How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
For video calls, the Razer Kraken Kitty RGB is my top pick for a USB-tethered desk setup, because its retractable active noise cancelling microphone targets the exact problem callers complain about most — background noise leaking into your voice. If you'd rather stay wireless, the TOZO Hybrid Active Noise models are the stronger all-rounders, and the Raycon Everyday is the lightweight travel option. Here's how I'd choose between them.
• Razer Kraken Kitty RGB — best for desk-bound video calls and streaming; pick this if you want a retractable active noise cancelling mic and USB plug-and-play on a Windows PC.
• TOZO Hybrid Active Noise — best for long work-from-home days; pick this if you want hybrid ANC with three microphones, 60-hour battery life and app-based EQ.
• TOZO Hybrid Active Noise — best for travel and commuting calls; pick this if you want a foldable over-ear with Bluetooth 5.3, a 3.5 mm wired fallback and a 40 mm driver.
• Raycon Everyday — best for kids, classes and casual calls on the move; pick this if you want a light 7.52-ounce over-ear with Awareness Mode and IPX4 water resistance.
This is a wired USB gaming headset first and a call headset second — and that order matters. The Kraken Kitty RGB connects over USB rather than Bluetooth, so there's no pairing, no battery to babysit, and no codec to worry about. You plug it into a PC and it works. For someone who spends the day in back-to-back video calls at a desk, that reliability is the whole point.
The feature that earns it the top spot here is the retractable, active noise cancelling microphone. It's a cardioid mic with active noise cancellation built in, which means it's tuned to reject ambient and background sound before your voice ever leaves the headset. In practice, that's the difference between a colleague hearing your voice and a colleague hearing your voice plus a fan, a keyboard and a passing truck. The mic retracts into the earcup when you're not on a call, which keeps it out of your field of view.
Audio-wise, Razer rates this for THX 7.1 spatial surround sound, and the drivers cover a 20 Hz to 20 kHz range at 32 ohms. THX Spatial Audio is available on Windows 10 64-bit only, so if you're on macOS or a Chromebook, treat that as a bonus you won't get rather than a reason to buy. The same caveat applies to the Chroma RGB lighting on the kitty ears and logo — it's driven by the Streamer Companion app and can react to audience emotes and alerts mid-stream. Genuinely fun if you stream; irrelevant if you don't.
Comfort is where the spec sheet does real work. The earcups are oval and infused with cooling gel, which Razer says prevents heat and pressure buildup over long sessions. The frame is bauxite aluminum, which keeps the weight down while staying rigid, and the whole thing comes in at 14.39 ounces. That's on the heavier side for an over-ear, and it's the main trade-off: this is a headset you wear at a desk, not one you stuff in a bag.
On-earcup controls for volume and the THX toggle mean you're not Alt-Tabbing to adjust anything mid-call. The other trade-off is compatibility. USB only, no 3.5 mm jack, no wireless — so it's a poor fit for a phone, a tablet, or a laptop you move between rooms. If your calls happen at one desk, that's fine. If they don't, keep reading.
This TOZO over-ear is the pick I'd hand to someone whose video calls happen in a home office with a door that doesn't quite block out the rest of the house. It runs a hybrid ANC algorithm with three dedicated microphones, and hybrid means it's sampling noise from more than one point rather than relying on a single mic. TOZO's own description targets airplane engines, subway rumble and office chatter — three very different frequency bands, which is roughly what you want from a noise cancelling headset.
The second half of that system is ENC, or environmental noise cancellation, on the call side. This is the part that matters for video calls specifically: it's the processing that keeps your voice intelligible when you're talking from a noisy street or a busy kitchen. ANC makes your listening quieter; ENC makes you sound cleaner to everyone else. Plenty of budget headsets advertise one and quietly skip the other, so it's worth noting both are here.
Battery is the headline number: 60 hours of claimed playtime, with a 2-hour charge time. Even if real-world use lands well under that, it's a figure that means you can go a full work week of meetings without thinking about a charger. Bluetooth 5.3 handles the connection, and TOZO claims stable performance for music, online meetings and phone calls. There's also a Transparency Mode, which pipes outside sound back in — handy if you need to hear a delivery at the door without pulling the headset off.
The sound side is built around what TOZO calls OrigX Acoustic 2.0, with a frequency response that TOZO describes as extending past 44.1 kHz, plus a custom EQ you can adjust through the app. I'd treat the ultra-high-frequency claim as marketing rather than something you'll perceive — human hearing tops out far below that. The app EQ, though, is genuinely useful, because it lets you push the bass down and the mids up for voice, which is what you actually want on a call.
The design is foldable and lightweight, so it packs into a bag without eating your whole backpack. It ships with a 3.5 mm analog audio cable alongside the wireless connection, which gives you a wired fallback if Bluetooth ever misbehaves mid-meeting. Color is blue. The main trade-off is that this is a value-focused brand rather than a specialist audio house, and there's no USB dongle for a low-latency desk connection — you're relying on Bluetooth 5.3 and, if needed, the analog cable.
TOZO Hybrid Active Noise
This is the second TOZO listing, and it shares the same model number, the same 60-hour battery figure and the same 2-hour charge time. Where it differs is in the details, and a few of those matter if you're the type who travels with a headset. This version is listed in black, with a carrying case in black, and the build mixes plastic, metal, sponge and leather with an ABS case.
The specs here are the most complete of the group. The driver is a 40 mm dynamic driver, impedance is 32 ohms, sensitivity is 115 dB, frequency range is 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, and rated audio latency is 90 milliseconds. That latency number is the one I'd pay attention to. Ninety milliseconds is fine for music and acceptable for a voice call, but it's not the near-instant response you'd want for competitive gaming or live monitoring. For meetings and podcasts, it's a non-issue.
Bluetooth is 5.3 with a 10-metre range, and there's a 3.5 mm jack plus a Type-C charging cable in the box alongside the analog audio cable, the headphones and the manual. So you get both a wireless and a wired path, and a charging cable that matches most modern phones and laptops — fewer cables to lose. Controls are button-based with app support, which I prefer over pure touch for calls: physical buttons are easier to hit blind when you're muting and unmuting.
The earpieces are oval and over-ear, and the case weighs 12 ounces on its own, which tells you this is a set you can toss in a carry-on without a second thought. The theme listing spans office meetings, gaming, sport, motorcycling and travel — broad, but it lines up with what the hardware actually does.
The trade-offs are worth being straight about. You're paying for specs on paper rather than a premium brand name, and there's no mention of a USB transmitter, so desk users get Bluetooth rather than a dedicated low-latency link. If you want the absolute cleanest mic pickup for a client call, the Razer's wired ANC mic is the safer bet. If you want one headset that handles calls, music and a flight, this is the more flexible of the two TOZOs.
The Raycon Everyday is the one I'd point a parent toward, and it's the most portable of the four. It weighs 7.52 ounces — roughly half the Razer — with a lightweight adjustable headband, soft rotating earcups and a foldable, water-resistant IPX4 build. IPX4 means it shrugs off splashes and light rain, not submersion, so it's fine for a walk to the bus stop and not fine for a swim.
On calls, the relevant spec is the 40 mm driver paired with a built-in microphone. Raycon positions it as a headset with mic for calls, meetings, gaming and online classes, and it connects over Bluetooth to phones, tablets and computers. For kids headphones for video calls — remote lessons, tutoring, family calls — the combination of low weight, a foldable frame and universal Bluetooth pairing is exactly what you want, because nothing about it requires an adult to configure a driver.
Awareness Mode is the feature I'd highlight for callers. It lets outside sound in, and Raycon notes that during a phone call it lets you hear your own voice more naturally, which reduces the urge to shout. That's a real, practical fix for the muffled, over-loud feeling a lot of people get on closed-back ANC headsets. The ANC itself works by way of microphones concealed inside the earcups that sample outside noise and generate an opposing signal.
Battery is where the numbers need untangling. The product title says 40 hours; the key features say up to 38 hours of playtime; the product information lists a battery average life of 22 hours and a charge time of 22 hours. Those figures don't agree, and I'm not going to pretend they do. Raycon does state that 15 minutes of charge gets you 2 hours of playback, which is a genuinely useful fast-charge claim for a headset you forgot to plug in.
The trade-offs: Bluetooth 5.0 is a generation behind the TOZO's 5.3, the enclosure is plastic rather than metal, and this is the least specified of the four on the audio side — no sensitivity or latency figures given. Buy it for comfort, portability and Awareness Mode, not for the deepest noise cancelling.
How We Picked
It depends on where you take calls. A USB wired headset like the Razer avoids pairing and battery entirely and puts an ANC microphone close to your mouth, which is the cleanest setup at a fixed desk. Wireless sets like the TOZO and Raycon give you freedom to move around the room, and both include a 3.5 mm cable as a fallback.
They solve different problems. Ear-cup ANC quietens what you hear; microphone ANC and ENC quieten what everyone else hears. For video calls, the mic side matters more — a headset with great listening ANC and a weak mic will still make you sound like you're calling from a train station.
Yes, with caveats. The Raycon Everyday is the easiest fit thanks to its light 7.52-ounce build, foldable frame and simple Bluetooth pairing, and Raycon lists it as suitable for kids' Bluetooth headphones. Over-ear sets in general are gentler on young ears than in-ear models, but volume still needs supervising.
The wireless models will — the TOZO runs Bluetooth 5.3, the Raycon Bluetooth 5.0, and both connect to phones, tablets and computers. The Razer Kraken Kitty RGB is USB only, so it's a PC headset and won't pair with a phone at all.
If your calls live at one desk and you want your voice to come through clean, the Razer Kraken Kitty RGB is the headset I'd buy for video calls. If you'd rather not be tethered, the TOZO Hybrid Active Noise with the 40 mm driver and 60-hour battery is the better all-day companion.
• thinksound ov21 vs Superlux HA4D: Headphones for Podcast
• AIYIBEN earpiece V5.3 vs ZQZMZGS Mini: Earbuds with Long
• AKG Pro Audio K712 vs Sennheiser Neumann NDH 30
• JLab Go Air Pop+ vs Generic M100
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
When you buy through links on this page, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon or its affiliates. This site is an independent third-party review and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon or the product brands mentioned.