Customization is my favorite new trend in gaming. I made a custom controller immediately when Microsoft relaunched the Xbox Design Lab, and I ordered black faceplates for my PS5 before I even had a console to put them on. In a sea of plain gaming accessories with RGB accents, I’ll take any excuse to add a bit of color and personality to my devices, and thanks to the new Astro ID Customizer, there’s a great way to design a pair of Astro A40 TRs - one of the most popular gaming headsets in the world. I took the Astro ID Customizer for a spin to test out the system and made myself a slick pair of purple-and-black headphones that I’ve been using with my Switch, PS4, and Tablet for the past few weeks. If you’re looking for some style and a great gaming headset for consoles, this is a worthwhile option to consider. It’s not without its sacrifices, however, and if you’re looking for features like volume controls, USB and wireless connection, or equalizer options, you’re going to be better off with something else.
Customizing the A40 TR with the Astro ID Customizer is a lot of fun. There are tons of different components you can trick out, including the plastic outer frame, the stitching in the inner cup of the cushions, the top of the headband, the cable, the microphone, and the tags on the outside of the speakers. There are only eight colors to choose from, which is fairly limited, but if you wanted to you could choose different colors for all eight components and design a headset that’s truly one of a kind. The pastel colors are grey, white, mint green, yellow, purple, sky blue, coral (which looks orange), and “heart pink” which looks more like a strawberry red to me. If you were hoping to match it to an Xbox controller, sadly this color palette isn’t even close. Luckily, most of the color options look really nice together, so it won’t be too hard to find a combo you like. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a true pink or more shades in general, but the black, purple, and grey design I settled on looks amazing. I especially like that you can customize the cable and mic, which are little details that make a big difference.
Astro says orders ship in two to four weeks, but mine showed up in just 12 days. The headset comes in a black hard case that’s very protective, but way too big to easily pack in a backpack or travel bag. The microphone and cable are detachable so it would be easy to just fold it flat and wear the headset around your neck, but unfortunately there are some extremely sharp corners on the frame that will stab you if you try to wear them like this. It’s a lot better if you turn the cushions in and wear them around your neck just like you would over your head, but then the cushions kind of squeeze around your throat in an uncomfortable way. Traveling with this headset hasn’t been very convenient, but if you have room to pack the hard case, that’s the best way to do it.
The cable is a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, which makes it ideal for using with a PlayStation or Xbox controller, or with a Switch. It’s supposed to come with a PC splitter, but I couldn’t find one in my package. Even so, the cable isn’t really long enough to reach behind my desktop tower under my desk to plug into the audio ports on the back, so unless you’re using a laptop I wouldn’t really recommend these headphones for PC players. A USB option would be great, but I can see why the headphone cable is a better option for those on console.
There are no controls anywhere on the headset. You’ll find an inline mute switch built into the cable for the microphone, but the headset itself has no volume controls, equalizer options, or any other control features. You can run the headphones through Astro’s M60 or M80 MixAmp however, which Astro offers as a bundle for an additional $100. For $200, it would be nice to at least have a volume wheel built in.
If you’re looking for a gaming headset with some bells and whistles, there are better, more affordable options. What Astro.ID offers is a highly customizable device with high quality, 40mm speakers tuned for gaming right out of the box. I don’t know of any other headset that offers this level of color customization and I’m totally impressed with the final product. Collection 2 brings way more color options and better combinations too, so if you’ve looked at Astro.ID in the past it’s a good time to check it out again. I love that I have my wireless Astro A50 headset on my PC and my wired A40’s for my PlayStation 5 and Switch, and if Astro.ID ever comes to the A50, I’ll be first in line to make a custom pair.
An Astro.ID customizer code was provided to TheGamer for this review. Learn more about Astro.ID on the official Astro website.