Astro Gaming Review – This is a premium wireless gaming headset with thick comfortable velor ear cushions, highly adjustable design, reliable battery life, and many features. In short, it should be very good, and on paper it is. Not so much in practice.
How does Astro Gaming work?
Astro Gaming Wireless is a flawless gaming headset. It is made mostly of plastic, with large headphones, a hollow plastic strap, and a flexible microphone attached. The headphones are attached to the strap with metal bars, which are also used to adjust the height of the headset and turn the headphones.
It comes with velor pads, which are great for gamers with glasses. Materials such as leatherette generally provide better insulation, but you need something a little softer and more flexible to create a decent seal around the glasses.
Is Astro Gaming making a new headset?
You may know about Astro Gaming if you like PCs and consoles. The company’s flagship product, the A50, has become the most popular headset for many years. Earning a reputation as a high-quality console game and a suitor at Logitech. But how do the best consoles, in their fourth iteration, compare to the best PC hits? There is still work to be done, that’s for sure.
Astro Gaming Design Review
First, take a look at the Astro A50 gaming headset. You’ll notice that it doesn’t keep up with the latest trends in other slim and versatile options, such as the Arctic Pros. You can tell right away that it’s just for games. And for many it’s not so important, they still look great.
Quite loud old designs have disappeared, and this model has a completely black look due to various materials. The dark gold from the Astro brand accentuates the black color and generally looks as premium as the price dictates.
Like most gaming headsets, they are quite bulky, with an almost square look on the head. They are almost reminiscent of the Gen3 model, except that the plastic around the headphones is made less angular. Which gives the Gen4 a more visually pleasing appearance.
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Astro gaming build quality review
They are as high quality as they look, even the hinges look like the most reliable I’ve ever tested on a gaming headset. The entire outer frame is a durable matte black plastic that works flexibly with different sizes and shapes of heads.
When you hold on to the plastic frame, it is not at all effortless, so compression does not cause squeaking or cause concern. The frame around the headphones is technically separate from the plastic of the headband; each part is screwed to two sliders. The sliders resemble aluminum (although I may be wrong about that) and place the cable in the middle.
Astro Gaming Review
The headphones rotate 90 degrees from the axis of the slider and have markings for a better fit, which we will consider soon. The upper part of the headband is divided. Which has been shown to be useful for those who suffer from sweating during games.
In the middle, there is a removable plastic clamp that has a stuffing. This extra little item has an extra brand and can be replaced when you buy a set of modifications.
The headphones are covered with the same soft matte black plastic as the frame, and in combination with small gold and gray details, they look great. The left earphone has a swivel microphone to mute the sound, which is still as flexible as the previous generation.
The microphone is made of long plastic, which gives you better control over the location of the microphone during the game. It is worth noting that in order to turn off the microphone, it must be 100% vertical with sliders.
This was one of my few problems with the headset. As I felt that activating the mute was a bit annoying, and I often didn’t turn it on enough, but that’s what you’re used to.
Astro gaming battery life review
Astro claims that the A50 Wireless can run for more than 15 hours on a single charge. And while that’s very possible, we can’t say for sure. The headset has a “battery saving function” that cannot be turned off. And puts the headset to sleep after it has not moved for about half an hour.
This means that we cannot perform our typical full battery test without allowing the battery test unit to be placed on a running washing machine for 16 hours or more.
But given the results we can get by periodically poking the headset and checking the battery charge percentage: we estimate about 16 hours of playback.
Astro gaming features
A distinctive feature of the Astro A50 is its “accelerometer”. It determines when the headset is upright on your head and is used. When the headset is set aside, it turns itself off, turning on again when you pick it up to use again.
This is a great feature, of course, but it’s not perfect. In the off horizontal position, the battery is still discharged, which can be frustrating. To avoid this, it may be best to leave the headset on the base station when it is not in use to charge the battery.
The A50 docks are magnetically fixed, which allows you to simply place the headset vertically on the charging base. Although the base station is not perfect. The A50 is known to lose touch with the base station, which requires a bit of shaking to reconnect. Fortunately, there is a backup USB charging cable for this. But it would be even better if we could trust that the base unit stays connected to the headset unattended.
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Astro Gaming Best Plans and Offers
Astro A50
The Astro A50 is virtually unique on the market right now, thanks to its magnetic charging dock, which few competitors have been able to emulate. The charging dock provides the wireless headset in full condition. So you can be sure that you will always be ready to work. The headset has a unique high-quality Astro design with metal tubes on both sides for adjustment.
The cushioning is thick and generous but can be further improved with leatherette on the Astro website. This is one of the most comfortable headsets on the market with a lightweight design that remains comfortable even during the longest sessions.
Astro A40
This headset setup has been my personal decision for a very long time, thanks to Astro MixAmp. The A40 TR can be purchased separately for significant savings. But the Astro MixAmp combination adds a lot of functionality that is worth considering.
Like the Astro A50 dock, MixAmp provides side microphone monitoring, equalizer settings, Dolby surround sound, and the ability to mix USB and SPDIF optical audio sources in one stream.
This is useful for those who want to use one headset on their PC and game console at the same time, without succumbing to the terrible Bluetooth protocol.
Astro A20
The Astro A20 2020 isn’t the most attractive, with a loud white design and green “gaming” accents. But if you’re not broadcasting live on Twitch, you’re probably not too worried about what it looks like overall.
The A20 achieves its lower price by dropping the charging dock and some “premium” materials from its more expensive relatives. There are no metal parts that would hit its durability. The trade-off is that it is incredibly light, with a well-balanced design that should remain comfortable even during long gaming sessions.
Astro A10
Astro has made a number of compromises to reduce the price of this headset. Getting rid of the metal design and many frills that can be found on more expensive counterparts of Astro. One of the areas that Astro has not touched on here is sound quality.
The A10 is overweight, with good highs and clear bass that will immerse you in your games. The Astro A10 is not the most comfortable and perhaps not the most attractive headset.
How can I upgrade Astro headset firmware?
If you have an Astro wireless headset built for the Xbox One, it will be as easy as updating the headset firmware (and depending on the model, MixAmp, or base station) through the Astro Command Center PC software after the Xbox Series X launches. If your headset is usually connected to the console via optical audio, you can connect the base station to a USB XSX port to get the same features
What colors does Astro Gaming come in?
The Astro gaming is quite restrained in style, it is available in black or black (one with thin gold inserts and the other with silver), but the unique tubular ribbon is impressive. This is also convenient, as measurements on both sides provide an even adjustment to find a good fit.
Is Astro Gaming base station good for dual gaming system?
The headset comes with a wireless base station, and it displays all the important information you may need, such as your choice of a preset equalizer and battery charge indicator. Keep in mind that if you expect to use a dual gaming system, this base station is compatible with the Xbox or PS4 platform, not both. Both PS4 and Xbox headset versions are compatible with PCs, so choose the cheaper one.
