Logitech Gaming Headset G330

The Logitech Gaming Headset G330 is pitched at people who want a lightweight headphone/microphone combo for long gaming sessions. It provides decent sound quality for the average user, but avid gamers might end up feeling a little short-changed.

Design

The G330 has a behind-the-head, adjustable headband that looks a little like a melted piece of plastic. On the left of the headset is a flexible microphone boom made of rubber. It can be rotated out of the way when not in use.

The headphones themselves are covered in foam. Your ears will stay relatively cool and the headphones don't apply too much pressure, making them ideal for long gaming sessions.

Functions, features and specs

The G330 can be connected to a computer in two ways: you can plug the analog headphone and microphone cords directly into your existing PC, or you can plug included USB 2.0 adapter into your computer and attach the analog headphone and microphone jacks to that instead.

Logitech has given the G330 Gaming Headset a generous 2.4m cable, with a handy Velcro strip for tying up any unused cable. The headset comes with inline audio controls, including a volume wheel and mute button for the microphone.

The G330 harnesses 30mm speakers that have a 40Hz-18KHz frequency response. Logitech has also equipped the G330 with a noise-cancelling, unidirectional microphone.

Performance

We didn't expect great performance from the G330 headphones considering the lightweight, open design, especially compared to closed-ear gaming headsets. The headphones produced average mid and high tones, and retained clarity at maximum volume; however, they lacked the bass hit we craved. The mediocre bass response left us feeling a little short-changed, particularly during explosive situations in games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

During a Crysis Warhead test, the headphones failed to shut out the noise from an LCD TV running at a low volume in the background. While they are a comfy pair of headphones, they don't block out background sounds as well as closed-ear headphones like the Plantronics GameCom 367.

Although the G330 Gaming Headset is pitched at gamers, it also delivers reasonable performance for Web conferencing and Skype/VoIP calls.

We think the biggest selling point for the G330 headset would have to be its microphone. It produced clear sound during voice calls and we were pleased with the results. The microphone did a great job at cancelling out ambient noise like chitchat and the LCD TV running in the background.

Conclusion

The Logitech G330, for $99.95, offers pedestrian performance. As a solution for VoIP calls, the G330 is quite useful, but gamers might feel let down by the unit's overall performance.