In March, the Tom's Guide crew decided to start working from home, thinking that the COVID pandemic would be over in a few months. Then in September, we are still waiting. In the meantime, so many gadgets have kept me sane, including a gaming PC, a kitchen scale, an e-reader, a clock radio, and a Nintendo Switch Pro controller (in no particular order). But no gadget has won more praise in my home than the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox. With its "just works" principle, the gaming headset turned our small, chaotic apartment into something quiet and peaceful.

The SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox is a gaming headset that, despite its name, is not an Xbox-specific accessory. In fact, it is the only gaming headset that can be used on almost every platform, from PC to Xbox One to cell phones. The versatility and ease of use of this device is invaluable, especially if you have to share a relatively limited space with your loved ones on a daily basis.

As a preface, I live in a one-bedroom apartment with my domestics partner. It is not small by New York standards. However, my computer desk is right next to the couch in the living room and across from the TV, making both rooms very shared space. I have been working from home since March. My partner's industry has since essentially shut down. So even when we both have to focus on our own activities, we spend much of our time in close proximity.

When the pandemic first began, we did what we could to keep each other's activities separate, but that required a lot of hardware. I had a Corsair Virtuoso RGB SE headset that I used for work, and my partner wanted to use it to stream shows on PS4. But sometimes she had to borrow my old 3.5mm audio headphones because she couldn't use them on the Switch or Xbox. Or I would have to pair my Bluetooth earbuds with my phone because the headphone jack is a thing of the past.

Sometimes the headphone shuffle was too complicated. This was especially true when either device needed charging, as was frequently the case with Corsair. In such cases, one or both of us had to listen to music, watch TV, or hold meetings without using the headphones at all. Anyone who has ever been in this situation knows that you can tolerate whatever your partner is listening to for about 30 minutes before yearning for that sweet temporary hearing loss you feel after a particularly rousing punk concert.

It was clear that I needed something: a "work" headset for my PC and a "console" headset for gaming and streaming media. But which one to buy? After all, we have a PS4, Xbox One, and Switch in our home, and depending on what we want to watch or play, either one could require any device at any given time; when you remember that the Switch has different audio input requirements depending on whether it is in portable or docked mode, the math gets even more confusing.

That's when SteelSeries sent me the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox headset. It has been a fixture in my living room ever since.

The SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox is the third headset to bear the "Arctis 1" name, and the headset has consistently gotten better with each improvement. The first Arctis 1 was a wired model that worked fine, but mainly had the advantage of being cheaper. Then came the Arctis 1 Wireless, which broke new ground in terms of compatibility. The wireless receiver for this headset was a USB-C dongle rather than a standard USB-A adapter. This made it compatible with everything from Android phones to the Switch in handheld mode. With a simple adapter, it could be used with PS4, PC, and even a docked Switch.

The only problem is that if you want to use the Arctis 1 Wireless on the Xbox One, you have to connect it to the controller via the 3.5mm audio jack. However, most wireless headsets will not work with the Xbox One because the Xbox console uses a different wireless protocol than the PC, PS4, etc.

Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox solves this problem in the simplest and most elegant way: simply switch the USB-C dongle from "USB" to "Xbox." That's it: toggle the switch if you want to use Arctis 1 wirelessly on Xbox One, and toggle it back if you want to use it on any other system. Also, if you have an older system that requires a 3.5 mm audio connection, the Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox still has the older audio jack.

It's hard to put into words how much simpler life would be if you didn't have to juggle two or three different peripherals and one headset could handle everything. (It is not compatible with iOS, but according to a SteelSeries representative, that was Apple's decision.) The Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox also lasts about 20 hours on a single charge. While not a gaming headset record by any means, it is considerably better than the 10- or 15-hour battery life offered by some models.

That said, there are some things we don't like about the Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox: the sound quality is not as good as SteelSeries' higher-end headsets like the Arctis 5 and Arctis 7. The Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox mimics the physical design of the high-end Arctis headsets, as the steel headband and unnumbered notch are harder to operate than the "ski goggles" elastic headband on the Arctis 5 and 7. I wanted.

The $100 Arctis 1 Wireless for Xbox, on the other hand, never promised to be a high-end peripheral, but a versatile peripheral, and in that respect it succeeds. Now my partner and I can occupy the same space without getting in each other's way, which is at least worth the price of a gaming headset.