Astro’s new low-end A10 headset is made for avid gamers who need to be cute on stream | Engadget

In at the moment’s world of Twitch and Zoom a very good headset is changing into essential merchandise for his or her consolation and audio high quality. But there are two main stopping blocks towards them being an on a regular basis merchandise: their excessive price and unfriendly designs. No one needs to appear like an air visitors controller or name heart worker, however on the different finish it’s all extreme black and neon inexperienced, extra suited to Fortnite or Roblox than a gathering about your newest name about KPIs and OKRs. But Astro, one of many main names in gaming headsets, may simply have the answer with its new A10 headset.

The Logitech-owned firm has an array of headsets with an “A” prefix adopted by a quantity; the upper the quantity, the extra superior and costly the headset. The present prime of the road is the A50, a wi-fi set that comes with a base station for charging. It appears to be like like a bit of apparatus from a science fiction film, and it prices $300.

The new A10 sits on the reverse finish of the lineup, a $60 wired headset that just about eschews all frills. There’s a versatile flip-to-mute mic and in-line quantity management and that’s about it. The ear pads and headband are well-padded in a clean material that’s solely flippantly textured so it doesn’t catch on my hair after I slide it on and off. The mic has a rubbery really feel to it, each to the contact but in addition in the way in which you’ll be able to band it backwards and forwards.

And it’s not simply the mic you’ll be able to bend backwards and forwards; the band of the A10 might be twisted right into a close to spiral with out displaying any cracking or tearing. It’s designed to be dropped and thrown, which is nice as a result of I’ve knocked it off my desk a number of occasions at the moment whereas working. (I’ve a messy workspace, okay?)

Key to the brand new A10’s enchantment is the colour choices; it is available in black, white, grey, mint and lilac. For my assessment unit I selected the latter coloration partly due to its novelty — most headsets are available in grayscale tones — and since I have already got Logitech’s G733 in lilac and wished to do a direct comparability. The G733 is a costlier ($150) wi-fi headset with lights on the entrance so it’s not likely a contest when it comes to options, however I used to be curious in regards to the appears to be like.

Though each Logitech G and Astro are sibling manufacturers, the lilac shades of their headsets are distinctly totally different. The G733 is a bluish purple whereas the A10 is extra on the pinkish facet. I’m unsure which I really choose. The ear pads on the G733 are barely higher however with regards to the headbands on the 2 units the A10 is the clear winner, for the reason that G733 makes use of a stretchy band which pulls at my hair and offers me a little bit of a fowl’s nest after I take it off.

My greatest use case for headsets isn’t work calls however relatively Dungeons & Dragons video games with my mates over Twitch. In our final session I began off with the A10 since all I wanted to do was plug it in; the headset comes with a removable 3.5mm cable that’s black and solely black irrespective of which coloration headset you purchase. It’s ugly. At first I really plugged it within the incorrect approach; although each ends are the identical width, they’re barely totally different lengths, the higher for one finish to slot in the jack on the headset itself. Once I obtained it sorted out the audio was serviceable, although there was some hollowness on the decision that may have been shitty mic high quality on my mates’ sides. However, I switched to the G733 halfway by our night and seen some enchancment.

Logitech G’s been making extra fashion-forward headsets for some time; the closest analogue the corporate has to its sister model’s A10 is the $70 G335. The G335 is essentially similar to the G733 when it comes to match and really feel; it simply lacks the wi-fi capabilities and RGB lighting. It additionally doesn’t are available in lilac, so in case you’re in search of a cute, high-quality headset for below $100 in purple the A10 is your solely possibility proper now. Luckily it’s a very good one.