Aiming for gaming perfection

It hasn’t even been a complete year since Sennheiser brought in the PC350 and the PC363D gaming headsets to the Indian market, and the audio giant has launched new flagship models in its gaming headset lineup.

Sennheiser’s new G4ME Zero and G4ME One form the top end of the company’s gaming headsets, the difference between the two being the former uses a closed-back design and the latter features an open back design.

These two headphones carry forward some of the features that we liked in the PC350 and the PC363 headsets, such as really big earcups, noise-cancelling microphones and a comfortable headband. But we had to check if these new cans have done anything to refine the audio output offered by the (slightly) older gaming headsets, so we clamped on the G4ME Zero over our heads to find that out.

We had tested the PC363D when it was launched, and we had liked the overall build quality of the headset. With Zero, the quality has improved further.

Even with a mostly plastic build, the Zero has a premium finish to it. The quality of plastic is pretty good, and by looking at tiny details such as little rubber patches which keep the earcups from banging against the earcup holders, you can see that attention to detail has been paid. It is easy to adjust the earcups, band length and the microphone’s angle. All the moving parts are quite stiff and stay in place, while being easy to move when needed. The earcups and other parts do not wobble, thanks to sturdy metal hinges and an overall excellent fit and finish.

The colour scheme has been changed as well. While the older headsets had a overall black design, with some streaks of grey here and there, the newer headsets have two colour options – you get either glossy white or glossy black, with striking red accents. The earcups are black, but the fabric on the inside is red too. Overall, the headset looks just good as it is built. There’s a small volume control knob on the right-side earcup too, which is an improvement over the older models’ in-line volume adjusters.

The cable, just like the predecessors, is a long and fabric coated one – rest assured, these don’t get all tangled up that easily. The padding is exceptionally comfortable. The earcup padding is very soft, almost mouldable and adequately deep. The headband too, is equally comfy. We wore the G4ME Zero for hours on end (at times nearly 4 hours in one go) and the headset still felt very comfortable. We didn’t get that squeezing-your-head sort of experience that one gets with many headsets. A very important part that we liked about the headset was that it was comfortable even while wearing glasses.

The thing with a high-end gaming headset is that while it is mostly used for gaming, it is also expected to perform decently under other applications as well. And at a nearly ₹25,000 price point, you’d also expect a headset to be a little versatile. But the G4ME Zero is a purely specialised gaming headset. For everything else, it just doesn’t measure up.

While gaming, it has superb clarity. We played Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassins Creed: Liberation for quite a few hours using the G4ME Zero and we figured out the headset is very adept at isolating individual sounds accurately. It does not come equipped with active surround sound, as was the case with PC363D. But it makes up for it by being extremely sharp.

The noise isolation system works very well, and the noise leakage issue that was seen with earlier models, has been dealt with. The microphone is extremely clear, and the active noise cancellation system drowns out ambient noise completely.

However, when you listen to music for over an hour, over different genres, you realise that the headset just lacks bass. There isn’t enough punch to use the headset for watching an action movie or listening to reggae or rock music.

As a gaming headset, the Sennheiser G4ME Zero is a brilliant headset. It is comfortable, has extremely sharp audio output that’s required for intense gaming, and also looks good. However, it doesn’t do anything else with the same dexterity. But even for a complete gaming headset, it is quite pricey, considering that it doesn’t come with surround sound and any kind of in-built boosts.

₹24,990

Love – Crisp sound reproduction; extremely comfortable for long usage

Hate – Lacks bass for anything other than gaming; pricey

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