Logitech’s new platform-agnostic headset offers excellent features if you can afford it

A minimum of as soon as per 12 months we’re handled to incremental upgrades in headset designs from producers like Razer, Steelseries, and HyperX. These enhancements sometimes contact on a number of the extra goal factors of their peripherals, like audio high quality and battery life. Nevertheless, the most recent headset mannequin from Logitech, the Astro A50X, is providing one thing a bit extra drastic.

Along with the identical excellent audio high quality we’ve come to count on from Logitech headsets, the docking station for the A50X successfully serves as an HDMI change, which not solely makes the headset universally appropriate, however permits you to shortly swap between HDMI inputs with a devoted button on the headset. However, at an eye-watering $379.99, it’s tough to advocate this headset to all however probably the most frequent of customers.

The docking station is fitted with a pair of HDMI and USB-C inputs that can be used with PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles. You’ll additionally discover one other USB-C port that gives energy and can additionally join the dock to your PC. The one HDMI 2.1 output is able to full 4K 120Hz passthrough to your most popular display.

Organising all the system and getting its myriad cables organized required important time funding, however I finally felt that was a small worth to pay for a single unified headset that additionally allowed me to swap between the inputs on my TV. It is a fairly neat trick — nonetheless, the console will must be powered on by way of its respective controller earlier than you make the change, to ensure that this to work correctly.

In fact, if you’d want to skip the docking station totally, you can additionally pair the A50X together with your cellphone, Swap, or PlayStation by way of Bluetooth as a substitute. You gained’t be capable to swap inputs, although.

Picture: Logitech

The sound high quality of the Astro A50X is superb no matter which platform you’re taking part in on, with no noticeable latency when working on 2.4 Ghz wi-fi. I examined the A50X with a pair of rhythm video games which have excellent soundtracks, Hello-Fi Rush and Steel: Hellsinger, on each PC and Xbox. The A50X had no points matching the gameplay beat for beat, which is one thing my dependable noise-canceling earbuds simply couldn’t match. The default sound profile is a little bit bass-heavy, however you can fine-tune every thing from the Logitech G app in your cellphone or PC.

Picture: Logitech

The match and end of the Astro A50X might be acquainted to anybody who’s used a headset from the Astro A50 or A40 collection. The ear cushions and headband characteristic plush cloth, and the headset can lay flat round your neck when not in use. The floor of the precise earcup permits you to regulate the steadiness between sport and chat quantity. Across the again of the precise earcup, you’ll discover a quantity wheel, energy and enter switches, and a Bluetooth pairing button.

The aesthetics of the A50X aren’t fairly as offensive as some extra gamer-centric designs, however it nonetheless isn’t what I’d name a handsome headset. A bit much less plastic within the general construct, and the flexibility to take away the growth mic would’ve been welcome. Usually, these are annoyances that I’m prepared to miss, however for $380, I do count on extra.

Whereas Logitech’s designers have clearly gone to nice lengths to broaden the performance of this headset, they haven’t carried out a lot to enhance the match and end, which is disappointing given the large price ticket. At $380, small points just like the plastic-heavy design, and the way the headset doesn’t all the time wish to seat itself within the dock appropriately, really feel extra evident.

I applaud Logitech for producing a headset with features that genuinely enhance consumer expertise, however its excessive worth and restricted attraction make it extraordinarily tough to advocate. For a choose subset of people that play video games and chat commonly throughout a number of platforms that share the identical display, the A50X represents a sound funding, however for everybody else, a headset that prices a 3rd of the worth will just do wonderful.