Astro A20 Wireless review

Since a long time ago, the Astro A20 has been thought of as the best wireless gaming headset. It has been the best gaming headset for a long time if you didn’t want to spend a lot of money. It has great voice clarity, strong connectivity, and a USB dongle that you just plug in and play.

Its most recent version, the Astro A20 Gen. 2, works with both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, as well as with PC and Mac. If you want the headset to work on both Xbox and PlayStation, you’ll need to buy a separate dongle for each gaming console. This is a good solution if you’re tired of buying a different headset for each console.

Even though it doesn’t change much about the design of the A20 other than switching the charging port to USB-C and increasing the wireless range from 30 feet in the first generation to 50 feet in the second, the price drops from $150 to $120 (£99, AU$279). That means that the new Astro A20 Gen.

2 is less expensive than its two main competitors, the SteelSeries Arctis 9X and the HyperX Cloud II Wireless. However, it doesn’t have as many ways to connect and has some design and performance flaws.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Design

The Astro A20 Gen. 2 comes in two versions: one works with PC/Mac and PlayStation consoles (PS4 and PS5), and the other works with PC/Mac and Xbox consoles like the Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox One S, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. There is a small difference in how the two technologies connect, but the colors make it easy to tell them apart.

The Xbox version is white and black with blue accents, while the PlayStation version has green accents. No matter what color scheme you choose, the headphones are all made of plastic with bits of rubber and soft fabric on the earpads. Plastic headsets are more likely to break than metal ones, which is a little unsettling, but plastic headsets are lighter and can be more comfortable.

The Astro A20 is mostly like that, but the rubber pad along the bridge can pull on your hair and isn’t as comfortable as a foam pad would be. Plastic hinges that can be stretched should fit most head sizes and hold the bridge to the earcups. My slightly smaller dome fit in there pretty snugly, which doesn’t always happen with headsets, and I felt like the clamping force was just right to keep them on my head.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Comfort

Astro Gaming may be best known for its high-end, expensive A40 and A50 gaming headsets, but the company also has less expensive options. The company’s most affordable wireless headset is the A20. It has been updated to be used with the newest game consoles.

The PlayStation version works with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, and the Xbox version works with the Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X. Each can costs $119.99. If you own both next-gen systems, you can use the headset with both consoles by buying an extra transmitter for $19.99. Overall, the A20 Gen 2 has good wireless sound quality, especially considering how cheap it is, but it could use more padding to make it more comfortable.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Connectivity

In our review of the Astro A20 Gaming Headset Gen 2, we talked about how this ambitious accessory has great sound and good wireless connectivity for a reasonable price. But even though the A20 USB Transmitter is completely optional, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by it.

The idea of making wireless headsets that work with both PlayStation and Xbox is good, and only one other company (SteelSeries) has done it before. The Astro A20 is a step in the right direction, but it looks like cross-platform connectivity will be hard for at least one more console generation.

Still, the Astro A20 sounds great and feels great, which are easily the two most important things in a gaming headset. If you’re willing to spend a little more money, you might want to look into the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2, but if you’re not, you should be very happy with the Astro A20.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Noise cancelling

Before we started reviewing headsets for a living, we were known to switch between three to five headsets for work and gaming every day. I’d have a pair for working out, a pair of noise-canceling headphones to drown out my coworkers in New York City, one with a good mic for online gaming, and a separate one I’d use only for listening to music or the wireless one for gaming while standing at my desk.

We think it’s safe to say that we have a problem with headphones, so we decided to get one for every situation. Every day, I’ve been trying to get that number down from 3 to 5 to a more reasonable 1 to 3. It’s been a while. Like a lot of PC gamers, we own both an Xbox One X and a Playstation Pro, and we plan to upgrade both to their next-gen versions later this year.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Audio performance

This kind of sound shouldn’t cause any trouble in the game. With a slight drop in sub-bass audio, the sounds of explosions and gunfire in games like Fortnite may not be as distracting, which could be a good thing. When playing PC games like Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and Risk of Rain 2, the Astro A20 (Gen 2) balances the game sounds and the music.

This headset doesn’t have too much bass (more on that in a bit), so the rumble of explosions and gunfire in games like Valorant or Apex Legends isn’t too loud or distracting. This can be important when you’re trying to keep an ear out for positional audio cues. There is no built-in spatial audio feature, but the headset works fine with Windows Sonic spatial audio. You can buy this headphone from its official websitie.

Battery and charging

The big difference from the A10 is that it can work without a cord, and we can talk about how great the transmitter and connection are all day long. But none of that matters if you don’t have a battery that will last long enough to get you through those late-night marathons. There is nothing worse than having to stop in the middle of a battle to charge your battery.

And Astro has once again done a good job here. Since a single charge lasts 15 hours or more, we haven’t been able to use the batteries all the way down during testing. We use them for two or three days, then let them charge for a few hours before using them again. Nothing at all.

Astro A20 Wireless review: Final words

The Astro A20 Wireless are good headphones for wireless gaming. They’re easy to use and last a long time on a charge. They are also pretty comfortable but can be a bit tight on the head. Their USB transmitter gives you a wireless connection with low latency when you’re playing games on a console or computer.

But they can’t be used for mobile gaming because they don’t have an audio jack or Bluetooth. Their default sound profile is also very excited and can even sound a little sharp to some people. However, they have a few EQ settings built right into the headset, and they can also be used with the Astro Command Center for more ways to customize them.