PlayStation Pulse Explore review: premium gaming TWS at a premium price 2024

During the era of the PS3, there were hardly any first-party accessories that enhanced your gaming experience. During the era of the PS4, we had the likes of the Gold and Platinum headsets and towards the end of the console’s life, we had the back buttons for the DualShock 4. For the PS5 generation, however, we have a bunch of first-party accessories that enhance the gaming experience. From the Pulse family of headsets to the PlayStation Portal, media remote, pro controller, and access controller, the list is quite long. All these are different from Sony’s InZone products, which is a different brand from PlayStation.

Today, we are going to talk about one such accessory—the Pulse Explorer gaming TWS. This headset is unique because it has planar magnetic drivers rather than regular drivers. Fun fact – Sony acquired Audeze back in 2023 known for its planar magnetic driver-based headphones. So, are the Pulse Explorers a game-changer for gaming audio?

Design

Keeping in line with the PlayStation 5 design, the Pulse Explorer comes in this bulky white and black case. It is a fair bit bigger than the Sony WF1000-XM4 or even the WF1000-XM5 case and will not fit in your jeans pocket without bulging quite a bit. The case, however, has the coolest sliding mechanism to open and close and has a satisfying click every time you do it. Being white, the case will get dirty over time, so you will have to keep cleaning it. There is a USB-C port on the side to charge the headset and once you open it, between the earbuds, you’ll find the syn/PlayStation link button.

The earbuds too are black and white and while they look bulky, don’t stick out too much when you wear them. Each earbud has a volume rocker and link button and they are quite tiny and I found them inconvenient to use. I mostly relied on my phone or the PlayStation settings to control the volume.

Speaking of the fit, the TWS has a fantastic snug fit to the point that I shook my head vigorously and they did not fall off. One of the biggest advantages of planar magnetic drivers in TWS is that if you have a snug fit and a good seal, the bass sounds sublime. Once again, I’d like to let you know that I have oddly shaped ear canals so finding a TWS that fits well and offers a good seal is rare for me, so I am glad the Pule Explorer fit me perfectly.

The Pulse Explorer also come with a USB dongle in the box to connect with your PS5/PC for gaming. Sadly, no XBOX support. When Sony launched the PlayStation Portal, they said that you wouldn’t be able to connect bluetooth headphones to them. Rather you’d need headphones with PlayStation link and the Explorer connects quite seamlessly to the Portal and offers lagfree performance too.

Setup

Setting up the Pulse Explorer with the PS5 is very simple. You simply plug in the dongle in the USB port of the console, put the TWS in your ear and download the software update and you are good to go.

Same for the PS Portal, press the link button on the portal, the same in the charging case and you are good to go! The same PS link button is used to connect the TWS to your smartphone.

You can connect the TWS to 2 devices at a time, but I connected them to one device at a time during my use.

Sound quality

The Pulse Explorers do not support ANC and I prefer it that way as I am one who cannot wear ANC headphones for a long duration without feeling nauseous. So for my use, I am glad they don’t have ANC. The passive noise cancellation depends on how good the seal is and if you get a good seal, you can drown out the noise around you to a decent level.

Speaking of the audio quality, the Pulse Explorer could give full-fledged gaming headphones a run for their money. They sound sublime with the right punch in bass and dialogue clarity. Gaming is a genre where the bass is slightly elevated and the vocals too need to be clear. The Pulse Explorer are great at both. In a game like Dirt 5, you can make out the grunt of your cars kicking dirt very clearly. Same in a game like GT 7 where you have the punch of the cars and the sound of tyres screeching mixed very well with the background score, especially in the music rally mode.

Spider-Man 2 has a distinct swish of the webshooter and you can make out all the details. If you can make out the different directions of 3D audio, then you will have an immersive surround sound experience. Even the clinks and clanks of Astro Bot were ringing in my head with absolute clarity.

For music, I heard a couple of songs by the Weekend, Daft Punk, Journey and more and I honestly can’t complain. The TWS sound good with good channel separation, and details in vocals and instruments, and considering they aren’t dedicated music TWS, I had a good time.

Same for movies. The bike chase sequence in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was immersive with ample bass for the vehicles decent punch for the guns and the background orchestral score soared. The only movie where I was a tad disappointed was the race at the 11-minute mark in Ready Player One where the channel separation and the chink of the coins flying was a tad weak, but apart from that, and I’m saying this again, the fact that these are TWS and not headphones sound great. There are cases when the bass was a lot better than the Pulse Elite (review coming soon) and that says something about the quality of these TWS!

Battery life

The battery life of the PlayStation Pulse Explorer is rated at 5 hr for the TWS + 10 hrs of Case Charging. Your mileage could vary depending on usage. I got about 5 hours from the TWS and most of my gaming with them was done on the Portal.

Verdict

With an MOP of about Rs 18,990, the PlayStation Pulse Explorer is premium priced but also offers premium features. You get planar magnetic drivers which sound sublime for gaming as well as content consumption. The TWS are comfortable to wear for long hours of gaming. While they lack ANC, I don’t see it as a con especially since a tight seal offers decent passive noise cancellation. My only issue with the TWS is the bulky case and the physical controls on each earbud which are inconvenient to use. If noise cancelling is important to you, then you can check out the INZONE Buds. But I feel the PlayStation Pulse Explorer are a better value simply because of the features on offer and the fact that they are the perfect companion for the PS portal on the go!

Editor’s rating: 8.5 / 10

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