Microsoft last week released their most recent 'must have' gizmo for the Xbox360, their Wireless Headset accessory.
Now you can walk to the fridge for a beer without having to stuff your controller in your back pocket! I managed to find one at GameStop who seemed to be one of the few stores to get them last week, most of the big box stores were telling me they'd get them in around 11/7. It was a little odd the first time I went to get up and walk to the kitchen, I instinctively grabbed the controller to take it with me then remembered... I didn't need to !
So how is it, is it worth the whopping $60? Well as with all my reviews, I'll give you the good and the bad, 2old2play is no one's fanboy. Cosmetically the headset is stylish and matches the Xbox360 color scheme so it looks like it all goes together. I would have expected maybe a bit more of a curvy style to match the curves of the Xbox360 but the sleek more angular look also works. The headset offers a little bit of adjustability, the mic piece can tilt up or down slightly and the arm can tilt out slightly as well. This will help the mic not be right up against your face and it can be angled towards your mouth for better sound pickup. The headset comes with two ear loops, the larger one comes installed by default and there's a smaller one for people with smaller ears. The ear loop detaches by pulling it straight away from the headset on each side where it connects, it's just a snap connection. Microsoft says it's comfortable but I had to switch ears after two hours of wear. The larger loop didn't pinch too much but it was just enough to become irritating after a couple hours of use. This could simply just be a case of getting used to having something clipped on your ear like you would a headset for your cell phone.
The headset has many buttons and lights. On the outside side of the headset there is a cluster of buttons arranged in a circle. The middle of the circle is the slightly raised on/off button which also doubles as a mute. Holding the button in for a couple seconds turns the headset on and off and giving it a quick press will put it into mute. When in mute, you get a tone every once in a while to remind you that you're muting. The headset also has an auto-off feature which will happen when your Xbox360 is powered down. The other two buttons are for volume up and volume down so you can adjust the volume coming out of the speaker in your ear, pressing each makes a nice tone. On the under side is the all important connect button. The first time you use your headset, your Xbox360 should be on with the controller on and then you press the Xbox360 connect button. With the circle of light spinning you turn your headset on and press it's connect button. The Mic has a series of LED's on it each one numbered. The number of the LED that's lit corresponds to position your headset is linked to. Also when the headset is charging via the wall charger, the lights go on and off in sequence and all blink when it's fully charged which takes around 4 hours. There is no play and charge ability though, when your battery starts to die you'll hear a tone in your ear and when it's totally dead, you'll need to take it off and plug it in. The headset will not work when it's plugged into the charging cable. You can check the power left on the headset by pressing the guide button on the controller and looking at the top of the fly out dashboard window. You'll see your controller power level and your wireless headset right beside it.
For me the whole connection process was a little bit clunky. The first time I connected the headset to my Xbox360, my controller was in position one and the headset went to position two. I thought that was fine but it didn't work, I couldn't hear anyone and they couldn't hear me. So I shut my system off and turned it back on but without the controller. Then I re-connected and it went to position one this time. So one more restart with both the controller and headset on, both on position one and the headset worked.
The audio quality of the headset for listening is quite good if you're talking to someone on a decent wired headset. There is little to no hissing or popping anymore. However if you're talking to someone also using a wireless headset, your audio experience may vary. Cut-outs some random low frequency humming and some distortion could all be heard from time to time. The cut-outs I would expect are from people walking around and not sitting in front of their console but the distortion and humming certainly is not. For your voice being transmitted, you are going to sound like you 'have a cold'. That seems to be the most common comment received and sometimes there's very mild distortion.
The last thing I'll talk about is range. The 30 foot range I believe is open air range and not through walls, floors and other obstacles. The far corner of my kitchen is 20 feet away from my system and I cut out when I get to that corner. However other gamers have said they've walked to different floors and still been able to talk in the game lobbies only cutting out occasionally. So how good your range is going to be is largely at the mercy of how your house is constructed and laid out. The headset should re-connect automatically once you're back in range and I believe it gives you an audio tone when it disconnects and reconnects.
All in all the headset is a bit pricey for what it's performance but overall not being tethered to the controller anymore is worth its weight in gold I think. Don't forget at Buy.com, you can save $10 if you order the Wireless Headset and use the Google Check-out feature!
So how is it, is it worth the whopping $60? Well as with all my reviews, I'll give you the good and the bad, 2old2play is no one's fanboy. Cosmetically the headset is stylish and matches the Xbox360 color scheme so it looks like it all goes together. I would have expected maybe a bit more of a curvy style to match the curves of the Xbox360 but the sleek more angular look also works. The headset offers a little bit of adjustability, the mic piece can tilt up or down slightly and the arm can tilt out slightly as well. This will help the mic not be right up against your face and it can be angled towards your mouth for better sound pickup. The headset comes with two ear loops, the larger one comes installed by default and there's a smaller one for people with smaller ears. The ear loop detaches by pulling it straight away from the headset on each side where it connects, it's just a snap connection. Microsoft says it's comfortable but I had to switch ears after two hours of wear. The larger loop didn't pinch too much but it was just enough to become irritating after a couple hours of use. This could simply just be a case of getting used to having something clipped on your ear like you would a headset for your cell phone.
The headset has many buttons and lights. On the outside side of the headset there is a cluster of buttons arranged in a circle. The middle of the circle is the slightly raised on/off button which also doubles as a mute. Holding the button in for a couple seconds turns the headset on and off and giving it a quick press will put it into mute. When in mute, you get a tone every once in a while to remind you that you're muting. The headset also has an auto-off feature which will happen when your Xbox360 is powered down. The other two buttons are for volume up and volume down so you can adjust the volume coming out of the speaker in your ear, pressing each makes a nice tone. On the under side is the all important connect button. The first time you use your headset, your Xbox360 should be on with the controller on and then you press the Xbox360 connect button. With the circle of light spinning you turn your headset on and press it's connect button. The Mic has a series of LED's on it each one numbered. The number of the LED that's lit corresponds to position your headset is linked to. Also when the headset is charging via the wall charger, the lights go on and off in sequence and all blink when it's fully charged which takes around 4 hours. There is no play and charge ability though, when your battery starts to die you'll hear a tone in your ear and when it's totally dead, you'll need to take it off and plug it in. The headset will not work when it's plugged into the charging cable. You can check the power left on the headset by pressing the guide button on the controller and looking at the top of the fly out dashboard window. You'll see your controller power level and your wireless headset right beside it.
For me the whole connection process was a little bit clunky. The first time I connected the headset to my Xbox360, my controller was in position one and the headset went to position two. I thought that was fine but it didn't work, I couldn't hear anyone and they couldn't hear me. So I shut my system off and turned it back on but without the controller. Then I re-connected and it went to position one this time. So one more restart with both the controller and headset on, both on position one and the headset worked.
The audio quality of the headset for listening is quite good if you're talking to someone on a decent wired headset. There is little to no hissing or popping anymore. However if you're talking to someone also using a wireless headset, your audio experience may vary. Cut-outs some random low frequency humming and some distortion could all be heard from time to time. The cut-outs I would expect are from people walking around and not sitting in front of their console but the distortion and humming certainly is not. For your voice being transmitted, you are going to sound like you 'have a cold'. That seems to be the most common comment received and sometimes there's very mild distortion.
The last thing I'll talk about is range. The 30 foot range I believe is open air range and not through walls, floors and other obstacles. The far corner of my kitchen is 20 feet away from my system and I cut out when I get to that corner. However other gamers have said they've walked to different floors and still been able to talk in the game lobbies only cutting out occasionally. So how good your range is going to be is largely at the mercy of how your house is constructed and laid out. The headset should re-connect automatically once you're back in range and I believe it gives you an audio tone when it disconnects and reconnects.
All in all the headset is a bit pricey for what it's performance but overall not being tethered to the controller anymore is worth its weight in gold I think. Don't forget at Buy.com, you can save $10 if you order the Wireless Headset and use the Google Check-out feature!
