Fractal Design Scape review: A great start
By | Published: 2025-10-30 17:30:00 | Source: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Unless you’re a computer geek like me, you’re probably not familiar with it Fractal design. The company has made a name for itself in recent years by designing some of the best cases you can buy for DIY building. In a space known for its flashy aesthetics, Fractal products stand out for their simplicity. Now the company is entering the crowded audio space $200 Skipa gaming headset that not only looks cutting-edge, but also looks surprisingly good.
- Simple and sophisticated design
- Inductive charging base
- Great neutral sound
- The headband could use more padding
- There is no ANC
- The microphone is good but not great
design
Fractal Scape features an attractive mix of materials. (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
I mentioned Scape’s design first, and for good reason. It shows attention to detail, with lots of thoughtful embellishments. The best one is the base that comes with the headset. It inductively charges the Scape, so there’s no need to align any charging pins, and it cleverly houses the headset’s 2.4GHz wireless transmitter. When connected to your main PC, the dongle can stay inside the dock, ready to go when you want to use it with your PlayStation 5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, other PC, or Mac (sorry, Microsoft fans, no Xbox support). The base also has wire channels for easy cable management.
The same thoughtful design touches extend to the headphone itself. On the back there are four buttons, a dial, and a toggle that cover almost every function of Scape. You can adjust the volume, mute the built-in microphone, switch between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth connectivity, turn the headphone on or off, turn the RGB lighting on or off and switch between three equalizer presets. What’s more, all the controls feel distinct and easy to use. There’s also a USB-C connection for wired audio and a three-pole headphone jack for the detachable microphone.
The headset is made primarily of plastic, with a touch of brushed metal. Fractal offers the Scape in two colors – light and dark – and despite the company’s choice of materials, the headset undoubtedly looks premium. Tilt adjustment is limited—it’s not possible to lay the earcups flat on a table, for example—but the headband offers a fair amount of resistance, which adds to the upscale feel.
However, Scape can be more comfortable. The clamping force feels just right, but there is not enough padding along the top of the headband. I found that I could wear the headphones for a few hours, but eventually had to take them off to relieve the pressure that had built up at the top of my head. I’m also not a fan of the fractal fabric used for both the headband and earpads. It feels scratchy and is not good at dissipating heat. Fortunately, the high-density memory foam underneath is plush and the pads were deep and wide enough to comfortably accommodate my ears.
Fractal technology has made it easy to swap out the earpads if necessary; They come right in with a small amount of power. Right now, the company isn’t selling replacements, but a spokesperson told me that Fractal will send customers who need new pads a set for free. You just need to contact their support team.
Sound quality
Scape comes with a set of specially tuned drivers. (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
Out of the box, the Scape’s dynamic drivers are tuned to a smooth V-curve, with an emphasis on precision over character. Bass frequencies are punchy without being bloated, and there’s nice detail for mid-focused instruments like guitar. To my ears, the only issue with the Scape’s default setting was the upper midrange and treble frequencies. They weren’t shrill to the point of whistling, but there was definitely a harshness to the singing of singers like Jeff Buckley and Carolyn Polaszek, who are known for their falsetto vocals. Fortunately, this was easy to fix using Scape’s built-in equalizer settings.
I’ll have more to say in the software section of this review, but Fractal’s Adjust app allows you to make adjustments to the parametric equalizer. This is different from most gaming headsets, which often limit people to restrictive fixed range adjustments. Even when I only used five possible points of customization, I found that I had a lot of control over the tone of the scene.
Overall, for casual music listening, these are excellent headphones capable of covering many different genres. When it comes to gaming, it’s great, too – with some caveats. For single-player games, the default settings are an excellent match. Ghost of TsushimaScape did a fantastic job of reproducing the game’s immersive sound design, allowing me to immerse myself in all the little audio details Sucker Punch has in its presentation of 13th century Japan. The sound imaging isn’t as expansive and rich as I’m used to with my Sennheiser HD 600, but for a pair of closed-back headphones, it’s above average.
When it comes to competitive first-person shooters, some adjustments need to be made. I found that all the default presets produce too much bass to easily isolate audio signals in games like brave. Again, Fractal made it easy to fix this problem; However, Scape can only store three presets. Some gaming headsets, especially those made by Steelseries, come with settings for hundreds of different games. For ultra-competitive players, this can be useful since each game has a different audio engine. I’m not one of those people, so I found Scape to have just the right amount of customization.
Close-up of volume in Scape. (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
One feature you won’t find in these headphones is active noise cancellation (ANC). Don’t get me wrong, ANC is great, but I also didn’t feel like Scape was a worse product without it. My girlfriend is a Pilton fanatic and does all of her daily classes without wearing headphones in our tiny apartment. In this case, the Scape’s passive noise isolation was enough to block out the loud music coming from those workouts.
However, the one area where Scape could have been better is Bluetooth connectivity. It’s a 5.3 headphone, but codec support is limited to SBC and AAC. If you’ve ever tried a pair of wireless headphones but were disappointed by their sound, the SBC is likely to blame. When I used Scape over Bluetooth, there was little difference, but in a beat ’em up game like Absolum, the game’s excellent sound design was less effective because it sounded more compressed, with more lag between what was happening on screen and the effects that followed.
I would have liked to see Fractal support more modern codecs like aptX Adaptive, but since you need a dongle like Creative PT-W6 To access those protocols on PC and consoles, I can’t blame the company for its decision. Also missing from the Bluetooth equation is multipoint support, which meant I couldn’t connect the Scape to my PC or Switch and my iPhone at the same time.
The Scape’s detachable microphone is good but uninspiring. While listening to a conversation I had with some friends over Discord, I found that Scape compressed my voice to the point that there wasn’t much life or nuance to it. The optional noise cancellation algorithm does a good job of filtering out nearby noise, but it does so at the cost of adding more compression. You can flip the microphone to mute yourself, and if you’re feeling lazy, the Scape also has a built-in microphone – although it sounds as good as you might imagine, it’s nevertheless useful in a pinch.
programming
Fractal’s Adjust app is web-based and easy to use. (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
You mentioned Fractal’s Adjust, but what I didn’t notice is that it’s not an app you need to install on your computer. Instead, it’s a website that you can access through any Chrome-based browser. It’s a small thing, but it’s something I really appreciate. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to troubleshoot Windows issues that were caused by a conflict created by the Logitech G Hub or NZXT Cam.
The web-based program itself is simple, has two pages, called Lighting and Sound, and includes all the options you can tweak. The Scape comes with 10 ready-to-use lighting themes, and like the headset itself, these presets are simple and elegant. Naturally, you can also create your own lighting schemes, and the tool needed to do this is fairly powerful.
Close-up of Fractal Scape’s EQ button (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
When it comes to the EQ adjustments you can make with the Adjust app, the only thing I’ll add here is that any presets you save are stored on Scape, so they’re available everywhere you want to use your headphone. This was great because it meant I didn’t need to press Alt-Tab out of the game to switch the headset to a more competitive setting.
The only area where Fractal feels lacking is when it comes to the microphone controls. It’s possible to adjust the side tone (the volume level of your microphone input as heard through the headset) and enable microphone noise cancellation, but that’s about it. It would be nice if it were possible to adjust those settings for the two microphones independently of each other, but the software doesn’t support that at the moment.
Battery life
According to Fractal, the Scape can last up to 40 hours on a single charge with the RGB lighting turned off. With the feature turned on, battery life drops to about 26 hours. I’ll be honest, I had a hard time testing these claims given how easy it is to charge the headset. As best as I can tell, these estimates are accurate. I was able to get three days of battery life from the Scape with the RGB lights on and about eight hours of use each day.
One nice touch: When you tap the power button, the RGB lights will light up briefly to indicate how much battery life is left in Scape. These same lights will turn off when you put the headset to charge so as not to distract you.
Competition
With Scape, Fractal entered a crowded market. However, the Scape is able to compete with some of the best gaming headsets you can buy right now. At $200, it’s $100 cheaper Odie MaxwellEngadget’s pick for the best premium gaming headset. The Scape doesn’t look as good as the Maxwell or offer LDAC support for Bluetooth connectivity, but it’s lighter and charging is easier thanks to the included charging dock. If you ask me, Scape also looks a lot better.
If you can’t live without ANC, your best bet is Razer Black Shark V3 Probut it costs $50 more and doesn’t look as good as Scape. You also need to put up with Razer’s annoying Synapse software. For the best microphone in a gaming headset, my long-time recommendation has been the $199 Drop PC38X. It also has one of the best default settings for competitive gaming. However, it’s a wired headphone, and the Drop doesn’t offer a wireless option.
Conclusion
The charging station also has a 2.4GHz Scape transmitter. (Igor Bonivasic for Engadget)
If you can’t tell by now, I think the Fractal Scape is a great gaming headset. There are models like the Audeze Maxwell that beat it in one or two categories, but at $200, the Scape is an excellent all-around package. Comfort aside, the Scape looks and sounds great. It’s also a tremendous first effort on Fractal’s part, and I can’t wait to see what the company does next in audio and beyond.
(Tags for translation)Fractal Design
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