The Logitech G522 Shocked Me
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Quick Summary
The Logitech G522 is a balanced sounding headset that’s lightweight and has versatile connectivity options. It has one of the best mics on the market.
It’s very different than Logitech’s adjacent offerings like the Pro X 2 and Astro A50 X in terms of build, headphone audio quality and price. The G522 is a more budget device.
Connectivity and Controls
Connectivity
Red light on muted mic.
The G522 can be used wired or wirelessly. Wired is with the USB–C to A cable. Wireless is 2.4 GHz with the USB-A dongle. This has also has Bluetooth.
The headset works on PS5, and PC, Switch 1 and 2, and phones.
From the G Hub phone app.
The last lighting, headphone EQ, and mic EQ settings settings that you create in G Hub save to the device itself. Additionally, if you're on console you can swap between different presets and make your own with the phone app even when it's actively in use on your console.
The mic is detachable, flexible, and lights up red when muted.
The battery life is stated to be up to 40 hours with the default lighting, and up to 90 hours with no lighting. For my use cause, it burns about 50% of its battery per week.
Controls
There’s a power on and off switch at the top. The auto shutoff function makes this unintuitive, because you have to turn it off then on again if that happens. Under that is the toggle for Bluetooth or 2.4 GHz wireless.
There’s a volume scroll wheel and a mic mute button. Disappointingly, there are no media controls and there’s no integrated microphone. That means using this on the go with a phone isn’t the greatest experience.
Microphone Audio Quality
The microphone is really what sets this apart from other gaming headsets, especially at this price range. It's almost as good as the Astro A50 X which I currently rank as #1 on the market.
This has a frequency range of 70 Hz - 20 KHz. The detail and clarity are amazing, although it does have some annoying sibilance up top. The background noise rejection is weak which has the advantage of preserving voice quality.
Headphone Audio Quality
Headphone measurements taken with the miniDPS E.A.R.S. (not industry standard)
The G522 is using 40 mm “PRO-G” drivers. I don't know for sure if they're dynamic or something else. They have a frequency range of 20 Hz - 20 KHz.
These are definitely not the same 40 mm graphene drivers on the A50 Gen 5 and A50 X which I love, especially for the bass. They're also different from the 50 mm graphene Logitech G Pro X 2 drivers which are tuned to be significantly more treble focused in comparison to the A50 Gen 5.
In short, the G522 is very easy to listen to without developing fatigue, but it is heavily lacking in EQ potential.
Out the box, the G522, is extremely tame. It’s not very responsive to EQ if you want to make the highs sparkle or the lows stand out.
The bass does not rumble or thump at all. You get the information of it, but you don't feel it. Likewise, the treble is quite constrained and not harsh.
The midrange is where these shine - they sound similar to the Audeze Maxwell, where they do sound a bit shouty, as if you're speaking through cupped hands. Coming from most headphones and headsets where that midrange is scooped out, it will sound unnatural at first.
Black Ops 6 with the G522.
The tonality is a bit warm, but not thick. In FPS games, weapon fire has very quick and powerful impact without being grating in the upper mids. This sound signature also works well for listening out for footsteps.
The G522 doesn't get very loud and it has very weak noise isolation partially due to these cloth ear pads. Fortunately, this doesn't negatively affect the bass in terms of getting a good seal.
Software
You get all the basic controls in Logitech G Hub when it comes to EQ profiles for the headphone audio and the mic. You can be connected to the phone app even while playing on console so you can control your settings on the fly.
RGB Lighting
There's really not that much cool stuff you can do with the RGB. The light strip is pretty small and there's only two zones. I don't like how the lighting changes based on if audio is playing or not. If no audio is detected for a certain period of time, it seems to go back to a glowing blue standby lighting.
Build and Comfort
The G522 is made of all plastic and it weighs 290 grams with the mic and 277 without it. The materials feel so cheap that I think they could have made it even lighter especially considering the mediocre battery life.
There is no swivel or height adjustment, but the headband has two openings that you snap on to get the right fit. There’s no padding up top.
The ear cushions are large - fully over ear. The cloth pads aren't that soft and while they're breathable, they let sound leak out and they let distracting background noise leak in as if you don't even have these on.
Verdict
The #1 reason to get this headset is the microphone. Nothing else is that amazing about it, but it does tick a lot of boxes. For $160 which is what this launched for, I don't really think it's worth it, so I'd probably wait till it goes on sale.
At this price range I think HyperX Cloud III S Wireless is a better pick overall.
