Specs of this Laptop:

Processor: Intel Core i5-2540M processor 2.60 GHz
4 GB 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Graphics : 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics card
Hard Drive : 500GB Serial ATA II (7200 RPM) Hard Drive

Display : 15.6″ Full HD B+RGLED True-Life (1920×1080)
Optical Drive : Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo
Wireless: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030
Battery : Primary 9-cell

Build Quality and Design

Logitech have clearly thought long and hard about the design of this headset. It’s clear they wanted to pack all the usual features of a headset and some more along the way, and trying to do all this and maintain a comfortable design is definitely a challenge. However Logitech have taken this challenge and clearly succeeded in providing the gamer with fantastic functionality and great comfort. The Logitech G930 is really well designed with memory foam cushions on the headband and ear pads that will form perfectly to your head to give you the best feel when gaming.  The headset is made from strong plastic, meaning they are sturdy without compromising on weight. After several hours of using this headset I felt no pains or discomfort and to my surprise my ears, even though fully enclosed, didn’t get too hot either! The microphone flicks up out of the way until the time when you need to use it, and then can be positioned perfectly to your needs.

Sound Quality

Packing 7.1 Surround sound in such a small space is difficult but again, Logitech manage to achieve this brilliantly. Not just for gaming but movies sound rich and vibrant with each sound clearly being able to be heard. I often  use headsets that are great until many sounds are all played at once, like in an action scene or a FPS, where they loose quality and sound more like garbled noise. The Logitech G930s don’t suffer from this though and every gun shot, every laser, every spell from Harry’s wand clearly heard even with all the commotion around. 5.1 or 7.1 can you tell the difference? Not always as often many games and Movies are only encoded using 5.1 but when they are encoded in full 7.1 you do feel you get an all around sound. Also with the brilliantly designed ear pads all sound around you is isolated allowing you to feel your standing right in the scene, just as the designers wanted.

Microphone Quality

This is the only area of the headset that lacked a little quality for me. It’s such a shame also as it’s the only part of the headset that stops it getting our first ever 5 Clouds Badge! I have tried many microphones over the years and this isn’t the worse just sadly it isn’t the best. The far cheaper Logitech G330 sounds a little clearer to me however I believe that this is more of a software issue than the headset. The reason I say this is the sound through the microphone sounds a little electronic, rather like it is being over processed, likely due to the noise cancellation feature of the headset. It has great noise cancellation it didn’t pick up any humming at all from the computer or other noises around at the time but maybe it is a little too good and this is causing the voice to sound somewhat processed. Is this a major problem? No, unless you want to record Vocals for your forthcoming album then the microphone is fine and very clear for instructing team-mates there is someone behind them!

Wireless

So as I stated in the introduction, wireless technology is great but there is always some compromise so what is it with the Logitech G930? Honestly, nothing! No hissing, no drop outs, no interference, great sound quality a huge range (Logitech say 12 metres my tests went further) and a 10 hour battery life! I was looking forward to trying the wireless out as I wanted to see if improvements had been made since an old pair of Sony Wireless headphones were so awful I used them once and never went back. Well it has! I couldn’t fault the Logitech Wireless Headset G930 at all. For those times you may run out of juice you can plug them in to charge using the 2.5 metre cable and still use the headset at the same time! It quickly charges to with just 30mins of charging giving you a couple of hours gaming! Great I say! So if you have had a 10 hour gaming session and you have just been called up to raid the latest boss in the new WoW patch, just plug the headphones into the charging station and carry on gaming, so you dont have to worry about not being able to show up to that raid ever again!

Any Extras? 

Of course! The Logitech G930 Wireless Headset also features 3 G-Keys on the side of the headset that you can assign to programs and macros. I used them to change, pause and play tracks in iTunes but they can be used in games as well! Use one as your push to talk key and you will look like a member of the CIA, or just assign some funny quote to spam macro to your friends, ill leave it to your imagination! Along with G-Keys are a mute microphone button which is indicated by the little red light on the end of the mic when muted, brilliant feature if your ever in Teamspeak and Mum shouts up to ask have you got clean pants on, not that that has ever happened to me of course.  Finally there is some great software that allows you to tweak lots of settings, I recommend watching my review video to see that in action, along with some odd voices!

Video Review

As always we have done a video review for you looking at all the features mentioned above!

Overall

Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant! Need I say more? I loved using this headset and it was so hard to part with it when my 2 week loan from Logitech was up. I felt like I was packing up my new best friend we had come so close, enjoyed some great moments together like a nuke on MW2, a creeper attack in Minecraft, and the arrival of Voldemort in Harry Potter. It seems mad to make such an emotional attachment to a headset, but it was just so good!

London Underground Map

Its just over 1 year until the beginning of the London Olympics 2012. In order to improve internet connectivity BT are rolling out 120 Wifi spots in the London Underground. The wifi will not work in the tunnels but many platforms will be covered allowing tourists to access the web ideal if you wish to use mapping software like Google Maps on your phone. This means more traditional ways of passing the time whilst travelling across London will be replaced with texting and tweeting like in many other cities with metros. Yet there are many wider issues concerning internet security that are still to be debated when it comes to funding the Wifi on the tube; not least that of the internet surfers themselves and their devices that may be under threat from eavesdropping software. This isn’t the first news of tech hitting the underground for the Olympics, in February Huawei a large telecommunications firm from China offered to install a Mobile Network costing around £55 million for free in the Underground as part of a gift from one host to another. However this troubled many MPs who suggested allowing a Chinese firm to have control over such a critical wireless infrastructure is dangerous.

Please note the Reviewed item is the Corsair HS1 USB Gaming headset, not the HS1a (Analogue) headset. However both are built roughly the same with only the remote, and software changing. The HS1a uses jacks so you can use your own sound card rather than the built in one so results can differ.

Review

For those who want to see our video review head towards the end of this review however the written review usually is more in-depth so why not check out both?

Sound Quality –

Having the best possible sound when playing games is a must. Not only will it bring life to game but can also be a great aid when up against an enemy. When testing headsets we always look for those where we can clearly hear the quietest of sounds, like walking through grass, or footsteps on snow, wood, stone etc. We also listen to see if the headset helps us work out which direction the sounds come from! Also with that listening to how realistic sounds are and if the bass and trebles are perfect.

The Corsair HS1′s have some great technology inside them with 50mm drivers in each earpiece they are able to deliver and frighteningly accurate sound. Most gaming headsets feature 40mm drivers which are fantastic but Corsair were determined to go 1 better and they really have! In our test we could clearly hear every sound perfectly and work out each individual sound even when many were played at once. Most headsets we try are fine at playing individual sound but once many are merged for example gunfire, steps, running, explosions and even the odd chopper gunner in MW2, we find these sounds usually merge into more of a noise, but not with the Corsairs’. We could clearly hear each rich sound which not only made the game more realistic, it gave us the edge we had been looking for. With the 5.1 (7.1 virtual) sound too, we could hear things in every single direction! The only area that was a little lacking was the bass however with the fantastic software Corsair provides this was easily adjusted.

Microphone Quality –

The microphone in the Corsair HS1 was our biggest issue. It wasn’t the worse we had heard but it definitely wasn’t the best. We heard some whistling in the background when recording using the microphone. A lot of this was fixed with driver updates and software tweaks but it can be heard if the microphone is boosted too loud. We really hope that Corsairs next revision fixes the microphone issues as then this would be a “5 Cloud” product! For a sample of the microphone quality please see our video review.

Build Quality –

The Corsair HS1s’ are built to last. You can see that Corsair wanted to make a headset to impress and they do just that. So many headsets are flimsy and usually break after a couple of months usage, less for the pro gamer. Well these should last a while and Corsair have even stated the foam pads on the ears can be replaced, which is fantastic news too as these are often the first to go! The top headband is strong but padded in soft foam, the ear pads are made of cloth so they can be easily cleaned and replaced, and the rest of the headset is just sturdy and solid! The cable is a great length at 3 meters and is also tangle free!

Extras –

Corsair have provided gamers with a in-line remote control with volume up and down buttons, plus a Microphone mute button. We loved how this lit up too, which is great for in the dark gaming however the lack of clip was a shame as it means corsair added the lights to help you see the remote but only when you can find it with it dangling around somewhere!

The software is great too, allowing you to turn on Dolby virtual 7.1 and other Dolby features, along with environmental controls allowing you to perfectly adjust the sound for the environment you are in and even the ability to tweak individual aspects of the sound. Overall we were really impressed with the software controls (see a walk through in the review video below).  We aren’t sure exactly what software controls you have access to in the HS1a (if any) but this is designed for users with a sound card which usually comes with its own controls.

Video Review

Overall –

Overall we were really impressed with Corsairs first entry in the Audio Headset Market. For gamers this is a great headset with many others lagging behind in terms of sound quality. If your a gamer who wants the best sound and isn’t too bothered about a brilliant Microphone then this is a fantastic headset that is likely to give you the ultimate edge when playing games. We therefore award the Corsair HS1 USB Gaming Headset 4.5 Clouds!

Just before we begin, as always there is a Unboxing Video of this product and a Review Video towards the bottom of this Review.

Features

Red Back Light on Logitech G110

Back-lit Keys – The keyboard features back-lit keys with custom colour control. You can customise the colour selecting any colour within the blue to red spectrum. This means you can have colours including Reds, Purples, Pinks, and Blues. You can pick the colour using the Software provided and even apply different colours to each G-Key Mode (See Below). The keyboard features a button to turn the lights on and off too so no glare when watching movies.

G-Keys on the Logitech G110

G-Keys – Built into the left side of the keyboard are 12 “G keys”. This are fully programmable meaning you can use the keys to perform tasks in games. Also if you have a game that uses macros, such as WoW you can use these keys perfectly with your Macros. With the 12 Keys you would think you could assign 12 different macros/tasks. Well you would be wrong! Logitech have cleverly included 3 mode buttons above the G-Keys which switches their modes meaning you can in-fact add 36 different tasks/macros to the keys. For a game that has lots of options and buttons like RPG games including WoW and Conan, you can easily assign macros to the keys. The modes mean you can easily switch the keys roles too and even assign a different backlight colour to each mode. So if your just running around completing essential tasks in a game like WoW you could just assign general macros to mode 1, Raid specific macros to Mode 2 and Arena/PVP Macros to Mode 3! No more wasting time setting up your limited button bars in the game and tweaking them! You can record macros simply either using the direct record button on the keyboard or the software. I linked the G-Keys with a few games and they are brilliant!

Windows Lock – All gamers have experienced this during their gaming career, you are in the middle of a big fight mashing keys quicker than using a plain old faceroll when suddenly the game completely tabs out and your back at the windows desktop, loosing your killstreak, wiping the raid team or getting blown up by that chasing creeper. The reason you tabbed out? Because you hit one of the windows keys on the keyboard. Very few games actually lock these keys as it can often be the only way a gamer can get out the program if it crashes. Well Logitech has cleverly including a small switch which when flicked to the right completely turns off the Windows Keys so no more accidental tabbing!

Audio Inputs and Controls on the Logitech G110

Audio Controls and Input/Output – All gamers or just general PC users have probably had the issue where their headset is plugged into the back of their computer and they have moved a little backward or sideways and have ripped the headset right off their heads. Or they have a headset that doesn’t include a mute volume or mute mic switch. Logitech have come up trumps again including the ability to plug the headphones cables right into the keyboard meaning you now use the keyboards on-board audio which is great but also have full control at the same time. Plus plugging them into the keyboard means you get to use the full cable rather than half of it being wasted behind the PC! I Tested the audio with the Logitech G330 Headset (click for our review) and the audio and mic quality was no different than using the USB adapter supplied.

Multimedia Controls on the Logitech G110

Multimedia Control -Lots of keyboards have multimedia controls built in but often gaming keyboards miss these out. Well not this one! Right above the Numpad are keys to Play/Pause, Stop, Forward and Back along with mute speakers and volume control. I have tested this with multiple media players including VLC, Windows Media Player and iTunes. It works perfectly in Windows Media Player and VLC however unless iTunes was the active window the controls failed to control it. This may just be a Windows issue but other keyboards have had this same problem in the past so Apple may not be implementing the correct software hooks into iTunes for Windows.

Software – The Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard also features some great software too. Allowing you to fully customise the backlight and G-Keys it is simple but powerful and is a must use for gamers unlike most bundled software that is usually useless. To see the software in more depth take a look at the video below!

Video – Here is the Cloud Bite Video Review of the Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard

Overall

Overall the Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard is a great bit of kit for all gamers, from MMO players to FPS Killers! We give the keyboard 4.5 clouds loosing points only on a high UK price tag and a minor issue with the wrist rest which is shaped other than that it is a fantastic performing keyboard which is great to touch and is packed with features for gamers! If you want that “edge” over others this is they keyboard to get!

Dell XPS

Firstly the Dell XPS is one of Dells latest laptops and is packed with power all in a stylish aluminium body.

• Top Specs include:
• Intel Core i5-560M @2.66GHz
• 8GB Ram
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 420M
• 1920×1080 Display
• Blu-ray Drive
• 640GB Hard Drive

All in all this is one beautiful looking Laptop with a great amount of power!

Samsung R590

Next is the Samsung R590 again this has great performance and looks stylish with its cool blue finish.

• Top Specs Include:
• Intel Core i5-450M @2.4GHz
• 4GB Ram
• 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT330M
• 1366×768 Display
• 500GB Hard Drive

Another Fantastic looking laptop here. Its top spec lacks a little behind the Dell but its around £450 less! It still packs a punch though!

Macbook Pro

We couldn’t have a powerful and stylish laptop list without having something from Apple.  For this comparison we have picked the MacBook Pro 15″ as this offers the best portability and power in one.

• Top Specs Include:
• Intel Core i7 @2.8GHz
• 8GB Ram
• Nvidia Graphics
• 1680×1050 Display
• 512GB Solid State Drive

In terms of spec Apples Macbook Pro is right up there however it easily tops our Price Range too with this spec priced at £3500! Yeh we didn’t miss a decimal point.

Next up is Acers Top of the Range Ethos Laptop. With a it’s really high spec, gourgeous looks and £2000 price tag this is no push over!

Acer Ethos

• Top Specs Include:
• Intel i7 @1.73Ghz
• 16GB Ram
• 1GB ATi Radeon HD 5850
• 1920×1080 Display
• 1.28TB Hard Drive
• Blu-ray Drive

This is one top of the range Laptop. It packs a ridiculous amount of power considering it’s size!

Finally we have the Toshiba Satellite A665 Gaming Laptop. This isn’t Toshiba’s top laptop but its a great all-rounder.

Toshiba Satellite A665

• Top Specs Include:
• Intel i7 @2.9Ghz
• 8GB Ram
• Nvidia GeForce GT 540M
• 1920×1080 Display
• 640GB Hard Drive

Toshiba makes some fantastic laptops and this is one of them.

Overall these are our Top 5 Laptops of January 2011 based on style and power!

What do you think?

The 7 Windows 7 Gestures include:

1. 360 scrolling
2. Forward/Back
3. Maximize/Minimize
4. Snap
5. Restore
6. Instant Viewer
7. Clear Desktop

Microsoft say it will arrive in May for around £50-£60.

Unboxing

As always we filmed a full unboxing of the headset which you can view below. The good news is the package was nice and easy to get into!

Sound Quality

The sound of the headset was really good but it does lack a little on bass. This is compensated however by adjusting a few settings within the OS and the trebles sound very rich and clear. The headset isn’t a closed ear design which means some sound an leak but overall this doesn’t effect the performance of the sound. The volume is great too and can go really loud without loosing too much quality of sound, however your unlikely to ever need the sound to be this loud.

Microphone Quality

Wow. This is one word to describe the microphone on the Logitech G330. The microphone is the best of all the headsets we have tested. It is crisp and clear and the noise cancelling works pretty well. The mic sits directly in-line with your mouth but is also flexible in order to place it in the best possible place, to achieve the best quality. Compared to other headsets that add a echoing effect and have poor noise cancelling this was a dream to use. Check out the review video below for a mic quality test.

Build Quality

The first thing we noticed was how light the headset was. This is great as the headset is of behind the head design and therefore all the weight is placed directly on your ears. At first this was a little worrying however after using the headset for hours and hours at a time it was great to not be bothered by an aching head and hot ears. The cable is 2.4m long and is a little thin which is a shame, some might love this as it means less weight hanging off your ears and is probably why the cable was designed like this. Overall the headset is lightweight but appears strong enough to withstand the usual knocks when gaming.

Extras

An extra feature with this headset over many others is the USB adapter. This allows you to plug the standard 3.5mm jacks into the adapter and effectively use the USB adapter as a soundcard. For those with modern powerful soundcards you would probably be better off using sticking with that and the 3.5mm jacks but if your using onboard sound or have no soundcard then this feature is great and for the price of the headset is a brilliant addition.

The headset also features an in-line remote control allowing you to directly adjust the volume and mute the mic ideal when mum comes in asking how school was in the middle of a gaming match! Arhh how annoying! With the clip to the rear you can attach this tyo your shirt easily too, which saves trying to find it in the dark.

Video Review

As usual we filmed a full review too for those of you who prefer the more interactive reviews check out the video below:

Overall

Overall the Logitech G330 Gaming Headset is a great addition to any gamers setup. The headset has obviously been designed with gamers at mind with it’s open ear design for greater comfort, excellent microphone and plug and play setup. We therefore give the Logitech G330 Headset a fantastic score of 4.5 clouds only loosing points on a little lack of base.

Here is the unboxing video:

Full Review: Coming Soon