Logitech G930 vs G35: A second look

It's been a few months since I went out and bought these two.  Initially thought the only real difference between the two was that one was wireless and the other wasn't. While this is still the only essential difference, there are several nuances between the two that stand out.




I've been using the G930 at home as my primary audio connection for gaming, music, movies you name it. As I noted in my G930 review, the benchmark by which all headphones must pass for minimum acceptance was the very impressive (and sadly, discontinued Razer Barracuda HP-1). The G930 doesn't disappoint on sound quality nor intensity. It also scores really well for connection speed (provided the appropriate device has been initialized at least once on that given USB port) - drivers load faster than some mice and the wireless pairing is near instantaneous. Of course, the downside to this is that the wireless connectivity is hard-paired -- meaning if you lose your USB transmitter, be prepared to buy a new set. The other aggravating downside is that, when you plug  in the headphones (to recharge them), they are still wirelessly connected. Instead sending power and audio signal over USB, it just charged over USB.

The G35 I use as a secondary headphone set at home (mostly for connecting the laptop upstairs when I'm too lazy to bring the G930 up and down the stairs or when it's charging). The audio quality is probably identical (no reason they wouldn't be, I'm almost positive they use the same underlying architecture) but the user experience is different.

My initial gut reaction (from the first few seconds I wore the G35), was that it simply wasn't as comfortable. I don't look forward to putting it on. As I briefly touched in my initial review, the flexible headband thing is just retarded. The end result is that the headphones either don't stay on your head or they certainly give that impression. I'm constantly subtly adjusting my head-bobbing and even find myself adjusting how far I lean back in my chair. In short, it's a damn distracting experience, I find myself putting them on and taking them off very shortly after. For awhile, I took to removing the leather padded cushion and just having the straight velcro against my scalp - took a bit getting used to but at least the headphones weren't sliding around all over! For the G35's role as my in-bed headphones, it performs wonderfully and it's an enjoyable experience (mostly because the I don't have to worry about the damn unit sliding off my head).

I've ranted a bit about the flexible band on the G35 vs the solid band on the G930. I can't rant enough about it (although I will, for the sake of being academically thorough, accept the possibility that my head is just that weirdly shaped). A few more nuances:

• Using TeamSpeak on either of these headphones only plays incoming audio on the right headphone. You can hack this to play on both sides by toggling the DolbySurround switch but [a] that's a dumb idea and [b] it sounds terrible. Skype also used to have this problem, but I'm pretty certain one of the recent driver updates fixed it up (for reference sake, I use v1.00.358 for the G930 and v1.01.178 for the G35).
• The drivers on the G35 are less functional than those on the G930. It's a minor thing that the overwhelming majority of users will never encounter but it just makes me sit back and think - why couldn't they just use the same damn drivers? In addition to a slightly different look and feel, the G35 lacks the ability to adjust the individual channel volumes.
• The G-keys on the headphones? They aren't G-keys in the standard Logitech sense. You can only really use them for custom media related actions. If you were expecting to be able to bind a push-to-talk option for, say, TeamSpeak, you're out of luck. It does, however, support Ventrillo right out of the box. To shed some light on why this was even an issue: consider I was hoping to VoIP using the G930 -- while in a different room. An extension of this: the headphones lack a mute button -- and you can't even bind one of the fancy G-keys to mute the audio.
• Both headphones have a fake-surround-sound switch that, when you trigger it, adjusts the tray icon for the G930/G35 from black (real audio) to red (fake surround sound). With the G35, when you come out of hibernate with the headphones plugged in (I leave the G35 permanently plugged into the docking station at work), there is a third color - "orange-red". This is regardless of whether the headphones are running real or fake mode. To fix this, just toggle back and forth to what you need. Is this a breaking issue? Not really, but it does highlight the issue of the failing point of most Logitech products being their drivers. The G930 doesn't have this problem (perhaps due to the inherent considerations for designing drivers for a wireless product) 
• The G930, being a wireless product, has a battery life. The actual battery life is somewhere in the ballpark of more-than-six hours, likely eight or more. But there is a caveat. If you're not using the headphones (i.e., transmitting audio), a battery saver algorithm will kick in and switch your headphones off. There's a workaround tool for this. And while we're on the topic of batteries, you can buy replacement batteries! (Thank god). Just hit up the Replacement Parts section (selection will vary by region though)
• Thinking about the power saver thing makes me think of an annoyance with the G930 -- the power/pair button is like the buttons on Bluetooth headsets - you get one button that does half-a-dozen things depending on how long you press it and how you press it and what day of the week it is. While the button on the G930 simply handles on-off (with the pairing being automatic when you turn the unit on), the button is kind of retarded. You long-press to turn it off - this makes sense. But sometimes you have to long-press to turn on and sometimes you only have to short-press to turn on. 
• Although I mentioned it above, this is annoying enough to bring up again: the G930 is a wireless-only product. Unlike some wireless mice that, when charging via USB cable, act as a wired-USB mouse, when you plug your G930 in for charging it's still connected via wireless (so, you really don't have a fall-back in the event that you use that dongle).

Ultimately the recommendation comes down to a compromise

• G930. The unit is more comfortable and offers wireless but at the cost of having to deal with the stupidity that comes with wireless technology (power saving and awkward power button). See addendum.
• G35. None of the complexities of wireless, but doesn't necessarily stay on your head.

Don't forget the G930 costs about $50 more. My pick, if I were to buy another? G930 hands down.

Addendum

While searching for the info on the replacement battery, I noticed that you can get a Receiver for the Wireless G930. This sounds like a replacement USB dongle, however, since there is no "initiate pairing" button (or maybe we just have to press a special combination of long-press and short-presses on the single button to initiate pairing).

Addendum

Apparently, my suspicion re: being able to somewhat readily pair a replacement dongle with your existing headset isn't as convoluted as I'd have thought, (from the comments below):
The headset does not hard pair with the dongle, replacement dongles can be orderd easily. and Pairing your new usb dongle to your headset is simple. all so you have to do, is get a pin or somthign small enough to press the little hole on the dongle itself, and at the same time, Press and hold down the power button ont he headset for 10 seconds until reapeated flashing occures. Pairing a new USB dongle to the headset is fairly easy,,, so if you happen to break or lose your dongle dont fret you will not have to buy a new headset lol.