Logitech G Astro A50 X LIGHTSPEED Wireless Gaming Headset
design
The Logitech G Astro A50 X arrives in a big ol’ box that makes it clear you’ve invested in more than just a headset. There’s a full setup in there with the headset itself, the base station which doubles as a stand, a charger, and cables. If you’ve seen previous A50 generations, the headset itself will feel familiar with chunky, angular earcups, a prominent flip-down microphone and metal adjustment sliders. A neat touch is the inclusion of measurement markings so you can dial in your fit and return to it if someone else borrows your headset. Styling wise this is unmistakably a gaming headset, though it doesn’t push things into silly extremes for the sake of it. You’ll find the A50X in Black, White, or a strikingly papaya orange McLaren special edition.
At just over 360g, the A50X sits in the middle of the pack for weight, but the distribution is excellent. The fabric earcup cushions are wonderful, the best I’ve seen on a headset – gaming or otherwise. They’re luxuriously soft, and crucially for those of us with facial hair, I found they don’t make that irritating scratchy noise as you move like some headsets can. I’ve worn these for extended sessions without discomfort, which is more than I can say for some competitors. The padding under the headband does its job without creating pressure points, and the whole thing feels secure without clamping. There’s perhaps a touch of jaw pressure here that I do notice on some headsets and not others, but it’s minor and didn’t build over time.
Build quality on the Logitech A50 X is strong and in line with what you’d expect having paid so much for a gaming headset. The construction is predominantly plastic aside from those metal adjustment arms, but it feels premium and not tacky or hollow. The earcups rotate 90 degrees to lie flat, which would be useful for travel if the Astro A50X came with a case. Except it doesn’t. I get it, it needs the base unit as well so it’s destined to stay at home, but at this price point it still feels like a notable omission.
Controls live on the right earcup and the usual selection is here: power, volume, Bluetooth, and the all-important PLAYSYNC button for switching sources. The game/chat mix is controlled by pressing the front or back of the right cup itself which is a clever setup, though I did accidentally adjust volume a couple of times. The flip-to-mute microphone works reliably and is a simple quality of life addition, but there’s no audio or visual indication when you’ve muted. You just have to trust it’s happened and other headsets like the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 do a better job of confirming things.
The base station however is where the Logitech G Astro A50X really earns its premium positioning. The front displays battery level and current source through subtle LEDs, while the rear is bristling with connectivity: two HDMI 2.1 and two USB-C inputs (one each for Xbox and PlayStation), one HDMI output, and a third USB-C for power and for connecting to PC. There’s plenty going on but it’s all neatly and logically spaced so cable management remains neat enough. Notably Logitech doesn’t include any HDMI cables, which feels slightly cynical given the whole selling point is HDMI passthrough. I can concede you should already have one for your consoles, but I’m surprised it didn’t supply one to go from base to TV.
performance
We’ll come to the usual headset stuff in a minute, but let’s jump straight in with what makes the Logitech G Astro A50 X headset unique. PLAYSYNC technology allows you to connect your Xbox and PlayStation via HDMI, plus your PC via USB, and switch between all three with a single button press on the headset. When you hit that button, the base station changes both the audio feed and the HDMI output to your TV. No reaching for remotes, no swapping cables, no switching TV inputs manually. It’s slick and neatly done.
There are caveats and disclaimers though which take a little of the polish off. You’ll need your consoles to be powered on for the switching to function at its best as HDMI CEC can cause issues and may need disabling. Plus, if you’ve got both an Xbox and PlayStation connected, your PC will be audio only, meaning you still need to handle the video output separately. I don’t know too many people running both consoles and a PC through the same screen in reality, so it’s unlikely to be too big of a dealbreaker.
Audio quality from the 40mm PRO-G Graphene drivers is, as you’d expect, excellent. These are the same drivers Logitech uses in the G Pro X 2, and they deliver a clean, balanced sound profile that prioritises clarity over the bass-heavy tuning many gaming headsets default to. Mids are crisp and detailed, dialogue cuts through, music sounds rich. There’s still plenty of bass, but it’s not bloated or over the top. I’m no audiophile so won’t try to go too much deeper, the A50X sounds great, it’s as simple as that.
The Logitech G A50X includes a lifetime Dolby Atmos licence for Xbox and PC, which automatically activates when you’re using the HDMI connection. I found positional audio to be accurate with footsteps, gunfire, and environmental cues all landing where they should. However, I’d note the soundstage feels slightly smaller overall than some alternatives when using simulated surround modes. If you’re coming from a headset with a particularly expansive spatial presentation, the A50X might feel a touch more intimate. Directions work, they just don’t feel quite as grand. Imagine the difference between watching a film on a huge cinema screen vs IMAX. We’re talking big vs huge, rather than small vs big.
The A50X’s microphone deserves special mention because it’s simply outstanding for a wireless headset. The 48kHz full-bandwidth LIGHTSPEED connection captures a far broader frequency range than most competitors, and it shows (well, not shows because it’s audio, but you get the idea). My voice was clear and natural with minimal processing artifacts, it simply doesn’t sound like a tiny headset mic. I’ve reviewed a lot of dedicated streaming microphones and I’d be happy to use the A50 X as my primary Twitch stream mic if I wasn’t at a desk.
Logitech claims 24 hours of battery life though as you’ll no doubt have the headset live on the magnetic dock between play sessions it’s unlikely to ever conk out mid-match. Just drop it on the base station and it clicks neatly into place. LIGHTSPEED wireless performance is rock solid with zero perceptible latency though there’s some quirks to be aware of when it comes to Bluetooth. As the Logitech G Astro A50 X connects through the base station for Bluetooth rather than the headset itself, you can mix phone audio or connect something like a Nintendo Switch, but you can’t wander off with the headset and use Bluetooth independently. I paired it with my MacBook Air and while the onboard controls do still work over Bluetooth to change volume etc, they operate independently of macOS volume controls, which caught me out initially.
It ticks most boxes, but what the Logitech A50 X doesn’t have is active noise cancellation. It’s a bit of a miss and one of the few drawbacks I can point to. At this price, not only do competitors offer ANC, but the fabric earcups on the A50X don’t isolate as effectively as leatherette alternatives and it falls even further behind. Realistically, you’re going to hear your surroundings, if that’s a problem. This also means some audio leakage outward, so perhaps not ideal if you’re gaming while a partner sleeps nearby.
summed up
The Logitech G Astro A50 X is the best all-round wireless gaming headset I’ve tested. That’s a significant statement given the price and the competition, but when you add up the comfort, audio quality, microphone performance, and that useful PLAYSYNC switching, nothing else quite matches the complete package. It does lack the little things like noise cancellation, a case, an HDMI cable, a mute indicator: these are all little omissions that, while minor in the grand scheme, keep this headset from quite reaching perfection.
The value proposition hinges entirely on your setup too. If you own both an Xbox and PlayStation and regularly switch between them, the A50 X solves a problem in a way nobody else has managed to make quite so simple. The HDMI passthrough maintains full 4K 120Hz HDR VRR support, the switching is instant, and you’re left wondering why this hasn’t existed before. If you’re a single-platform gamer however, the calculations change. The A50 Gen 5 offers nearly identical audio performance without the HDMI switching for a good chunk less.
That assumes you pay full price. It’s no longer super new to the market, so there are deals to be had on the Logitech G Astro A50 X. We’ve seen it drop comfortably below £300 from different retailers, so keep an eye out and you might stand to pick up this mega headset for a far less mega price.
