The open earbud category has seen a lot of growth lately. If you want to stay aware of your surroundings, or you just don’t like inserting traditional earbuds into your ear canal, this is the type of earbud design for you. The ASUS ROG Cetra Open Wireless is an open earbud that is also built specifically for gamers. Unlike traditional Bluetooth earbuds that struggle with latency, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless have a wireless 2.4gHz dongle that delivers low-latency connectivity for gaming. I spent some time with the ROG Cetra Open Wireless to see where it excels for gaming. Let’s see whether the ROG Cetra Open Wireless is a novelty product or a purposeful innovation.

How has this article been updated?

This article was published on March 10, 2026, and this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

Who are the ROG Cetra Open Wireless for?

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless are for those who are looking for a lag-free competitive edge while still hearing their surroundings. They are also great for those who want to transition between gaming and running with no hassle.

What’s it like to use the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

The included neck strap of the ROG Cetra Open Wireless floats above your neck and doesn’t annoy your neck.

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless earbuds come in a hard carrying case, which is a bit large but can fit in most pockets. This case design is typical for open-ear design earbuds, and the ROG Cetra Open wireless needs the extra space for the 2.4GHz USB dongle, which provides the low-latency connectivity needed for gaming.

The earbuds themselves are IPX5 rated, so no worries if you bring them out in the rain or through sweat. The charging case also has an IPX2 rating, which is good enough for accidental splashes and extremely moist environments. The only part that’s not water-resistant is the USB dongle.

There is only a single button on each side of the ROG Cetra Open Wireless.

Since the ROG Cetra Open Wireless sit on top of your ear, fit and comfort will depend on the shape of your ears. The earbuds are lightweight, but I did feel some pressure points, most likely due to the shape and size of my ears. I asked around the office and had five people try them out, and they had no issues with how the Cetra Open Wireless fit on their ears. There is an included reflective neck strap, which has an internal spring steel, so it stays in a single position. You can adjust the clamping force by spinning the earbuds when installing the neck strap to get a better wearing experience. The strap keeps the earbuds secure, but it can catch on shirt collars. Even without the neck strap, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless don’t fall off even when moving actively. So chances are you won’t need it, but it’s nice to have.

How do you control the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

The controls are relatively intuitive: tap once to play/pause, and answer calls, tap twice for “next track” or “dismiss call”. One thing that surprised me is that tapping three times is not “previous track”, it’s to activate “voice assistance”. Tapping four times is to adjust volume, with the left to lower volume and the right to increase volume. Personally, I think tapping three times should be the max for onboard controls, and having to activate a voice assistant manually is a bit redundant given that every mobile device is listening for a specific keyphrase anyway. However, the buttons are easy to find, and they have a nice, tactile feel. Thankfully, you can also customize the controls to your liking in the mobile app.

Should you use the Gear Link app for the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

To make full use of the features on the ROG Cetra Open Wireless, you’ll want to dive into the Gear Link app, either the mobile app or the web app. The web link app is available anywhere as long as you have internet access. Gladly, it doesn’t require or ask for a login. Whether you are using the mobile app or the web app, you can adjust EQ, the RGB lights, the button controls, and mic settings. The microphone settings are better than most, as there’s an option for a noise gate, and a “perfect voice” feature which automatically adjusts your voice to be as clear as possible. Inside the app, you’ll also find a feature called “immersion mode”, which helps block out background noise when listening to the ROG Cetra Open Wireless in environments with ambient sound.

How do you connect the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

There are two ways to connect the ROG Cetra Open Wireless, both of them wirelessly. You can either connect over a standard Bluetooth 6 connection or use the 2.4gHz wireless dongle to get the lowest latency possible. When using the Bluetooth 6 connection, there is support for AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs. While I would have preferred to have some higher bandwidth codec options, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless aren’t really meant for critical listening, and SBC and AAC work just fine for this type of product.

The included dongle provides low-latency audio streaming to the earbuds.

When using the included USB dongle, there is a USB-C passthrough port that allows you to charge the phone even when the charging port is being used. The USB-C port is offset, allowing you to position it comfortably depending on the size of your phone and the location of the USB-C port.

How do you pair the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless can be put into pairing mode quite easily. Out of the box, it will open up into pairing mode, but if you need to do it manually, here are the steps to do so:

Open the case and pull out the eabuds
Press and hold the button on both earbuds for 3 seconds.
Check the list of available Bluetooth devices on the device you want to pair with.

How long do the ROG Cetra Open Wireless last?

ASUS ROG says you can get up to 16 hours of continuous playback on a single charge, though this is with RGB lighting, microphone, Phantom Bass, and Immersion Mode turned off. In our standardized battery testing here in our SoundGuys lab, we found the earbuds lasted 9 hours of playback over Bluetooth and 6 hours and 29 minutes of playback when paired to the USB dongle, and with immersive mode on. Either way, this is long enough for most gaming sessions, and you can always charge up the earbuds by placing them in their charging case, which provides an additional 3 charges.

How well does the ROG Cetra Open Wireless attenuate noise?

Since the ROG Cetra Open Wireless have an open ear design, there is little to no reduction in outside noise while wearing them. For that reason, they work best if you plan on using them in quiet environments. If you take the ROG Cetra Open Wireless on a noisy train, you will find yourself needing to crank up the volume in order to hear your music or game over the sounds around you.

That said, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless come with an Immersion Mode feature, which is effectively a light version of noise-cancelling. The sounds that it cancels out are the continuous ambient noise. The hum of air conditioning, the murmuring of a crowd, or the whooshing of cars passing by. It doesn’t remove everything, but it lowers the noise floor, allowing me to actually hear the music while still being aware of my surroundings.

How do the ROG Cetra Open Wireless sound?

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless are designed for immersive listening while gaming. While the sound quality isn’t tuned for critical listening, the earbuds do offer good separation. Since the earbuds rest on the outside of the ear, the sound quality that you experience will depend on how the earbuds fit around your ears and the placement of the speaker driver relative to your ear canal. For those reasons, everyone will have a slightly different experience when using them.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

Above is our mesured frequency response graph for the ROG Cetra Open Wireless. Keep in mind that for open earbuds like this, the sound quality measurements can vary significantly depending on the positioning of the earbuds next to the ear. In our measurements, we see an under-emphasis in bass for the ROG Cetra Open Wireless. This places a large emphasis in treble compared to our SoundGuys Preference Curve. This overemphasis can make it easy to localize specific sounds, but it can cause painful sibilance at loud volumes. You can experiment with the 10-band custom equalizer to tweak the sound quality to your liking.

How do the EQ presets sound?

ROG Cetra Open Wireless Phantom Bass enabled

[adp_audio model_id=”534″ measure_id=”485″ style=”fr/errorCurve” target_id=”1″ alt=”A chart showing the ROG Cetra Open Wireless’s tested Phantom Bass frequency response (blue) in reference to the SoundGuys Headphone Preference Curve (pink)./A chart showing the ROG Cetra Open Wireless’s Phantom Bass frequency response, as it differs from SoundGuys Headphone Preference Curve.” tabs=”Frequency Response/Error Curve” limit=”false” /]

With “Phantom Bass” enabled, I was only able to get an increased perception of the bass transients, which mostly come through in the upper mids and treble.

ROG Cetra Open Wireless Flat EQ

[adp_audio model_id=”534″ measure_id=”169″ style=”fr/errorCurve” target_id=”1″ alt=”A chart showing the ROG Cetra Open Wireless’s tested Flat EQ frequency response (blue) in reference to the SoundGuys Headphone Preference Curve (pink)./A chart showing the ROG Cetra Open Wireless’s Flat EQ frequency response, as it differs from SoundGuys Headphone Preference Curve.” tabs=”Frequency Response/Error Curve” limit=”false” /]

There doesn’t seem to be a big change from the default “communication” preset, but it does seem to make the treble less sibilant.

How would most people rate the sound from 1 to 5?

The chart below shows the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS) earned by the ASUS ROG Cetra Open Wireless. The algorithm uses a mountain of data from real people to predict how a group of 200 or so humans would rate the sound of a product on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good), and return a mean opinion score.

What do the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores mean?

Timbre (MOS-T) represents how faithfully the headset reproduces the frequency spectrum and temporal resolution (timing information).

Distortion (MOS-D) represents non-linearities and added noise: higher scores mean cleaner reproduction.

Immersiveness (MOS-I) represents perceived source width and positioning: how well virtual sound sources are defined in three-dimensional space.

See here for an explanation of MDAQS, how it works, and how it was developed.

Our simulated panel of hundreds of listeners returned a mean opinion scores (MOS) for the ROG Cetra Open Wireless of 1.7. This isn’t great, though open earbuds tend to struggle a bit in MDAQS scoring across the board, with most attaining a score of 2-3. The ROG Cetra Open Wireless are clearly more designed for gaming than for music listening.

How good is the ROG Cetra Open Wireless’s microphone?

The ROG Cetra Open wireless microphones are good. However, loud sounds sometimes overwhelm the microphones and cause them to clip. On the other hand, the signal-to-noise ratio makes the speech easy to understand, despite the background noise. You can check the voice samples yourself below:

ROG Cetra Open Wireless microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

ROG Cetra Open Wireless microphone demo (Office conditions):

ROG Cetra Open Wireless microphone demo (Reverberant space):

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Should you buy the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

The ROG Cetra Open Wireless is a unique entry in the gaming earbud market.

If you are specifically looking for open earbuds for gaming, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless are a viable option. I find these decent for competitive gaming, such as FPS or MOBA games, as they have great audio separation. There are some drawbacks with an open earbud design, mainly when it comes to critical listening, and especially in loud environments. On the other hand, if you like the idea of keeping your ear canals unobstructed, and you need low-latency, the ROG Cetra Open Wireless are a rather unique offering.

What should you get instead of the ROG Cetra Open Wireless?

We haven’t tested any other open ear style gaming earbuds. If you are alright with more traditional style earbuds for gaming and listening to music, consider the Oriveti Dynabird. If you want open earbuds just for listening to music, consider the Shokz OpenFit Pro.