This is what the Logitech Astro 50 looks like

In the world of game It is important to take care of all possible lawsuits. In Europe, it is possible to buy brutal monitors up to 57 inches that easily immerse you in the game, and powerful computers to play at the highest level for thousands of dollars. But we must not forget the important audio section either, and there is no shortage of alternatives that even make the head vibrate to achieve greater immersion. In recent weeks I have been playing with the Logitech Astro A50.

For several years now and with the acquisition of Astro, peripheral manufacturer game On the part of Logitech, the firm has launched under this brand a series of peripherals dedicated to different sectors of the game. Some of the most popular are gaming headphones, like the 5th generation Astro A50 that the company recently launched. Headphones that go straight to the high end thanks to their price of 339 dollars.

And we say high-end because the new generation Astro A50 seeks to cover not only the greatest number of players, but to all types of players, whether console or PC. The beauty of Logitech’s next-generation headphones is that they can be used almost simultaneously with PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, as well as Bluetooth audio. As? The key is in its charging base, which, in addition to supplying the Astro A50 with energy, serves as a gigantic electronic key connection.

A design that will surprise you

First, some context. The most normal among headphones game conventional is to have a small USB accessory which basically serves as a wireless connection port between the device and the headphones. If you want to connect these headphones to a PlayStation or a PC, it is necessary to connect this small device via USB. electronic key.

In this case, the A50 completely breaks with this idea, or at least in part. The headphones come with a medium-sized base with a hole on which to place the Astro A50, and which in turn has up to 4 ports on the back, all USB-C. One of them is to provide electricity to the base; In fact, he even brings his AC adapter. The rest of USB-C They are used to connect to the different devices desired by the user.

So USB-C connects to a PlayStation, an Xbox and a PC. Why is this done? The thing is, the base does the work of electronic key USB, Only, instead of connecting it as a “USB stick”, it connects via USB-C. To switch between platforms, the Astro A50 includes a button to change at the back. One click and you switch between PC, Xbox and PS. All of this is displayed with LEDs on the base itself, which also reveal the Astro A50’s charging.

But things don’t stop there. In addition to all USB-C connections, The Astro A50 can be connected via Bluetooth to a PC, a smartphone, to a tablet, etc. The goal of all this is to ensure that the player can play, with a single headset, on all the platforms they want, with a simple switch of a button, called PlaySync Audio. Although it is true that at first it is overwhelming, This seems like a brilliant idea to us.

I myself found myself using multiple headphones for several of my platforms. In fact, I sometimes found myself changing electronic key USB from my headphones to my PC to my Xbox and from my Xbox to my PlayStation 5. I didn’t know that I needed this feature until I found myself using it. Walk around the house, press a button and change platforms in a flash. In other words, I love it.

The entire design part of the helmet is carefully thought out, so much so that it is even overwhelmed. For example, the microphone can be easily raised and lowered with a simple gesture, and the top bandana of the headset moves slightly to the side to promote comfort in the highest part of the head. Headphone cups They are magnetic and can be removed to be easily cleaned.

More details. The right side incorporates a physical panel that gives the user the ability to balance game audio and voice chat audio. For example, if we play a video game on PlayStation 5 online, By touching one of the sides of the panel, you can increase the volume of the video game itself or the voices of your companions. To all this we must add that the audio It is optimized for all platforms independently.

On Xbox Series S we have Dolby Atmos, on PS5 we have 3D positioning audio and on PC and Mac up to 24-bit audio and Dolby Atmos. And yes, it also works with the Nintendo Switch, albeit in docked mode. In portable mode, it’s necessary to use Bluetooth audio, which otherwise isn’t a drama. Of course, the headphones themselves are superbly built and finished to a very high quality.

There are only two relatively negative aspects we had regarding the outright design They are about the buttons and the basic learning curve. Since there are so many buttons and they are located on the back, it’s easy to get confused with the power button, PlaySync Audio button, and Bluetooth button. We would have appreciated if some of them, like that of PlaySync, were differentiated by a different texture.

The basis seems to us to be a success, but it requires learning. We like that the earbuds face directly towards your head, so you don’t need to twist them when you take them off the base and put them on your head. But you have to be careful to align the earbuds and the charging pins correctly. More than once I found myself having to adjust them when leaving them with less affection than expected.

And what about comfort? Logitech usually has the upper hand in this regard, and the Astro A50s are no different; comfort is supreme. This will obviously depend on each head and ear, but the headphones feel spectacular on the head. They feel sturdy, but not too heavy, and the distribution of the pads makes them more adjustable to the head if possible.

The pads themselves are large and cover the entire diameter of the ear. This is vital, because if they touched the ears more directly, the friction could cause long-term discomfort. Nothing like that. I wore the Astro A50 for very long gaming sessions, and I didn’t notice any discomfort or fatigue on my part.

Devilishly fast

There’s no point in having all that design engineering if the earbuds perform poorly. Fortunately, we have not encountered this case. The fact that the electronic key being an entire base does not limit the speed of these headsets, which benefit of Logitech’s Lightspeed standard. It is undoubtedly one of the fastest wireless technologies on the market.

Lightspeed opens the door to the ability to instantly enjoy 24-bit depth audio, without gap, no slowdowns. The response time between the in-game audio and what I receive is virtually instantaneous. The same goes for my voice; The 48 kHz microphone instantly transmits voice to my colleagues. It’s hard to explain, but the headphones feel very fast in this section. Additionally, I never lost connection, even when having went to other parts of the house to test its 12 meter range.

On the other hand, it is the audio, the Achilles heel of this type of headphones. Logitech ensures that the Astro A50 benefits of integrated 40-millimeter Pro-G graphene drivers which on PC provides audio up to 24-bit depth, with a frequency response of up to 20,000 Hz and compatible with Dolby Atmos and Windows Sonic Audio. On console, audio can reach up to 16 bits and 48 kHz.

En cuanto a sonido puro, nos encontramos con un muy buen resultado, pero no perfecto. Las prestaciones gaming de los Astro A50 son brutales. El audio de posicionamiento con Dolby Atmos funciona extremadamente bien, hasta el punto de que he podido detectar sonidos de enemigos en puntos espaciales que hasta ahora no podía captar. Lo mismo ocurre con la claridad de los sonidos, que también está perfectamente rematada.

Si bien la profundidad del audio es excelente, los auriculares sufren un poco en las frecuencias bajas. Las medias y altas, que están reservadas para la voz y los sonidos más estridentes, están ejecutadas de forma perfecta pero en ocasiones he echado en falta un poco más de bajos. Se puede solucionar, eso sí, ya que los auriculares se pueden regular con un ecualizador integrado en la app Logitech G Hub.

Quitando ese detalle, los Astro A50 están por encima de la media en lo que a audio refiere. La claridad es excelente y la amplitud del propio sonido abarca toda la oreja, lo cual nos gusta muchísimo. Los auriculares ganan mucho si se escucha audio en alta calidad sin compresión. Están lejos de ser los mejores del mercado si los comparamos con equipos de audio para audiófilos, pero sobresale mucho en el terreno de los auriculares para gaming.

Sin embargo, lo que sí nos ha gustado mucho es su micrófono. Definido, alto, claro y contundente. Todos los amigos con los que he jugado me lo han comentado al menos una vez en las sesiones de juego. Se escucha muy, pero que muy bien, pese a que por el propio diseño de los Astro este se encuentra alejado de la boca.

Por último, tenemos que hablar de la batería. Dependiendo de los niveles de volumen que manejemos, los Astro A50 podrán alcanzar las 24 horas de reproducción. Me ha costado bastante agotar la batería de los cascos, y rara vez he jugado tanto que los he bajado por debajo del 50%. El propio hecho de tener una base hace que la batería sea a efectos prácticos infinita, ya que al no usarlos se dejan en la base, y esta los carga.

¿Me los compro?

No es un misterio que 339 dollars para unos cascos gaming es un precio a considerar. Sin embargo, la idea detrás de este modelo es sencilla: adiós a todo tipo de cables, adiós al tener que cambiar el dongle USB de una plataforma a otra. Que los usuarios como un servidor, que disfrutan de todas las plataformas, tengan un único equipo de audio. Unos auriculares para dominarlos a todos.

Si ese es tu caso, es un hecho: hay muy pocas opciones mejores en el mercado, y algunas de estas se encuentran en el propio catálogo de Logitech, con versiones superiores como los Astro A50 X. El entusiasta jugador se encontrará una experiencia inmejorable con estos auriculares, y tendrá en sus manos unos auriculares comodísimos y potentes que les durarán años.