Closer Examination, Build Quality and Comfort

As we're talking about a $25 gaming headset, the fact that the Onikuma K5 is mostly made out of plastic comes as no surprise. The plastic is heavily present on both the outer side of the headband and the ear cups. Onikuma went with a combination of matte and glossy black and gray plastic, with a blue "G" (for "Gaming"?) on both ear cups.


Should you decide to plug in the USB connector that's dangling at the end of the braided cable, the letters "G" will light up. You can't change their color or anything of the sort, but hey, if you're into lighting effects, this feature could draw you towards the Onikuma K5 over others.


The only metal part of the headset is its frame, the arch that connects the ear cups. The height of the ear cups can be adjusted by sliding them up or down that arch. There aren't any markings that would precisely tell you by how much you stretched the headset downward, and the total range of motion is fairly limited, but I was able to fit the headset on my largeish head.


Both the inner side of the headband and the ear cushions are heavily padded and covered in pleather. The ear cushions are barely large enough to surround my ears completely. If your ears are exceptionally large, you won't be as lucky—the cushions will rest on the outer edges of your ears. The clamping force is a bit on the high side. As for overall comfort, I'd rate it as acceptable, but by no means spectacular. I felt a bit of pain in my ears after a prolonged gaming session (I'm talking about 3+ hours) and was definitely aware of the spot where the headband touched the top of my head. If you're looking for a headset that "disappears" on your head, this isn't the one. But for $25, the very fact that I was able to use it for around two hours without issues is a success. If your head isn't large, you should have no issues with it at all in terms of comfort.


The ear cushions can be removed, although I don't see a reason for it—Onikuma probably won't release a set of replacement ear pads for a $25 gaming headset.


The microphone is pivotable and reliably stays in the position you set it to. It didn't move by accident even once while I used it.


The part of the microphone close to its capsule can be bent slightly, which makes positioning it closer to the mouth possible. If you decide to use the USB connector, the head of the microphone will emit a subtle blue light. This LED is either on or off—it won't change its color when you mute the microphone.


The remote control, located down the nondetachable, braided cable, is ridiculously large. For a module that contains nothing but a volume dial and a microphone mute switch, there's no comprehensible reason to make it this big and bulky. It adds unnecessary weight to the headset, and it's hard to get rid of the feeling that something is constantly dangling around your chest area. This is easily the worst aspect of this headset.


The cable terminates in a 4-pole TRRS 3.5-mm plug, which you'll use when connecting the Onikuma K5 to gaming consoles and smartphones. Next to it is the already mentioned USB port used to power the LEDs in the ear cups and on the head of the microphone. If you want to use the headset with your PC, you'll have to add the supplied TRRS-to-dual TRS adapter, which will split the TRRS plug into separate headphone and microphone plugs.