ROG Cetra Open Wireless Earbuds

There are a lot of gaming earbuds out there now, but the ROG Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds genuinely feel like something different.

Not “different” in a gimmicky way either. Different in the sense that after using them for a while, especially for gaming, you start wondering why more companies haven’t gone in this direction sooner.

These are open-ear gaming earbuds, which means instead of jamming silicone tips into your ears like traditional earbuds, they sit just outside your ear canal using a hooked design. At first, I honestly wasn’t sure how immersive that would actually feel for gaming. Usually open-ear audio comes with compromises. But somehow ASUS has managed to pull off something pretty special here. These are, without question, some of the best gaming earphones I’ve ever used.

The first thing you notice is just how comfortable they are. And I don’t mean “comfortable for earbuds”. I mean genuinely forget-you’re-wearing-them comfortable. That’s what makes these so unique.

Traditional gaming headsets, even really good ones, eventually start to get warm or heavy during long sessions. Earbuds can start irritating your ears after a while too, especially if you’re using silicone tips for hours at a time.

The Cetra Open Wireless completely avoid that problem because your ears stay open and cool the entire time.

For me, they’ve become my absolute go-to audio option whenever I’m racing in my sim rig. That’s where they clicked for me immediately. Racing sims are the kind of games where you can easily lose hours without realising, and normally after a while I start noticing headphones pressing against my head or earbuds becoming uncomfortable. With these? Nothing. No sweaty ears. No pressure. No fatigue.

And because you almost forget you’re wearing them, the immersion actually becomes better in a weird way. Instead of feeling like sound is being blasted directly into your ears, it feels more natural and surrounding, like the audio genuinely exists around you in the space. Hearing engines, tyre noise, gear shifts and environmental audio in a racing sim feels incredible through these. I honestly think the comfort contributes massively to the immersion factor, because your brain stops focusing on the fact you’re wearing audio gear at all.

What surprised me most though was the sound quality.

Once I understoon what “open ear earbuds” meant, I fully expect the audio quality to take a pretty big hit. That’s just the trade off for the technology etc, but ASUS has done a fantastic job here. The 14.2mm diamond-like carbon coated drivers sound excellent, with a really balanced presentation that works brilliantly for gaming.

You still get strong positional audio, clear mids, and surprisingly good bass considering the open design. No, they’re not going to shake your skull like a massive pair of over-ear headphones, but that’s not really the point of these. They sound clean, spacious, detailed, and incredibly easy to listen to for long periods.

Footsteps, environmental sounds, dialogue… everything comes through clearly. In racing games especially, the separation is fantastic. You can pick up subtle audio details without the sound ever becoming fatiguing.

And because they support both Bluetooth and ASUS’ low latency ROG SpeedNova 2.4GHz wireless connection, they’re flexible too.

The USB-C dongle is honestly one of the best parts about them. Plug it into a handheld, PC, console, phone, whatever, and you instantly get that low latency gaming connection without needing to mess around. There’s even passthrough charging built into the dongle itself, which is such a smart inclusion.

Battery life has also been great in my experience. ASUS rates them for up to 16 hours standalone and significantly more with the charging case, depending on features used. Realistically, I’ve never once had them die during a gaming session, which is all I really care about.

The microphone quality deserves credit too. I’ve used these a lot in Discord calls and multiplayer games, and every time I’ve asked people how they sound, the response has basically been “completely fine” or “honestly as clear as your normal headset”. I've used them for work in place of my desk phone and multiple people commented how my voice had drastically improved in quality over the desk phone. That’s impressive for open ear earbuds. The AI noise cancelling microphone setup clearly does a good job filtering things out without making your voice sound robotic or compressed.

The case is excellent too. It’s chunky compared to regular earbuds, but it kind of has to be because it stores both the earbuds and the USB-C dongle. Everything seats magnetically into place really nicely, and it all feels secure and robust. Nothing rattles around, nothing feels flimsy, and the earbuds themselves snap into position satisfyingly every time. It feels properly designed for actual use instead of just aesthetics.

Honestly, the only real downside for me is the controls. It’s not that they’re bad… they’re just weirdly difficult to remember.

Since these use physical buttons instead of touch controls, everything relies on different combinations of presses and holds. One press does one thing, double press does another, triple press does something else, hold does another thing entirely… and because the controls are split across both earbuds, I constantly found myself forgetting what did what. You end up having those moments where you’re sitting there thinking:

“Was pause two presses on the right? Or was that skip track?”

Then you accidentally trigger something completely different.

The physical buttons themselves are actually nice because they’re tactile and reliable, especially compared to overly sensitive touch controls on some earbuds. But the actual control scheme just isn’t intuitive. It took me way longer than it should have to build muscle memory for them, and even now I still occasionally mess it up. It’s one of those things that probably sounds minor until you use them daily.

There are also a bunch of smaller things that add to the overall package.

IPX5 water resistance on the earbuds themselves means they’re perfectly fine for workouts or long sweaty gaming sessions. The detachable neck strap is surprisingly useful too if you’re moving around a lot. RGB lighting is there if you want the extra gamer flair. Because it wouldnt be ROG without a little RGB right.

And the Gear Link software gives you proper EQ adjustments and audio customisation without feeling bloated or overcomplicated.

The thing I keep coming back to though is just how easy they are to live with. That’s what makes them special.

You throw them on, start gaming, and after a while you stop noticing them completely. No discomfort, no ear fatigue, no sweaty headset hair, no pressure inside your ears. Just really good audio sitting naturally around you. And for long gaming sessions, especially sim racing in my case, that ends up being more immersive than a lot of traditional gaming headsets I’ve used.

I genuinely struggled to fault these.

They sound great, the mic is excellent, battery life is strong, the connectivity options are fantastic, and the comfort level is honestly on another level compared to most gaming audio gear. The only downside, and its just a case of getting used to them, is the controls.

The design won’t be for everyone, but for me, these absolutely nailed the balance between immersion, sound quality, and long-term comfort better than almost anything else I’ve tried.