For more than a decade, the Astro A50 line has reigned as one of the most prominent high-end wireless gaming headsets. The Astro A50 X represents the biggest update the headset has seen yet, with a complete overhaul in connectivity that gives it a unique ability: It’s the only wireless headset that simultaneously connects to PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It’s a useful feature for gamers who own both systems, and Bluetooth connectivity makes it appealing for on-the-go listening. The A50 X is expensive at $379.99, so if you game on PC (or only have one console), you can save a bit of money and get active noise cancellation and hot-swappable batteries with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless ($349.99), our Editors' Choice winner.
Design: Almost Unchanged From the A50
Available in black or white versions, the A50 X will be familiar to any pre-Logitech Astro fans, as the headset and cradle are almost identical in design to the A50’s components. The headset features Astro-style earcups suspended on rigid plastic struts that connect to metal headband stems. The struts rotate 90 degrees to let the headset lay flat and enable the earcups to vertically tilt so they can comfortably sit against your ear. The headband slides up and down the metal stems, and it consists of two bands that hold a rectangular strip between them with down-facing, fabric-covered foam that rests against the scalp. The earcups, headband, and struts are plastic, but they're sturdy.
Like the headband pad, the foam earpads are wrapped in breathable fabric. They magnetically attach to each earcup, and can be easily swapped out. If you prefer faux leather, you can pop on alternate earpads and a headband pad from any Astro A50 Gen 4 Mod Kit ($39.99). The pads are soft and the headband is pleasantly flexible, which makes for comfortable gaming sessions.
The left earcup holds the permanently attached boom mic, a flexible rubber arm that flips up to mute audio and rotates down up to roughly 130 degrees. All ports and controls sit on the right earcup, with the entire back panel serving as a voice/game mix rocker. A power switch, device and Bluetooth buttons, and volume wheel are found along the earcup's back edge. A USB-C port for wired charging faces directly down.
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You won’t need to use the USB-C port to charge, thanks to the three charging contacts on the bottom edges of the earcups. They let the headset sit on the included base station to stay charged. The power LED on the headset glows orange during charging, which is a helpful indicator because the contacts are a bit tricky to properly align on the base station.
The trapezoidal base station serves as both a charger and transmitter. It’s the most significantly upgraded part of the A50 X, giving the headset its unique ability to stay connected with a PC, PlayStation, and Xbox at the same time instead of forcing you to choose only one supported console platform (or getting multiple transmitters to pair like with the A20). How it manages this is rather complicated.
The base station has a simple front that features four indicator LEDs displaying the headset’s battery level, and a device icon that lights up to show the active device connection. The base station's back is where it gets complicated. Three USB-C ports reside there, each paired with an HDMI port. The left pair is for an Xbox, the middle pair is for a PlayStation, and the right pair is for a PC connection and your monitor or TV of choice. This new port configuration means the A50’s 3.5mm aux input, optical audio input and output, and USB-A port are no more, so you can’t connect an analog or optical audio source, daisy-chain the audio connection, or charge another device with the base station. These are minor losses, with the extra sources serving as shaky backup options at best.
Connectivity: PlayStation and Xbox at the Same Time
If you just want to use the A50 X with your PC, simply plug the lengthy USB-C combination cable into the USB-C port in the PC section. This cable splits off into two plugs, a USB-C plug that connects to the included power adapter and a USB-A plug that connects to your PC. This is all you need to get going with PC gaming.
Adding consoles to the mix requires HDMI chaining. PlayStation and Xbox must be connected via USB and HDMI, running their video outputs into the base station with an HDMI 2.1 cable to ensure that 4K HDR video passes through. The HDMI output goes to your TV or monitor. This makes the base station work as an HDMI switch, swapping between your PlayStation and Xbox by pressing the device button on the headset. The configuration frees up an HDMI port on your TV, since only one is needed for both consoles. For playing games on a PC, you must switch to another HDMI, DisplayPort, or DVI input (the base station has an audio-only PC connection).
This setup is slightly convoluted out of necessity, because the PlayStation and Xbox use different wireless audio systems. To fully support both game and voice audio, a completely separate USB transmitter/receiver is needed for each device. The A50 X gets around that by drawing game audio from the HDMI feed that would otherwise go to your TV. The USB connection handles the consoles' voice chat functions, and the base station combines both into what goes through the headset. This lets you swap sound sources on the fly.
Connecting the A50 X to my test PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X was surprisingly painless once I managed the cable tangle between all four. Audio came through the headphones immediately, from the direct USB connection of the PC and the HDMI signals of the consoles. The HDMI video pass-through functioned without issue, and switching between systems only took a couple of seconds. I had to make a few changes in the PlayStation and Xbox settings menus, primarily disabling HDMI-CEC so the consoles wouldn’t sleep and wake up every time the base station switched. Mic audio also showed up on the consoles, confirming I had full headset functionality with each device.
Features: Dolby Atmos and a Great Mic
The Logitech G Astro A50 X is designed to work with Windows, Mac, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It supports spatial audio and includes Dolby Atmos for Headphones authorization when connected to a Windows PC or Xbox (the PlayStation 5’s own 3D audio feature works with the headset by default). You can use Bluetooth to connect the headset to a phone or any other Bluetooth-compatible device to enjoy stereo sound. The Logitech G Hub software for Windows provides 10-band EQs for tweaking the sound of the headphones and the microphone, but not much else.
Although the mic has its own EQ, it lacks the extensive Blue Microphones-powered customization options and features found in the G Pro X 2 Lightspeed and Logitech’s other high-end, non-Astro headsets. It doesn't need either, though, since it sounds fantastic out of the box, and my test recordings were incredibly clean. Serious content creators should still consider a separate USB microphone for even higher-quality audio that tiny headset mic capsules can’t match, but the headset’s boom alone will satisfy any voice chat needs and many casual streamers.
Performance: Powerful Sound and Spatial Audio
The bass synth and drum hits in our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” came through with a strong low-end response and a thump that was powerful enough to threaten your ears at maximum volume levels. The headset showed no distortion signs, even at those levels.
The opening acoustic guitar plucks in Yes’ “Roundabout” had plenty of low-mid resonance, with enough treble detail for the string texture to appear in the higher frequencies. I discerned the many elements in the busy mix when the track properly kicked in, though the bassline sat slightly in front and the guitar strums settled a bit behind. It’s a generally good balance overall, but the low-mids and mids received the most attention.
In terms of gaming, Forza Horizon 5 for the Xbox Series X featured roaring engines, but little rumble. Each engine was clear and distinct, from the Bugatti Divo's growl-whine to the Ford Bronco's gritty snarl. Spatial audio delivered a wooshy front-to-back impression as cars and other objects zipped by.
Likewise, Fortnite on the PlayStation 5 sounded excellent in testing, with the headset rendering terrific directional imaging via the system’s spatial audio processing that kept me aware of nearby players. In addition, the various layered sound effects, such as the crunch of snow underfoot and various gunshot blasts, featured strong detail.
An Appealing Headset for Multi-Console Gamers
The Logitech G Astro A50 X is an excellent gaming headset, and a worthy follow-up to the Astro A50. It sounds great, and its ability to connect to PlayStation and Xbox (and serve as an HDMI switch between them) is a unique advantage that should appeal to anyone who owns both consoles. Its $380 price is steep, though, and if you don’t have both consoles you’ll probably be better served by an alternative that only caters to the one you own.
The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless remains our Editors’ Choice for wireless gaming headsets with its swappable batteries and active noise cancellation, even if it makes you choose between the PlayStation or Xbox versions. If you’re a PC gamer who wants to spend less money while enjoying a high-end feature set, the Razer Blackshark V2 Pro ($199.99) costs just over half as much as the A50 X and has a long battery life, a fantastic microphone, and powerful THX Spatial Audio.
The Logitech G Astro A50 X wireless gaming headset features excellent audio, a strong mic, and the unique ability to simultaneously connect to PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
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