The moment you see ROG “Republic of Gamers’ on the box, you know you are in for a treat. Republic of Gamers have now released their latest wireless earbuds, the ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova Earbuds, and they did not disappoint. Even the price surprised me massively. The earbuds have Bluetooth and ROG SpeedNova – unmatched 2.4 GHz wireless technology. I was excited to open the box to see what they had to offer, and you get to come along for the ride.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the ROG packaging; a simple photo of the product and the red and black colouring. Like most people, the first thing I wanted to do was rip open the box and get into the product, and the inclusions don’t disappoint. There’s a charging carry case covered with a little bit of plastic for protection, and a little piece of cardboard with different earbud silicones, letting you choose your perfect fit. Next to that, you will find the USB dongle and the USB-C charging cable, and diving a little further, you’ll find the warranty booklet and a user guide, which I would assume no one reads. Finally, and in proper ROG fashion, you get some cool-looking little die-cut stickers.

The ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova Earbuds have the flexibility of two different wireless functions, the first of which is the Bluetooth connection, letting you connect to any Bluetooth-enabled device, and it works seamlessly. The other option is SpeedNova, ROG’s ultra-low latency 2.4GHz connection. I found myself using the dongle to connect through the SpeedNova function when I could as it left the Bluetooth option free to connect to another device, either to take calls or listen to music, and they’re small enough that I could, if I wanted, have a larger headset over the top, listening to something else.

The touch controls took me a little while to get used to, almost feeling like I was learning how to use Morse code, but they let you do the standard things, like adjusting the volume and skipping the song or podcast you are listening to. Being touch controls, and as long as you hit the ROG logo, you won’t fumble around looking for switches and buttons. I liked how each earbud has different controls, like the left earbud lets you turn the Active Noise-Cancelling on and off, as well as adjust its level. Pausing a song or podcast is as simple as pressing the right earbud once, which is really responsive, so you don’t need to wait to start talking to someone and hitting it twice will answer any incoming calls.

I was always wearing the wireless earbuds, particularly while working. I’d put on some music or a podcast, pausing when needed to chat with a colleague, and I was struggling to drain the battery. Even if I did, it has the convenience of the charging case. A quick, five-minute charge can offer up to an hour’s worth of playtime, but with the earbuds and charging case completely charged, you get up to 46 hours. As I mentioned before, I was struggling to drain the earbud’s battery, which was a huge positive for me. I hate hearing that beeping noise they make when the batteries are about to die, but with the earbuds alone running for up to 11.5 hours on a full charger, this rarely happened. They just kept going.

I was on the fence about the bone-conduction AI noise-cancelling beamforming microphone the ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova Earbuds use and now that I’ve made a few phone calls, the main comment I got back was that people thought they were on speaker phone. They commented that there was an echo when I was in a building, and if I went outside, they said it sounded a lot better, but it was like I had them on speaker. With the number of phone calls I need to answer for work, not needing to touch my phone is really convenient for work; I can talk to them via the earbuds and keep doing what I’m doing.

The ARMOURY CRATE, downloaded via your brand’s App Store, enables you to adjust a couple of features on the Wireless Earbuds. The first option is Audio, allowing you to play around with the sound optimisation and the Active Noise Cancellation. Preset scenes let you change between Flat, FPS, Movie, Racing and RPG, changing the equalizer and adjusting the audio levels to better match what you are doing. The ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova Earbuds, by far, have the best Active Noise Cancellation that I have heard to date. You can adjust it all manually if you want, but I recommend leaving it in Auto mode. If you grab a set, take a walk up the road – you physically can’t hear cars driving past. It’s great when you just want to keep to yourself, listening to music without all the distractions going past.

The next feature you can play around with is Lighting, which allows you to adjust the RGB LEDs mounted behind the ROG logo on the side of the earbuds. You can set them as a standard colour or switch them to colour cycle. You can also turn them off completely, giving you a little extra listening time. The last feature you can view is Power, conveniently letting you see how much charge was in each earbud and the main charging case. You can also adjust the idle power-off, setting the time for the earbuds when not in use and saving the battery power a little more. The software was super simple to use and everything was easy to find. I love how simple the UI is, even if it does initially seem complicated with its almost futuristic design.

I’ve used a couple of different brands over the years, but these take the cake. I loved using the ROG Cetra True Wireless SpeedNova Earbuds, and the fact that you can purchase them for $179 is incredible for what you get. When you look into the variety of earbuds available at the moment, you soon realise that there is no need to spend top dollar for something that gives you the best quality audio and seamless connectivity. ASUS ROG delivers with their products, and I would recommend these to anyone.

Written by: Hayden Nelson