Closer Examination

I have to admit I was quite surprised by what I saw after pulling the Rosewill Nebula GX30 out of the box. My attention was immediately drawn to the massive metal mesh that covers both ear cups, as well as the rim that loops through the headband and connects the ear pieces. You'd expect it to be made out of plastic considering that we're talking about a $37 gaming headset, but you'd be wrong. After grabbing it with my fingers, I was greeted by the familiar coldness of metal. A metal frame on a headset of this price? Wow!


The ear pieces can be moved along the metal rim in order for the Nebula GX30 to properly adjust to various head sizes. A series of dots on the inner side of the rim will help you adjust both ear cups equally.


The exposed pieces of wire that go through the headband and connect the ear pieces are carefully braided and well protected. I tested many significantly more expensive headsets that didn't take such care of this detail.


The outer headband is quite wide and covered in pleather. Its inner side is filled with memory foam to prevent it from causing any discomfort to the top of the head. Said two parts of the headband are firmly stitched together.


Memory foam and pleather are also used on the ear cushions. They're soft and large - so large they don't touch the ears at all. Since their clamping force isn't too high either, the Nebula GX30 causes no discomfort even during long gaming sessions. The ear cushions can be removed and replaced, which is yet another great and admirable detail that adds a layer of customizability you don't normally get from even many significantly more expensive headsets.


The left ear cup contains a standard 3.5-mm port that is used for the supplied detachable microphone. The port and microphone plug are purposefully made in a way that makes figuring out how to turn the microphone to plug it in properly easy. Since the Nebula GX30 isn't suited for outdoor usage, I don't think anyone would mind if the microphone weren't detachable at all, but hey, it's always nice to have that as an option.


Rosewill went with the familiar metal-ring construction for the microphone's arm, which usually results in a very bendy microphone that stays in the position you put it in. That's the case here as well.


Even though the perforated ear cups could make you think that the Nebula GX30 is an open-back headset, Rosewill only used a metal mesh to implement an RGB lighting system beneath it. In order for it to work, you have to plug the headset into a USB port. You still need to connect the 3.5-mm plugs as well, as the USB connection is only used to power the RGB LEDs. If I'm honest, this is a faux-RGB lighting system at best since you don't have any control over it, color or effect-wise. I made a short video so that you can see the effect for yourself:


As you can see, the RGB lighting system consists of the glowing Nebula logo cycling through various colors. There's no way to manually pick the colors, the speed with which they change from one to the other, or anything else of that sort. If you're bothered by it, you can turn it off via the in-line remote control or by simply not plugging the USB connector into an appropriate port.


About 35 centimeters down the braided, non-removable cable that comes out of the left ear cup Rosewill placed the in-line control unit. It's equipped with two switches and a volume dial. The switch on its side (or bottom, looking at the photo) is used to instantly activate or deactivate the microphone. The one in the middle of the control unit turns the RGB LEDs on or off. A clothes clip isn't a part of the control unit, so you won't be able to affix it to a shirt, for example. Luckily, it isn't placed too far down the cable, so it manages to stay within reach in a normal sitting position.


At the end of the cable are two 3.5-mm connectors you'll plug into the sound card. Should you plan to use the Nebula GX30 with a device that has a single 3.5-mm plug (TRRS), such as consoles or mobile devices, you'll be happy to find out that an appropriate adapter is provided.