GameCom X30 Headset for Xbox 360: Review
Friday, March 31st, 2006
The day I picked up my Xbox 360, I spent a fair bit of time checking out all the accessories and deciding which ones to get. I was bummed to discover the only headset available was the standard Microsoft one that’s big, ugly and cheap looking. I never had the original Xbox Live headset as I got my Xbox just before Halo 2 was released and some friends of mine at an Xbox PR company hooked me up with the limited edition Halo 2 headset. That little thing was great! It was small, sleek and comfortable. Lucky for us, the company behind the Halo 2 headset has done it again - this time for the Xbox 360.
Just a couple days ago (March 28), the GameCom X30 from Plantronics was released. They got in touch with me and asked if I’d like to try it out - to which I replied with a hearty “hell yeah!” It arrived a few days later and I was pleased to find it lived up to the standard set by it’s predecessor - at least, at fin appearance. I couldn’t wait to try it out and and what a perfect week with the Battlefield 2 Modern Combat demo just having been released (which is radass, I might add).
The X30 is a little different in shape than the Halo 2 Edition GameCom in that it wraps around the bottom of your ear as apposed to sitting on top. I will admit, it took me a couple minutes standing in front of a mirror to figure out how to properly wear it. And even now, having used it quite a few times, it’s still feeling a bit awkward at first. But once it’s on, it’s extremely comfortable and light weight. You forgot you’re even wearing it after only a few minutes and you don’t look nearly as geeky as you do wearing the big, nasty white one.
Since the X30 is also compatible with the original Xbox, they had to move the mute switch from the base of the plug to an inline control that also has a volume adjuster. I found this to be a bit awkward when you need to quickly mute the mic. It’s much easier to switch it over with the Microsoft headset since it’s so close to your hands already. You can quickly flick the switch with your thumb where as with the X30 you have to remove one hand from the controller, find the inline unit, then find the switch which could be facing any direction. It’s a little unfortunate and I’m sure Plantronics explored many options in this department and felt it was worth it to have the headset backwards compatible.
The GameCom X30 isn’t cheap. At $40 US, it’s twice the retail price of the standard Microsoft headset. But considering you’ve most likely already spent close to $1000 on the console, accessories and services - what’s another 40-50 bucks? I would definitely recommend shelling out the extra loot for the X30 if you’re not satisfied with the Microsoft headset or are yet to pick one up.
11 people have had something to contribute so far.
Looks a good headset, I personally still fancy getting a Halo 2 one off ebay as it hooks over the ear rather than under it and I have a slightly weirdly shaped ear so hooking a headset under it may not work.
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I gotta be honest - I’m quiet happy with the Microsoft headset. I like that it wraps over the head as apposed to behind it. Comfortable, light weight, and an overall winner in my opinion. Your $40 would be better spent on a play-and-charge kit, no?
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Thanks for the review. I just picked up a 360 and have yet to use the headset that came with it, and if it’s anything like the one that came with the Xbox I’ll probably be replacing it in the future. The Battlefield 2: MC demo is awesome! I played that one map for hours last night and can’t wait to pick up the full version when it’s released. I’ll probably be online later tonight trying it out again. Gamertag: Chuffed.
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@Stewart: I’m pretty sure the Halo 2 edition headset doesn’t work with the 360. Or at least, not 100%. The X30 actually kind of wraps under your lobe and sits behind your ear. So unless you have enormous ear lobes, you should be ok with it.
@Josh: To each his own. It drives me nuts how expensive the play and charge kit is. I just went out and got a recharable kit for $10 cheaper which came with 4 batteries, so I always have 2 on standby.
@Ryan: Nice, glad you enjoyed my review. It was my hardware review and wasn’t sure how it would go - if anyone would even care, etc.
And yes, the BF2 MC demo is hot shit! I’ve played the crap out of it the past few days. The invite/join friends functionality doesn’t seem to be working in the demo, which is super lame. I tried to join a friend’s game and it told me to insert the BF2 MC demo disc. Uhhh…
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I had heared you could use just a cell phone head set, though not from the most reliable source. As a side note, any chance you know of any *PC* games that support the xbox 360 controller including vibrate? I was disapointed to find that the pc version of Oblivion’s support was really lacking. I guess it’s suposed to be fixed in a patch.
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@Matt: regarding BF2, simply load up the game from the dashboard and then accept the invite, its a pain but its the only way I could make it work. Although I will say that you can just hit Join Session in Progress on any friend in BF2 and you always get in, really odd considering trying to get in via the main menu hardly ever works first, or third time
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I wonder what the Plantronics marketing guy looks like. I am guessing he is either a 13-year old skaterkid, og a plump 50-year old in a suit.
The marketing text from this headset:
That’s just amazingly non-hip.
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Picked Up the X30 last week. Looks cool and It sounds great to me, but I am at 50% volume to everyone else with no way to change it.
Emailed Plantronics and they agreed that shouldn’t be the case so I exchanged it for another one today. I’ll try it tonight and take it back if I get similar results.
I noticed that there was no mention of audio quality in the review. Were you just trying to be nice because you got one for free?
I highly reccomend against this headset… so far. The new one I have could prove me wrong.
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@Keldog: I haven’t heard any complaints about my volume level while using this headset. What was the result of your recent replacement? Any better?
And no, I wasn’t being nice because they sent me a free headset. I didn’t even have to do a review of it. They merely asked that I give them feedback via email. I thought it was a good product and decided to do a little write-up of it.
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@Matt: Wasn’t accusing you, I was just asking.
The second one I got worked fine for 2-3 hours and then the guys I play with reported the same problem. I verified it by recording and playing back another message.
Maybe there was a bad batch? Either way, I’ve given this 2 chances and have been let down. I’ll wait for something else to come along.
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[...] to dig out and untangle my headset. I had two already - the standard Microsoft headset and the GameCom X30, but that didn’t stop me from rushing out to my local game shop the day the Wireless Headset [...]
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