just true at the moment.
These are not the ones if you are a competitive gamer who requires complete audio immersion and the highest possible bass response. When you spend hours at a time gaming and you always find yourself taking out your earbuds because your ears are sore, or when you game and you also need to hear what is going on around you, these are likely the most interesting thing in the market at any price.
Sold in the ASUS eStore, Amazon, Micro Center and Newegg in the US. Availability internationally differs by region.
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