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!

Unboxing video…

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

Cloud Bite Cake

For anyone who wants to see the Cloud Bite Cake:

Thanks so much for your support and lets hope we can do this again next year only bigger and better!

Bluetooth headsets come in all shapes and sizes. A problem that seemed to face manufacturers was; how could they make a microphone and earpiece that not only worked well by providing clear quality sound and clarity but also didn’t look like you had just walked out of a call centre and left the headset on? There has been many designs from long thin plastics to the earpiece and microphone separate but connected via a wire (a lot like the old telephones), and some even put a screen that showed who was calling which of course isn’t that useful unless your eyes are on the same side of your head as your ear! All the user really needs is something that is stylish or very small, which allows you to hear the person on the other end of the phone and for them to hear you. If only there was such a thing…

Ta da… I am now pleased to present the Blüe NEXT Bluetooth Headset BN888, that is not only stylish, (in a bluetooth headset kinda way) but it is so incredibly small no-one would even notice you’re wearing it! It also has some pretty cool features too! But, before I go into them, I know how much some of you like “unboxings” so here it is below….

Unboxing

What’s in the box?

If you decided to skip the unboxing here’s what comes with:

• The Blüe NEXT Bluetooth Headset
• USB Charging Cable
• Car Charger

Features

The Headset comes with the following features:

• Operation up to 10 Meters,
• Multi pairing, connect 2 phones at once! (I never even knew that was possible with a Bluetooth device!)
• 100 hours Standby Time
• 3 Hours Talk Time
• Voice Dialing

Video Review…

So come on what’s it like?

AMAZING! The headset is great quality, I could not fault the clarity when listening to someone at all. I tested the headset in a noisy environment and also when driving in the car. I could hear every word spoken – no problems at all. For a device that is ridiculously small I was very impressed. During my test I asked the person on the other end whether I sounded clear and understandable and overall the answer was yes, I was told I broke up a little now and again however this could be down to the signal of the phone rather than the headset itself. I also rang my voice mail via the headset and recorded a short sound sample. Please do note though the recording on a iphone voicemail message is highly compressed as this can effect the sound quality. Sound File Here

The device is also very simple to use and worked fantastically with my iPhone 3GS including with the voice activation built into the phone. One quick tap of the main button activates the voice control on the phone and it clearly picked up everything that I requested, such as call Dad, Mobile. The other two smaller buttons control the volume, these were a little more fiddly as I found in order to press the button down I had to hold the headset quite tight which meant I ended up clicking both volume up and down at the same time. But these buttons are likely to slacken of with further use.

The multi-pairing feature worked surprisingly well after a read of the manual in how to actually set it up. I doubt the majority would actually use this feature but for professionals who perhaps have 2 phones then this feature would really come in handy and works very well.

Along with multi-pairing the headset supports call-waiting which is great if you have a phone that also supports this feature. What this allows you to do is put a call on hold if another is incoming and even join all 3 calls together. You may think how often is this likely to happen though, well trust me quite a bit especially if you get through to someone’s voicemail, try their home number and they ring you when trying from the mobile. Yeh, like that sentence, it can all get a little hectic. So call waiting is great and the fact that the headset supports it is a huge bonus!

The Battery has been a positive too, I haven’t used the product talking for hours at a time, who really does? However, when I received the product on Friday I charged it for a couple of hours and it lasted fine, I did give it a boost charge on Sunday as Monday, today I was going out in the car and wanted to give it a good test but with the charge time only being 2 hours it is easy enough to keep constantly topped up!

Finally whats it like to wear? One of the problems I have had in the past is the fact that I wear glasses and other bluetooth headsets I have tried have caused me problems as the bit that goes around the ear, for the want of a better phrase; doesn’t fit. Even though on the Blüe NEXT it is just a thin piece of plastic; it fits perfectly. Also as the device is so small and weighs a mere 6.5g you can’t really feel it is there!

Overall
Overall I am really impressed with this device, it’s so small and compact yet it packs a great punch in terms of clarity. I therefore, award the product (using Cloud Bite’s New Rating system 4.5 Clouds out of 5.

Pros:

• Ultra Small and Lightweight
• Very Comfy (Can’t tell it is there)
• Speaker has really good clarity
• Voice Activation worked a treat
• Price (£15.47 at MobileFun.co.uk)

Cons:

• Volume Buttons can be a little difficult to use.
• Small amount of break up (reported by person on other end of the line)

I wish to thank MobileFun.co.uk for supplying me this product to review. Mobile Fun have a great selection of Products from Bluetooth Headsets and Bluetooth HeadPhones, to Phone Cases, to Desktop Chargers check them out Here.

Plantronics GameCom Headset

The other day my SpeedLink Headset died. The ear-buds worked fine but the mic, had bitten the dust! As someone who uses TeamSpeak as a way to chat to friends more than for gaming a headset is essential and when I saw the Plantronics GameCom Headset for £18.99 from my local computer shop, I thought lets go get them and this time I remembered to do an unboxing video for you!

Unboxing / Sound Test

Check out the Unboxing Below…

Sound Quality

Ok so the sound quality is fairly good I have heard better but also have heard worse! The sound I believe does lack a little on the bass side and I have heard clearer  but overall for under £20 you cant expect the best! The over the ear design helps lock out a lot of exterior noise as well which is great but if your not used to this style you may find them a little odd at first.

Mic Quality

The Mic quality is ok again not brilliant but I think that is partially due to the fact that the noise cancelling on the mic isn’t great and it easily pics up the “hum” of my computer. Also the mic sits a couple of inches away from my mouth so it seems to be a little quieter than my old Speedlink that sat right in front of my mouth. But, you decide! Towards the end of my Unboxing video I have linked the mic up to the PC and you can have a listen!

Build Quality

The Build Quality isn’t  bad at all. It doesn’t feel really cheap but it isn’t an expensive feeling either. It does feel like the headset is built to with-stain some punishment but not a lot. For under £20 you aren’t really going to get much better.

Overall

Well so far I can’t make much of a judgement I have only used the headset for about a day but will update this post with any developments. If there is no update assume all is well!