Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset review – comfort at a price
Just in time for its return on Disney+, The Mandalorian’s third season has been wisely capitalised on with an official, limited-edition tie-in gaming headset worthy of the helmeted bounty hunter himself.
Chosen for this honour is none other than the Astro A30 Wireless from Logitech, serving as a mostly great set of cans that achieves its goal of being a comfortable and great-sounding multiplatform headset solution. It’s totally reliable on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC and requires almost no faff to set up and get listening.
There’s not too much going on here that you wouldn’t expect, but for its lack of overall surprise, the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset delivers where it counts. Sound quality, comfort and general style is all of a high standard, though its relatively hefty £229.99 / $229.99 / AU$429.95 price tag (£249.99 / $249.00 / AU$469.95 for the exclusive Star Wars edition) may leave some audiophiles wanting a bit more for the money. It’s a decent all-rounder headset solution that’s compatible with all major platforms wirelessly, but not standing out in any particular area might leave players questioning whether “this is the way”.
For the record, this is priced quite ludicrously considering the features on offer here. If you're looking for a reliable wireless headset, which is still lightweight and stylish then you can pick up the Razer Barracuda X for less than half of the price at retail, and it comes down to £44.99 on sale very frequently.
Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless – Design
Obviously, this being the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset – The Mandalorian edition, there are plenty of cool design elements sprinkled in for fans of the Star Wars show. The left-side earcup has Din Djarin’s mudhorn signet etched onto it, for example, while the one on the right features an outline of The Mandalorian himself coloured in the same cool silver tone found on the lower portion of the headband. Both speaker plates are detachable, too, so you can always swap out and change the style as you’d prefer. That said, spares being sold separately via additional mod kits doesn’t make this possible out of the gate.
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Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset (Aaron Potter)The gaming headset is available in a range of other colours, such as simple Blue and White, but the combination of black and silver works wonderfully and doesn’t come over as garish. By way of comfort, both the headband and earcups come padded using memory foam coated with pleather on top; this is a lot more comfortable than it might initially sound and never caused by head or ears to ache during prolonged sessions of play.
It helps that despite looking relatively high-budget and hefty, the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless is actually incredibly lightweight. To the point that I would forget they were even still sat on my head after just a couple minutes; it was never hard to become quickly immersed in the game I was playing. From a pure design perspective, the Astro A30 is delightfully subdued in terms of style and is always comfy to wear. Such understated style even carries on into the hard shell carry case included.
Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless – Features
It’s not that the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset doesn’t have a bevvy of features to dive into, it’s just that most of them aren’t all that surprising or even of great use. Both the internal and detachable boom mic, for example, don’t deliver especially crisp sound quality – often sounding tinny and doing a poor job at isolating any background nose. The boom fares slightly better, but that’s to be expected. What does, fortunately, deliver as advertised is battery life, offering a reliable 27 hours when charged via USB-c.
Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset (Aaron Potter)The ability to switch between the headset’s multi-audio source inputs works seamlessly, with a simple tap letting you easily flick between 2.4Ghz wireless when playing on console or Bluetooth for when you’re gaming on PC or talking on your phone. Coupled with clicking in the USB-A transmitter to switch between PlayStation, Xbox and PC, it’s a breeze to get started with the recommended settings for optimal audio.
The headset itself isn’t plagued with buttons and sliders thankfully, instead opting for a four-way, multi-directional switcher on the right side to let you adjust game audio and then in-game chat separately.
Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless – Performance
With the Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset Logitech promised ultra-low latency, and the headset absolutely delivers on this front. Testing it multiple times during PS5 and PC play sessions, I wasn’t able to notice a delay once. Less impressive, however, was the supposed range, which is advertised as up to 15m. This was closer to the case on console, but when using a gaming laptop, admittedly with countless other devices plugged in, the headset would cut out audio any time I got up to make a coffee at barely 3m.
Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset (Aaron Potter)Fortunately, all the games I played using the A30 sounded great – and that’s largely without having to adjust EQ levels or dabble with presets using the corresponding Astro app. You have the ability to create custom audio mixes if you’d like, but the plug-and-play will work pretty well for those uninterested in isolating or tweaking certain types of sounds. The one major disappointment in terms of performance from the A30 is the complete lack of spatial audio, which Astro continues to prove it has little interest in. Such a lacking feature will make this headset instantly unappealing for PvP aficionados where footstep noise is essential to winning.
I listened to a lot of different types of music using the Astro A30 in addition to games, and it did a pretty good job at accounting for the deep levels of bass found in, say, dubstep and rock. Equally, it didn’t disappoint on the higher-pitched range you hear in chilled acoustic. I’d be happy to use this headset for all my music-listening needs as the comfort is matched with a broad range of level support. It’s just a shame that in a day-to-day setting, I’d feel a little silly using it for calls, particularly seeing as the built-in mic leaves much to be desired anyway.
Final thoughts on the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless
Considering its high price point when compared to other gaming headsets on the market, the Logitech G Astro A30 Wireless gaming headset isn’t exactly the homerun solution it likely wants to be. The integration of Bluetooth is appreciated and a cool defining factor, as is the ability to be used wireless with every single gaming platform out there, but these alone aren’t enough to make up for tinny mic quality and a lack of spatial audio support.
Is this a headset fit for any and all budding Mandalorians? Absolutely. It’s a perfectly decent gaming headset that hits hard where it counts, namely comfort, flexibility and great-sounding audio that never suffers from latency. Throw in the multiplatform compatibility and it’s hard to complain too much, other than about how much you’ll be paying for these same benefits that can be found elsewhere for much less money.
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TL;DR A pretty good gaming headset solution that nails style, comfort and useability, but simply cannot compete on features with other similarly priced options.
Score: 3/5
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