After the demise of my PlayStation 2 Socom headset, I've struggled to find a good quality replacement. Sadly the Logitech 'premium' headset does not meet the mark even with its premium price tag that goes to show that money isn't always the best representation of quality. Although the product is the Logitech Premium 350 'USB' headset, I'll be reviewing the same headset with audio jacks instead.

***Looks***

With a thick headband and large ear pieces, the headset does look the real deal. It is comprised entirely of hard plastic apart from the minimally cushioned ear pieces which are only just adequate enough in size. It is a fairly stylish headset with a pretty rigid build quality. The microphone arm typically sits to the right side of your face with the freedom to revolve the arm 180 degree upwards only. The main reason for this is to keep the microphone out of the way by lining it up with the headband should you not want to make use of it. Secondarily, by further pushing the arm to its limit, you can reverse the headset to have the microphone arm on the left side of your face if desired. Its nice to have that option at least.

The single cable that is about 3 metres in length comes down from the right ear piece with control piece about a third of the way down that can be clipped onto clothing such as your jeans or t-shirt neck to keep the control piece in a quickly accessible place to slide the microphone from ON to mute or increase and decrease the volume output from the headset speakers. Finally at the end of the cable comes either the USB connection or in my case the 2 audio jacks which separate into 2 wires with about 15 cm of wire each.

***Comfort***

There is plenty of head room with this headset, it does adjust to accommodate different head sizes. The ear cushions feel a bit rationed, but they do well enough to provide decent ear comfort, its the head strap which makes this headset a bit miserable for myself. As I stated before, the headset which includes the head band is completely plastic without any more cushioning than at the ears. Within 15 minutes the hard plastic pressing on the top of my head begins to get annoying. After 30 minutes pretty uncomfortable and as an hour approaches it begins to ache. I did get around this by sellotaping a couple of cotton wool pads around the top to get a comfort which should have been included with the price which was around £40 when I first got it a few years ago.


***Functionality***

Although my particular headset had the audio jacks, I actually bought it for my PS3 which I assumed the headset was actually the USB version. Luckily I was able to purchase a small device to convert the signal to USB and happily make use of the headset on both my PC and PS3.

---Listening----

I have to say that the sound quality from the speakers is very nice, its great for listening to music or games with the control piece volume controls becoming useful for quick volume control. Sadly after a year or so of use, the right ear piece has stopped working. Its still perfectly usable but not quite what it once was.

---Speaking---

This is where the headset begins to lose its worth for me. The headset claims to cancel out background noise, which it does just a bit too strongly. My voice is generally deep and at times it has been regarded as background noise causing others to hear my voice cut out occasionally. Accompanying my voice is also a constant static noise which is not something you want other people to be hearing. Other than that, when my voice is picked up, it is captured relatively clearly but still leaves some clarity to be desired. I've been using this headset on my PS3 and whilst it did what it had to do, its not reliable.


---Control piece---

Poorly designed sums this up. Adjusting the audio requires turning a kind of wheel with a very small raised bump to act as a grip. Its difficult to turn the wheel without using a nail to do so. Were a couple of buttons too much to ask? Next we have the microphone mute switch. That's right, a switch and a soft switch at that. When I say soft, I mean that the switch slides but never properly clicks into place. There is a great deal of ambiguity in whether the switch is slid into mute or not. Often I've been speaking to myself, thinking that the headset microphone was switched on. There are not lights on the control piece so your only indication is by using the tiny picture which represents a microphone to know if it is activated.

***Final words***

I particularly do not recommend this headset for on-line gaming. Its uncomfortable, it has poor controls and constant static microphone which occasionally confuses voice with background noise. Great speakers (providing they work) though I have to say. I don't use my headset terribly often, so I just grin and bear this 'premium' headset.