You may recognize the Plantronics name from bluetooth headsets they commonly make to work with your smartphone, which might just be why the Plantronics Rig is the first gaming headset designed with your smartphone in mind.
After you get the Plantronics Rig headset out of the box, which proved to be strangely challenging, almost feeling like you could break or snap parts of it as you take them out of the plastic, you will instantly appreciate the attractive design. The white headset we had the pleasure of testing is particularly eye-catching, and the build quality is instantly noticeable. Although they’re not collapsible, the comfortable memory foam ear cups rotate for flat storage. They’re immediately soft on the ears, and even after long gaming sessions remain pleasant-feeling on the head and ears thanks to them being surprisingly lightweight.
The sound the Plantronics Rig produces is also exceptionally clear and robust, ranging from deep boom to vibrant highs. In-game soundtracks are highlighted thanks to the sound quality, as are the gunshots and explosions and everything else layered over. One caveat, though, the Rig is a stereo headset, so it cannot replicate the surround sound experience as well as similarly priced headsets like the Sony PULSE Elite we reviewed earlier this year. It performed better than the PULSE in terms of music, though—a point where the Rig shined compared to many other gaming headsets
It’s also not wireless, and at $129.99 is priced on the high-end for wired headsets without surround sound. That said, it does have some genius design advantages, namely the attached mixer that allows you to control the volume of both the in-game sound and voice chat or smartphone audio with the turn of a dial.
In most situations, you’re tethered to your game console or PC with a headset, and that’s that. But the Rig comes with two cables, so you can easily switch to gaming on a PC or console, to using the Rig as a headset for your smartphone for making and taking calls, or even listening to music on the go. Voice chat was clear as day, giving the Plantronics Rig a dual purpose that functions extremely well.
While it may be on the expensive side for a wired headset, and it lacks surround sound, the sound quality itself and the smart versatility make the Plantronics Rig a worthwhile consideration if you’re in the market for a gaming headset. It’s a smart purchase if you foresee yourself using it with a smartphone too.
