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Too Little For Too Much
The gaming headset market is flooded with cheap headsets and imitations of more expensive ones. It can be daunting trying to find a durable and capable pair under a $100. Just a quick search and you’ll find an endless ocean that will drown you in discontent and leave you uncertain of the choice you’ve made.
The Logitech G432 falls right into this category. It’s a cheap gaming headset with outdated looks and cheap feeling parts. Which begs the question:
Is the Logitech G432 even worth it? Let’s find out…
Design
The Logitech G432 is very much the successor of the Logitech G430 and pretty much looks the part.
It’s fitted with cheap plastic and a flimsy steel headband. The earpads are wrapped with vinyl instead of foam this time around, which feels nice. Being pleather, they do get slightly warmer, and the earpads are only made of foam, unlike a lot of headsets that come with memory foam. This means they can feel a little harder on the ears when worn for longer times.
The earpads themselves are quite big and almost square shaped. They feel a little loose when worn, but the square shaped earpads provide some nice air inside for your ears.
Attached to the headset is a fixed, flexible boom microphone and a volume dial on the back of the left ear cup. The design itself feels a little dated, and Logitech is firmly sticking to what they know, instead of trying to compete with the current line of more futuristic sleek designs like the HyperX Cloud Stinger.
The blue accents are much more refined this time around and provide a nice aesthetic. It’s not that they aren’t pleasing to the eyes, it’s just that we’ve seen this design on countless other gaming headsets.
Let’s take a look…
How Does The Logitech G432 Sound?
Sound reproduction sounds warm and has an average frequency response. It has a slightly higher emphasis on bass, a common occurrence in gaming headsets. It provides a nice thud when playing games with loud explosions and guns firing. Unfortunately, it means dialogue or atmospheric sounds might be drowned out by the louder background noise.
This can be fixed in some situations with a PC’s EQ settings, or even some game settings but can still present an inconvenience to some. Especially console gamers who have limited audio control.
An abundance of bass means certain genres of music might sound different, or in some cases, even unlistenable. If you’re a fan of dance music or Hip-Hop, you might enjoy the louder bass, other than that it might not be your cup of tea.
Not to mention if you wear glasses, some pairs might interfere with the isolation, which can actually cause a decrease in the low-end frequencies.
Testing the headset proves that they sound great in modern FPS shooters like Destiny 2 or Call of Duty. Especially with the included 7.1 surround sound, provided you use the included USB soundcard. This gives PC gamers the upper hand since the headset sounds much better with the USB adapter.
On the console, you’ll have to make do without the surround sound by plugging in the 3.5 mm jack directly into the controller.
The microphone on this headset is definitely the star performer. If the headset has anything going for it, it’s the microphone.
You’ll find the microphone sounds clear, but some of the low-end frequencies aren’t picked up by the microphone. This means if you have a deeper voice, you might need to speak up a bit.
Other than that, the voice recognition is spot on with the mid- and high range frequencies sounding true to life and very detailed. Your friends will have no trouble hearing you over the bellowing booms of explosions and thousands of bullets flying past your eardrums.
Separation of ambient noise and voice is also very good, and you won’t have to worry about refrigerator or aircon noises creeping in much. They are also fine to use for live streaming on Twitch or Dlive.
Who Is The Logitech G432 For?
The headset falls below the $100 mark and puts it square into the budget headset category. And it’s fine for parents who want to buy a cheap headset for their gamer child who just wants something to play Fortnite with.
If you’re a gamer on a strict budget, you might have considered these and a few other headsets. You’d be better off looking somewhere else for your gaming needs. The Logitech G432 is easily overshadowed by some of its direct competition, some of which are a little cheaper as well.
If you’re looking for a great gaming headset and don’t care about music at all, the Razer Kraken X will do a better job and is more durable. If you are gaming on a console, you can also look at the PlayStation and Xbox headsets that are sold separately. These come with 5.1 surround supported.
Looking for a jack of all trades? The Corsair HS50 has a more neutral sound and a detachable microphone if you just want to listen to music.
Logitech G432 Pros & Cons
Pros
- Good in game audio.
- Spatial recognition is great with 7.1 sound card plugged in.
- Ease of use.
Cons
- Not very durable.
- Too much low-end frequencies.
- Not comfortable, especially if you wear glasses.
- Older looking design.
More Options
Looking for a pair of headphones for gaming and music? Then check out our review of the Beyerdynamic Custom Game. Our reviews of the Best Xbox One Headsets and the Best Headphones with Microphone may also be of interest.
If you would prefer a more general purpose pair of headphones, take a look at our reviews of the SteelSeries Arctis 7 and the V Moda Crossfade M 100. The Sony WH 1000XM3 and the Bose QuietComfort 35 II are also superb options well worth considering if you’re thinking of spending a bit more.
Conclusion
The Logitech G432 is basically now redundant and trumped by most of its competition in its price range. With a flimsy, outdated design and average sound quality, they prove that cutting too many corners in a bid to save money can sometimes be to the product’s detriment.
Happy gaming.