Looking for a gaming laptop this Black Friday? Here are the best early sales, plus advice on how not to get ripped off

Fractal Design Scape: A Stellar Debut

Fractal Design enters the crowded gaming headset market with the Scape, and it impresses. The sound and build quality exceed expectations for the $200 price point.

Sound and Features

Out of the box, the Scape's dynamic drivers are tuned to a soft V-shaped curve, with an emphasis on accuracy over character. Bass frequencies are punchy without being bloated, and there's nice detail to mid-focused instruments. For casual music listening, these are excellent headphones capable of covering many different genres.

When it comes to gaming, they're great too, especially for singleplayer games with the default tunings. However, for competitive games like Valorant, the default presets can produce too much bass, making it difficult to isolate sound cues. Fractal's software makes this simple to fix. The Scape can only store three presets, while some competitors, particularly those from Steelseries, come with tunings for hundreds of different games.

Battery Life and Charging

According to Fractal, the Scape can go up to 40 hours on a single charge with RGB lighting off, and about 26 hours with the feature turned on. Charging is made easy thanks to the included charging base.

Connectivity

The Scape is a Bluetooth 5.3 headset, but codec support is limited to SBC and AAC. This is one area where it could have been better, as the lack of support like LDAC might disappoint some users expecting higher fidelity wireless audio. It also features 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connectivity via a USB dongle and wired USB connectivity.

The Competition

At $200, the Scape is competitive with some of the best gaming headsets available right now. It's $100 cheaper than the Audeze Maxwell, which Engadget picked as the best premium gaming headset. The Scape doesn't sound as good as the Maxwell or offer LDAC support, but it's lighter and charging is easier thanks to the included charging base, and has a better look.