- CNET Editors' Rating 8.5/10 Excellent Editorial policies >>
- Average user rating from 35 users 6.5/10 Good Read user opinions >>
The good: Wire-free; lightweight and comfortable; foldable design; Xbox communicator included; built-in rechargeable battery.
The bad: Expensive; occasional crackling noise.
The bottom line: It's expensive, but the Logitech Cordless Headset is a luxury every deep-pocketed Xbox Live player should consider.
Specs: Type: Microphone Boom; Product type: Headset; Design: Over-the-ear See full specs >>
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/23/2004
- Updated on:12/06/2004
- Released on: 11/09/2004
In case you're too young for the reference, Gekko was the Oscar-winning Michael Douglas character in Oliver Stone's Wall Street who said, "Greed is good, greed works," and paced his home office with a headset on before it was fashionable to do so. All we can say is that life is good when you can roam freely around your living room playing Halo 2--the headset allows you to stray up to 30 feet from its transceiver (it looks very similar to an Xbox Communicator pod but doesn't have a headset jack), and either plugs into a port on your standard Xbox controller or the open slot in the Cordless Controller's transceiver. (For you math whizzes out there, yes, the Xbox Communicator with headset does cost $29.99, which means you're really paying an extra $50 for this cordless version.)
The headset, which is adapted from Logitech's Bluetooth headset for cell phones, can be strapped over your left or right ear, with a swiveling microphone boom that also folds all the way up into a travel-friendly position. The headset is easy to slip over your ear, and once it's there, you'll barely be reminded you're wearing it. A volume control button sits on the headset itself along with a button/LED light that you press down for three seconds to turn the unit on or tap once to mute the microphone. A second, smaller LED flashes red when the battery juice is low, and a warning tone beeps.
The headset ships with an AC adapter for charging the device's internal rechargeable battery (you simple plug the cable into a little jack on the headset). That nonreplaceable battery--and its talk time--are arguably the only potential weak links. You get up to seven hours of battery life before having to recharge, which seems sufficient, but hard-core gamers may disagree. Also, we don't know how many recharges the battery will take before it starts to degrade. (Even lithium-ion batteries have their limits.)
Other than those concerns, we see no significant downsides. Sound quality was generally good, and while we didn't seem to experience any interference from Wi-Fi network or cordless phones that also play in the 2.4GHz spectrum, every once in a while, we heard a little crackling noise or hiss (it wasn't a nuisance for us or our teammates but others may feel differently). Also, audio did start crackling and eventually broke up altogether when we pushed the 30-foot range limit.
The long and short of it: Find a place in your budget for this baby--and Logitech's Cordless Precision Controller, too.
- See more CNET content tagged:
- headset,
- Logitech,
- transceiver,
- Microsoft Xbox,
- battery
User opinions
WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW How would you rate this product?
-
9/10 Spectacular March 17, 2005
"if you have the cash, it is amazing" Read more >>
-
9/10 Spectacular July 10, 2006
"A close to perfect headset" Read more >>
-
4/10 Mediocre February 18, 2005
"A big step backwards for Logitech Quality" Read more >>
- WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEWSee all 35 user opinions >>
Unlimited long distance $24.99/mo
