With so many options in gaming headsets, it really is getting harder and harder to decide on that perfect headset that fits your style and your head (comfort is key), as well as your wallet and technical needs.
And with so many options come many mistakes waiting to happen if you’re not well enough informed on what you’re buying.
This is where Early Axes, in partnership with SADES, hopes to help you in the review of one of their best-selling, mid-tier headsets across the world, the Locust Plus.
About SADES
SADES is a gaming centred company that has been around since 2002 on the overseas market. As a company, they focus on R&D and manufacturing of quality gaming products guaranteed to improve your overall experience whilst gaming (even, hopefully, your KD ratio).
SADES is one of the players on the eSports scene with sponsored teams in PUBG, League of Legends, Dota 2, CS GO, Overwatch and other games.
Check out our unboxing here:
Design and Performance
SADES opted to go with, what I call, the bungee design. This design, better known as full-suspension, I have personally found to be the most comfortable where most of the weight of the headset is held in the top tubes, while the headset sits snug on the head with a suspended padded strap designed to hold the cups to your ears while distributing the overall weight evenly over your head. Think hours of comfortable use without the annoying itch/pain on top of your head and no pressure on your ears. This is made more possible by the Locust Plus’s lightweight of only 260g.
The Locust Plus uses an omnidirectional boom mic that comes with a foam windscreen, for those heavy breathers amongst us. The mic features a blue LED ring on the edge of the mic that flashes when muted and stays lit when unmuted. The LED is quite bright and can be distracting when it flashes but it’s easily overcome by moving it out of the way. The mic is not detachable or retractable, which comes with its pros and cons. A con being that you can’t completely tuck it away by either retracting it in the cup or storing it in a drawer. A pro being that you can’t lose it – I know many gamer friends who have lost their detachable mics and then sit with a mission to try and replace it.
In addition to this, the Locust Plus features 7.1 surround sound delivered through 40mm drivers that are surrounded by soft, synthetic leather ear cups to maximise comfort. Although only have 40mm drivers, the sound through this headset definitely doesn’t take a backseat and allows for full immersion and quality audio with the noise cancelling supplied by the ear cup.
All your controls are situated in an easy to reach place on the 2,2m long cable with a gold-plated USB. The length of the cable gives you more than enough reach in even the most difficult of set ups and the control box hangs about 50cm from the headset itself. The controls offered are volume up and down, mic mute, sound off and the RGB colour control.
RGB is a must these days as we know, RGB is +10 to all skills.
Unfortunately, with this being a USB headset, it is not compatible with any Xbox consoles, but this is at no fault of their own but rather with Xbox as they have not allowed for USB headsets. The Locust Plus is compatible with PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.
For more info on specifications for the Locust Plus, see the image below.
My Experience
As mentioned before, I am a massive fan of the full-suspension (bungee) headset design and so, straight out of the box, that was a big plus for me! And, like other bungee headsets that I’ve tried, the Locust Plus was incredibly comfortable, even after a couple of hours spent on Valorant or Battlefield.
Overall, the headset is mostly plug and play with it being ready to use straight from the first plug in. For those who want a little more control – the headset software can be very easily downloaded from the SADES website. This software is very simple, with the handiest thing on it being the ability to adjust your mic’s sensitivity.
While using the headset, game sound was crisp and clear and the 7.1 surround sound really worked well to be able to pinpoint where enemies were coming from and how near, or far, they were. This worked so well that I had to check and triple check to make sure that the Locust Plus actually wasn’t using 50mm drivers as the 40mm drivers worked supremely well. Friends over game chat and Discord all commented that my voice was clear and that there was no static or background noise present. I found that I could move the mic to anywhere I wanted it to be, and it would stay there – whether it be right against my lip (not sure why people would want to play with it there) or a safe distance from my breath. Also flipping it up and out of the way was easy and, once again, the mic stayed where I put it.
Verdict
Overall, the Locust Plus is a really great headset for its price range. One MASSIVE downside is that SADES is, unfortunately, no longer available in South Africa and so we had this pair sent to us straight from their HQ in China. Hopefully we can get SADES back in South Africa.
As mentioned, in its price range, the Locust Plus is miles ahead of its competitors. Offering top-tier quality sound, great and durable build quality as well as a stylish finish to look good with any, and all, set ups and, of course, some great looking RGB. The Locust Plus really doesn’t do much wrong for what you’re paying.
In conclusion, we give the SADES Locust Plus Gaming Headset the following ratings:
Comfort: 9/10
Design: 8/10
Customization: 6/10
Availability: 4/10 (as it’s unavailable in South Africa – will hopefully be a 10/10 soon!)
Performance: 8/10
With an overall Early Axes rating of 8 out of 10
The Locust Plus really is quality mid-tier headset and we hope it becomes more readily available on our shores soon!
Thank you to the guys over at SADES for giving us a chance to review their products!
