Microsoft’s Halo 3 Wireless Headset
by Jon Liu
General
When the original wireless headset was released for the Xbox 360 there was a lot of buzz surrounding the accessory itself. Much of the talk was about how it looked - it certainly looked good. Unfortunately problems arose once people started actually using them. Among those problems was repeated disconnect and loss of sync between the console and the headset itself, lack of proper syncing entirely in some cases, and one of the most annoying (in my opinion), annoying feedback noise that could only be heard by other players. The noise, which most of you have probably heard, sounds somewhat like this, “Wowowowowowowowowow.” Since you can't hear it yourself, you have to rely on other players to let you know that your headset is making that noise, and people are generally very quick to let you know. The only solution is to turn your headset off and then turn it back on again.
What’s Included?
With the Halo 3 headset you receive the headset itself, an additional, smaller, rubber ear wrap, and a USB charger. This USB charger is a new addition from the original Wireless Headset. The original charger had a standard outlet plug that made it a lot more bulky.
Performance
So with the problems of the prior models, Microsoft apparently made adjustments for the the new Halo 3 Edition Wireless Headset. Fortunately, I’ve not encountered any of the prior problems in the time I've been using the new Halo 3 Edition Wireless Headset. Kudos to Microsoft for taking care of all the problems I’ve mentioned.
Another thing that I noticed is that this headset sounds louder than my previous wireless headset. This is a great improvement for those times when playing games with the sound turned up. The prior headset made it a little bit harder to understand people who were talking when the sound was up. The sound quality in general seems a little bit clearer than before as well. I briefly tried my old wireless headset out to compare and there indeed was a difference in voice quality being heard.
The USB charger was a welcome addition. Having so many peripherals that require charging, the last thing I need is a bulky charger or wires taking up unnecessary space. This is not necessarily a change for convenience purposes, but in my case, it saves space and also allows me to plug it into the console directly to charge.
One problem I encountered (and it likely won’t be a problem for everyone) is that the rubber portion that wraps around the ear isn’t quite big enough for my ear. It wraps around nicely and fits pretty snuggly on my ear, but after a while my ear feels a little bit sore. My solution to this is to not put it all the way on my ear, letting part of the rubber wrap stay off my ear. If there’s an option for a larger rubber earpiece I would like to get one.
The battery life seemed to last a decent time. It’s rated to work up to 8 hours and I was able to get close to that with a full charge.
Conclusion
Microsoft’s original headset looked very sleek, but didn’t work as well as originally planned. The Halo 3 edition headset looks even cooler (if Halo is your thing), and works like it’s supposed to. Is it worth the cost of the $59.99? It seems a little steep to be paying that much for a headset, but the wireless option and the sleek design make it worthwhile in my book. Is it worth the upgrade from the previous wireless headset? Well, if you want to trade in your original wireless headset, that might help offset the cost, but the key thing here is, this product actually seems to work.
