While I may have a headset for every occasion, I feel the budget end of the market is too often overlooked. Where you have some wanting to spend hundreds on wireless functionality and fancy features, you have others after something that'll get the job done without fuss at a good price. The H1 may just be that headset. 

What first appealed to me about the H1 was its lightweight build paired with a suspension headband reminiscent of what made SteelSeries' headsets so comfortable. When on your head, they rest comfortably, almost floating above. The band itself feels more rigid than I expected and a bit plasticky despite its elasticity, but it does a good job of keeping the solid frame above from weighing on your head. Thanks to the protein leather earcups not clamping particularly hard to the sides of my head, there was also little additional pressure put onto the arms of my glasses, making the headset an overall win for me in terms of comfort. It is worth noting here that this band is where the headset's adjustability lives and dies. With no kind of slider of extending band to manually adjust, you're relying on it to hold the earcups wherever you decide is most comfortable. Having spend some time trying to fault this system, I really do struggle. Whether you prefer your head to be pressed against the plastic frame or stay as far away from it, the suspension band responds fantastically to even minor adjustments. Paired with the earcups' capability to rotate on the frame to best fit the shape of your head, it's a really well-fitting headset. It's a remarkably simple and elegant solution. 

  

Functionally, the H1 is relatively bare. You have a non-detachable microphone with matching mute button on the left earcup, as well as a volume rocker to adjust how loud the audio you're listening to is. Though somewhat no-frills, the parts that are there work fine. The biggest flaw here is the complete lack of detachable cables. On top of the microphone, the 3.5mm wire is also directly connected to the headset with no means of removal or replacement should something break. With this being the case, I'd have wanted a cable that feels a bit more durable in oppose to the basic one on offer. I love the ROG Paracord; why can't we see something like that in ASUS' TUF range? If I were going to pick a part of this headset to fail first, it'd definitely be this cable. It is worth mentioning you can get a wireless variant of the H1 that does naturally allow you to detach this cable. Even so, with both models you'll be stuck with an ever-attached microphone, limiting the larger versatility of the headset.

Looking to the audio itself, you have 7.1 surround sound for better immersion in-game, powered by 40mm ASUS Essence drivers. In reality, the headset performs fantastically in a gaming environment. As gaming headsets often do, there appears to be a reasonable focus on bass, but it's not necessarily overpowering to the point of ruining the headset for more generalist use. That is of course assuming you don't mind the microphone hanging around for generalist use. When listening to music, I did find the mid ranges a little lacking, with lyrics blending into the backing track a little, but it's certainly a passible experience.

  

Though the headset's wire is a single 3.5mm jack for both its mic and audio, you also get a fairly nice splitter cable included. This actually feels a much higher quality than the cable attached to the headset as a sturdy braided design, and is a nice inclusion to aid in desktop PC use. For your laptops, phones, and miscellaneous consoles, the single 3.5mm plug works fine.

The H1 doesn't offer much, but for the asking price of £40 I actually rate it as a fantastic budget buy. With both the 3.5mm jack and mic being non-detachable and by extension, non-replaceable, it's not a headset I would see lasting you forever. Even considering this, if you're wanting something with an otherwise-solid build quality that's comfortable and delivers on great sound in-game, they're one worth looking at.