UPBEAT Tech Beat

by John Mundazio with additional editing for this column by Bridget Petrella

Gamers are often rather dubious about wireless headphones, and rightly so. The audio is either not up to the corded quality or you have to worry about interference from other devices. The Creative HS-1200 Wireless Gaming Headset made us forget we were even wearing a wireless set. The speakers performed wonderfully, the controls felt solid, and the unit's range extended at 40-plus feet, but the mic levels were a little low for our taste. The ear cups also were a tad bit too small for some of our editors; but at least the next time we get pummeled in an online match we won't have to worry about yanking our PC off of the desk as we toss the entire headset against a wall. Every wireless device requires two things: a base station for transmitting and receiving signals from the wireless portion of the device and a power source. Creative solves the problem in a (every pun intended) creative fashion by making the unit's base station serve double duty: the round disc that serves as the transmitter has two connected cables, each about three feet in length: a USB cable to plug into the host computer and a DC cable that plugs into the headset to charge the unit's battery (which takes about 2.5 hours). LEDs on the base station and one of the headset's ear cups glow solid blue when you have a connection, or blink blue when there are transmission issues.

Although the inclusion of cables means that the HS-1200 gaming headset isn't quite as wireless as it could be with, say, a USB dongle, the charging option makes the trade off more than worth the extra wiring. On the side of the right ear cup are controls: contoured, individually defined buttons that power the unit on and off, answer a Skype or Windows Messenger call, and adjust the volume. The headset's status LED sits in the middle of the controls; in addition to its blue connection lights, it turns solid red when charging and blinks red when it has a low battery. In addition, the headset beeps into the ear cups when the batteries start to die, so you'll know when to plug in without disturbing anyone around you. Performance tests demonstrated that Creative's claim of an eight-hour battery life is an accurate assessment.

Overall, the HS-1200 gaming headset comes out on top: it gets the job done and does it efficiently and effectively over long hours without making the die-hard gamer wish for an ear massage. However, Creative's wireless gaming solution— and therefore any product based on X-Fi— still needs work in a few key areas: product-specific documentation and software programming as well as Creative's house brand of surround emulation work. Apart from these "minor" areas which can and we assume will be easily upgraded, this product gets our iGamer thumbs up recommendation! UB

John Mundazio works for one of the numerous publishing companies in the New York metropolitan area which is currently planning a bold takeover of the parallel universe in which he occasionally resides with several of his imaginary friends and at least two of the strange voices in his head. But he is confident it is not the one you're thinking of at this very moment. Convinced that Susie-Q's are indeed a food group and that no REAL list of fun toys is ever really complete without mentioning "Log"— that quintessential Ren and Stimpy Show toy that boldly dared to go where no toy ever could... "The Dazed-Meister" refuses to partake in anything which requires him to dress up like Wonder Woman or sing the theme song from The Partridge Family in its entirety. He also opposes floatation devices of any sort.