Logitech G Astro A30 review: Great audio (almost) anywhere
DexertoThe Logitech G Astro A30 gaming headset looks to invade every aspect of your life, from being taken with you while out and about, to being used across your gaming consoles, but is it any good?
Logitech acquired the Astro brand in 2017, and since then, everything has had an added Logitech splash of polish. The Astro A30, considered to be Astro’s accessible higher-end headset, promises quality audio without compromise, between a number of devices.
The A30’s price point means that it’ll be contending against the likes of the mighty Steelseries Arctis Nova 7, but Logitech’s efforts have not gone remiss, as the A30 is an accomplished gaming headset suitable for almost every scenario, and they can also be customized, too.
Key specs
- Connectivity: Bluetooth, 2.4GHz Dongle, Detachable 3.5mm wire (Headset jack/combination jack)
- Driver diameter: 40mm
- Frequency response: 20 – 20,000 Hz
- Compatibility: PS5, Xbox, PC, Bluetooth devices, Nintendo Switch
- Features: Device switching, audio mixing, detachable boom mic, 27-hour battery life, LIGHTSPEED wireless, customizable speaker tags
- Price: $229.99 USD
- Where to buy: Astro Gaming
Included in the box: Astro A30 gaming headset, carrying case, USB-A to USB-C cable, LIGHTSPEED receiver, 3,5mm combination jack.
Design
The Astro A30 gaming headset looks excellent from the moment that you take it out of the box, it’s speaker tags are adorned with an oil-slick-like effect, and the navy blue coloring is a fresh take, compared to the list of endless matte black headsets that we see. The plastic construction of the headset does leave something to be desired, however, as it’s creaky, and didn’t really fill us with too much confidence when we were putting them on our head, or adjusting them.
The head cushion is fairly firm, and made from a rubber-like material that we found tends to aggravate longer hair, which is a shame. Despite this, the sleek-looking design of the headset makes it look fantastic. Each earcup is adorned with a bevy of knobs and settings, but it’s fairly easy to get lost in these, and even after weeks of testing we never really managed to get used to them.
The detachable boom microphone is a nice touch, but we would have preferred it to be more in line with the Steelseries mantra of just tucking it away inside the headset, instead of having yet another thing to lose. The USB-C charging port also tucks in nicely at the bottom, but the 27-hour battery life is fantastic, and we only ended up having to charge the headset a handful of times.
However, the plush earcups are adorned with a faux-leather that we think is one of the most comfortable you can get on this side of the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, and the weight of the headset was comfortable to hold on our head for hours on end.
Sound quality
Firstly, there are a few modes that we can test with regards to the sound quality of the Astro A30, firstly, gaming through Logitech’s Lightspeed Wireless and through PS5 was easy, we pumped through all manner of music, and surprisingly, the sound profile of the headset managed to handle dark and bassy sounds with ease, all the while having good clarity in the higher-end while listening to music. It’s certainly a breath of fresh air after listening to so many gaming headsets with dominant bass.
The overall soundstage is fairly even and wide, though if you want to configure the sounds further, you can also use the Logitech G Hub mobile app, which provided a frustration-free experience to customize our listening experience.
Here, you can also configure the sound profile to be in ‘Astro Footsteps’ mode, which allowed you to hear footsteps slightly easier by bringing down lower frequencies, while not muddying the profile too much at all. In Warzone, we managed to effectively use this mode to pick off nearby enemies, and in Elden Ring, it managed to deliver a delightfully immersive experience.
The Astro A30 sounds more expensive than the headset actually costs, it manages to shoot at high-end gaming headsets, while also being equipped to manage almost any kind of game or musical genre that you throw at it. We loved hearing the roar of engines in Forza, and the sci-fi soundscape of Halo: Infinite during our testing.
Thanks to its Bluetooth functionality, you can even use this as your lifestyle headset, though, you might be slightly disappointed by its mic quality.
Microphone quality
The dual-mic setup of the A30 is nice to have, however neither the built-in mic, nor the detachable boom microphone managed to impress, while switching between headsets, the Astro A30 was consistently the most distorted, and while our pals over on Discord could hear us easily enough, the internal microphone was only really appropriate for short phone calls, while the boom mic disappointed by providing tinny quality that we expected more from.
Considering how great the audio of the headset is, we couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by the microphones here,
Features
The mixing on the headset worked fantastically well, and we were able to connect to multiple different sources and switch between them easily. However, configuring the audio using the small control knob on the back was difficult to locate, and always required a bit of finicking ahead of getting it working and mixed the way that we like it, but we did have to re-pair devices on occasion which did get pretty tedious.
There’s also no ANC on this headset, which, at this price range we would have liked to have seen. There’s also the fact that when you purchase the headset, you lock yourself into a dongle that’s compatible with PC and either Xbox or PS5. It’s not a truly multiplatform headset, as they like to market. You will need to pick up a separate dongle. In the meantime, headsets like the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max allow for multiple device connectivity and is also slightly cheaper. Again, at this price point, we did expect more.
Should you buy it?
The Astro A30 gaming headset is undoubtedly a good gaming headset, however, it has several different caveats that we just wished would be slightly smoothed over, it could stand to be slightly more comfortable, and it could stand to have controls that are easy to find, it would have been nice to see other features like ANC. No manner of flashy replaceable earcups can really make up for having a more well-thought-out design.
7/10
We really hoped that the Astro A30 would be better, but the great audio quality manages to carry many of our misgivings about this gaming headset.
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