It’s essentially a baby brother version of the premium Astro A50, sporting big, boxy ear cups and a bendable mic that you can flip up to mute. Unlike the HyperX Cloud Stinger and Logitech G231 Prodigy, the A10’s ear cups don’t swivel 90 degrees to automatically conform to your dome.
The A10 offers very impressive audio performance for an entry-level headset, delivering punchy highs and a solid low end for just about every genre. Astro’s headset made it easy for me to pinpoint enemy footsteps during a tense Overwatch showdown and gave plenty of kick to the game’s snappy guns.
I found that guitars and other treble tones simply sounded too muddy, whether I was headbanging to the Doom soundtrack or blasting the sunny indie rock of Tigers Jaw. The Astro A10’s microphone performed reliably in my tests, allowing my Xbox Live friends to hear me clearly over the sounds of us murdering each other in Friday the 13th: The Game.
Xbox One owners can get a $100 bundle that adds in the MixAmp M60, which attaches to your controller and lets you activate various EQ modes while adjusting the balance between game and chat audio on the fly. The $50 HyperX Cloud Stingercosts $10 less and offers better comfort, thanks to its lighter weight and swiveling ear cup design that adjusts to various head sizes.
Astro A10 Review
Update 08/05/2019: These headphones have a flip-to-mute microphone, which we didn’t account for in ‘Microphone Control’. The limited button layout only gives you control over the volume, and you can flip the microphone up to mute it.
Astro A10 review
This A10 comes adorned with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild-themed accents and a custom splitter to handle the Switch’s rather, ah, unique voice chat requirements. Editor’s note: This review was updated on March 7, 2021, to add context to the sound quality section and include a contents menu
If you need something to wear for a long time huddled over the controller of a Playstation 4 or Xbox One, or you want something for playing games undocked on your Nintendo Switch, this might be for you. The headphones don’t move around much—there’s only a very small vertical hinge for some slight tilting adjustment—which would be a little uncomfortable if not for the soft velour earpads. I never ran into any distinct discomfort, however I noticed the plastic frame created a rather loud echo noise at the slightest bump, whether on the band or headphones. It doesn’t work plugged into a PC—this is a splitter specifically meant for feeding mic audio into your phone for the Nintendo Chat app. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Pokemon Sword on Switch don’t provide the most strenuous test of a headset’s capabilities, but everything sounded just right nonetheless. Where normally it sits kind of in the background, filling in the gaps between the instruments, on the Astro A10 it totally takes over the song, drowning out most of the cymbals and horn sounds. If voice chat is something you intend to suffer through on Switch, you shouldn’t have much issue hearing what your friends have to say (though admittedly the quality of their mic has a lot to do with that too). The minimal vertical hinges I mentioned earlier made having a gap in the seal above my ears a pretty regular occurrence.
However, this really isn’t the kind of gaming headset to take outside—even ignoring the somewhat arcane method for setting up voice chat on the Switch. The Astro A10 isn’t an awful gaming headset, but it’s just bad enough at what seems like the things it focuses on that buying seems like an exercise in frustration.
This is a Switch-focused gaming headset, but using the mic with a Switch just isn’t practical—though admittedly a big part of that is down the console’s particular hardware limits. If you want something that works well on Nintendo Switch—and everywhere else, for that matter—and doesn’t require such an arcane connection method, the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless sounds far better, and it’s only a little more expensive.
If Switch compatibility isn’t actually such a big deal, wired headsets like the Turtle Beach Recon 70, the Razer Kraken X and the Corsair HS60 Pro Surround all sound better and offer better isolation.
Astro A10 review: The perfect budget headset as long as you don’t care about looks
The Astro A10 won’t win any beauty contests, but compromising looks to focus on audio seems to have paid off here—it sounds way better than its $60 price tag implies. The headband is the worst offender though, resting a significant amount of weight on the top of the head and eventually leaving me sore.
In any case gray covers the majority of the headset, with your color of choice appearing only inside the earcups, plus a logo on the left headband and right ear. The A10’s silhouette is similar to that of its higher-priced A40 and A50 cousins, with squared-off ears and a thin microphone up the left side. I wouldn’t say the HyperX Cloud is a perfect headset for instance, but it’s comfortable as all get-out, and its leatherette-clad metal headband looks considerably more high-end than you’d expect for the price. This extends to the A10’s cable, a cheap rubber-clad affair with a bizarre triangular control hub that only exists to house a thin volume wheel.
I’ve reviewed dozens of headsets over the years and let me tell you: No button compares to the ease of simply pushing a microphone out of your face when you want to mute it. Lest we forget, the HyperX Cloud originally retailed for $99 before hitting its perpetual discount price range between $50-80.
That covers about 80 percent of what you’ll hear in any given setting, and Astro does a good job on that front. In music, movies, and games the A10 consistently produced solid audio, with my sole complaint being that the small earcups led to a very narrow sound.
Well, in music it might mean that complicated sections with lots of instruments will sound a bit messy—instruments don’t have enough room in the mix to breathe, and thus overlap and cause conflicts. Astro also delivers a rich bass presence that transcends its inexpensive price tag.
In music it can be a bit distracting, but it works well for games—explosions pack a lot more punch on the A10 than on competing products in this price tier. There are certainly aspects that could be improved, from a wider soundscape to larger earcups to a better-padded headband to literally any color other than this very unmemorable shade of gray.
Amazon.com: ASTRO Gaming A10 Gaming Headset
If you are having problems with your headset (sound not coming out of both ear pieces or mic not working) please read! You need to push the plastic pieces apart so you get a bigger opening to the jack and then shove the cord in a bit further until you hear a click and it is flush. But I don’t plan on throwing these around the house so I would have preferred comfort being priority #1 since gamers typically spend several hours wearing these. To be honest I’ll probably invest in a new pair of something else eventually that can provide more comfort but I am new to having to voice chat in video games so I didn’t want to spend a ton of money on a headset.
Astro Gaming A10 Headset Review
The earcups’ grille cloth, some piping on the boom mic, and a small A10 logo on the left side of the headband provide the only color for the headset. The felt-wrapped earpads and headband padding are fairly plush, and I found the headset quite comfortable to wear for long gaming sessions.
It’s not the leather-wrapped, remarkably thick memory foam padding of the Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament Headset, but that kind of luxury costs over twice as much as the A10.
The boom mic is a permanently attached flip-down arm mounted on the left side of the headset, and automatically mutes when you flip it back up. The heavy, dubstep-like soundtrack of Tekken 7 on PC sounds powerful and oppressive through the A10, with the deep bass drops getting almost subwoofer-like force at high volume levels. You don’t get a very good sense of directional imaging with this headset, which can offer a bit of benefit when playing first-person games.
We’ve learned to appreciate how simulated surround sound can subtly add to first-person gaming, but audio quality and value are always greater considerations. Richard Cheese’s cover of “Bullet the Blue Sky” on the A10 maintains that powerful low-end, but shows some sculpting in the higher frequencies to help balance it out.
It doesn’t have the customizable aspects or simulated surround sound of the A40, but it’s less than half the price and still offers impressive performance in a very solid-feeling design.
If you want to go wireless without spending $300, your best bet is the Steelseries Arctis 7, which doesn’t have the premium build or incredibly handy charging dock of the A50, but sounds very good for half the price.
Astro Gaming A10 Headset 4.5 Editors’ Choice See It $49.00 at Amazon MSRP $60.00 Pros Excellent audio quality.
Customer Reviews: Astro Gaming A10 Wired Stereo Gaming Headset for PlayStation 5 & PlayStation 4 Black / Blue 939-001509
Here is a helpful video that covers more in details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPC3sk94PfA Overall Thoughts: The Astro A10 is a great entry level gaming headset for $60! As far as the design, the Astro A10 gaming headset is mainly made out of plastic and looks very sleek and has a clean finish!! The only part that does not look the best is the headband on the top because it has a rubbery cheap feel and not the most flashy pair of gaming headset. The memory foam ear cushions have a plush feel to them and are very soft with great padding support around the gaming headset. The top padding is the part that could of been improved because it’s not long enough so when it sits on your head, it covers a small portion. It’s not going to have a ton of bass, detailed mids and highs, and provide any sort of clarity. If the mic is too close to your mouth, then it may sound a bit muffled but if you just tilt it away a little, then you won’t have to worry.
Astro A10 Gaming Headset for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One
The memory-foam ear cups adapt to the shape of your head and ensure that you can play comfortably for a long time.
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