When the Logitech G35 headset first arrived one thing immediately caught my eye. That was of course the innately HUGE (and stylish) packing it came in. As I got over the initial box-love, I removed the headset and gear from the packaging I found that there was a lot more to this headset than I had first thought. The headset sports a great all-black design that doesn't have any extra bulk making it clumpy or over-sized. Right off the bat, I was impressed!
The first thing you will notice on the Logitech G35 Headset that it boasts an impressive array of features. Before we go into those, lets take a look at the specs. The Logitech G35 boasts a powerful 40 millimetre drivers in each ear cup as well as 7.1 Surround Sound capability through both the inboard device drivers as well as the nifty software Logitech provide you with.
Another thing that I noticed with this headset is that it is indeed an 'over the ear design' featuring some very nice external noise cancelling technology. In simpler terms, it means that the headset sits and surrounds your ear(s) while at the same time blocking out all outside noise. This makes for a great gaming experience as when you are hunting for noobs in your favorite FPS and are trying to listen to gun shots in the distance you are not going to hear your mum telling you to go to bed or the telephone ringing in your ear.
The next thing that I noticed with the design of the headset is the quality of materials used. The ear cushions are made out of a nice soft, yet durable synthetic leather which comfortably sits around the ear and effectively blocks most outside noise. The headset itself fits snug around the ear and head and also boasts interchangeable headbands. This allows you to customise the fit of your headset to your head which is a great extra feature.
The Logitech G35 sports quite a few very clever features on the headset itself. As many of you may know most headsets have a 'dongle' half way between the headset unit itself and the USB hub for volume control, microphone mute and everything else. The designers at Logitech however have come up with something a lot better. Instead of having that annoying dongle in the middle of your cord, we have the a on the fly volume control wheel, microphone mute button and 3 programmable G keys featured on the left hand Ear phone. This allows the user to quickly access the different functions and also means that you are not looking around for a dongle for 2 minutes in game while you are getting blown to giblets. The final feature on the headset is a small switch that controls the 7.1 sound on / off ability.
Now speaking of G keys you may be wondering, "Why would I need 3 G-keys on my headset?" The answer; combined with the driver software you are able to program your G keys to do a variety of things which include, Ventrilo push-to-talk, media player control and best of all voice morphing. Yeah you heard me, voice morphing!
The Logitech G35 does in fact come with its own software which allows you to customise the G-keys as well as activate the voice morphing abilities of the headset. Now you are most likely wondering, "What kind of voice morphing are we talking about?" Well now that you mention it lets get into what we have to work with. There are 6 different voice morphers; Cyborg, Troll, Giant, Alien, Mutant and my favourite, Space Squirrel! Most of the voices are quite entertaining to don on a late night gaming spree - but many of them are not even nearly understandable, which is a shame, but hey, I think space squirrel makes up for it!
Now lets get into the real guts of it. The headset boasts 7.1 surround sound and boy does it sound good! Walkers sound like they are on top of you, gun and tank fire sound crisp, realistic and superb. It handles multimedia audio well with movies taking advantage of the surround sound and of course high quality music sounds great with the G35's high quality bass and crisp clean sound.
The microphone on the Logitech G35 is both good and a bit of a let down. Good features are that the headset has a fully adjustable microphone boom that allows you to move the mike to an 'up' and 'down' position. The tip of the mic also has a small red LED that allows you to see whether or not your mic is muted. When the mic is in the 'up' position, it automatically mutes, which again, is a nice little feature.
The microphone sounds very crisp and clean and also sports noise cancelling technology, making it good for a noisy environment. So once again when you are on your favourite VOIP program your team mates aren't going to hear your mum telling you to brush your teeth! The main concern I had is that the microphone's frequency response is pretty darn average. It just doesn't translate a lot of the natural treble and bass you may have in your voice. The G35 mic will live up to expectations if exceptional mic quality isn't that important, but for most, I think they'll expect a bit more than they'll get in this department. For me personally, the microphone doesn't stack up to what a good microphone should be, which is a shame.
Wrapping up, the Logitech G35 Headset is a great piece of equipment that any gamer would love to have. Although it's a bit pricey coming in at around 0AU, I do believe that Logitech have given us a 'bang for your buck' product here which has a great range of features, great sound quality and, despite it's lack of frequency response, a relatively clear sounding microphone. These features in my opinion justify the expense for the headset. Logitech have a very sturdy reputation so you know that the product is going to be made of quality material and is going to stand the test of your gaming rage and time!
Finally, I would recommend this product to any that are looking for a well made stylish quality headset. The G35 delivers a great sounding experience as well as a fun experience. Definitely a good headset to accompany you on your gaming adventures.
JiNxXx
