When it comes to Logitech, the first thing that comes to mind is its range of great mice. Now a headset arrived on my desk, looking all shiny and sleek and it was time to give the G733 some time on my ears.
Looking the part
The G733 certainly looks the part. Clean lines and curves like you might see on one of their mice, complete with the RGB lighting. The headset is wireless and weights 278 grams, with earcups that are slightly snug on my large ears, but not to the point that they are uncomfortable. The soft foam also has enough give that it doesn’t cause the skin under my glasses frame to try to become a part of my face. As a result of this, I can happily say that the headset can stay on my head for the entire day.
One thing I will comment on is the placement of the RGB lighting. It is on the front of the ear cups, I assume to be seen when you are streaming. However, I can see the lights at the very extreme edge of my peripheral vision, and a few times it caught me by surprise, at which point I whipped my head around to try to work out where a light had come from. Thankfully you can turn it off, which extends an already impressive battery life even further.
Going wireless
For a long time, I have avoided wireless peripherals due to how often you have to charge them. When I get into something I tend to go at it for long hours, and I don’t want a device that fails before I am finished for the day. The box boasts a 19-hour battery, with a 29-hour battery if you turn the RGB off and I think it is pretty close to this. I can sit with the headset on pretty much from when I wake up until dinner time while using voice chat and listening to music no problem, and I either charge it during the evening meal and while watching some TV or when I go to bed. So far I haven’t had it die on me mid-gaming session, though it was close on the weekend.
Many of my friends and colleagues use wireless headsets, saying that the lack of a cable getting in their way or pulling down on the headset is freeing. But what nobody told me, and I feel this should be the selling point, is how great it is to move slightly away from the PC to make some coffee without sliding off your headset. Now you can listen to your music uninterrupted, or be part of a conversation without excusing yourself.
Bass shy
The sound quality of the G733 is pretty good for playing games. The virtual surround works well enough at helping you tell where a sound is coming from, letting you react to situations or get a better feel of the area you are in. The problem comes in when those explosive barrels all start exploding or the bass drops in the soundtrack. The bass doesn’t have any of the power that it should, which ruins an otherwise pleasant listening experience. It is a pity, because the sound is great from low through high volume, but I need powerful explosions and the deep thrums of instruments.
The microphone, which is a detachable boom mic does its job, but it doesn’t blow me away either. Typically I use a separate desktop microphone, and while using this I was told that I sounded far away from my microphone, despite the boom being as close to my lips as the slightly flexible boom would allow. I say slightly flexible, because it doesn’t stay where you want it to when you bend it closer to your mouth. It seems more like it is flexible to prevent it from breaking, rather than for better positioning.
In the end, the G733 is slightly hard for me to peg down. I appreciate how light the product is, how long the battery lasts and the fact that it looks great and is comfortable for long gaming sessions. The directional sound is done pretty well and besides for the lacking bass, it sounds good through all volume ranges. With better bass and possibly being cross-platform, I could see this becoming my one stop solution to multi-platform gaming. Though now that I have tasted wireless, I don’t know how I will go back to not listening to my music when I go make a cup of coffee.
