When we go on the road, we’re always
looking for ways to indulge in a
little gaming, whenever and wherever we
can. Sadly, the first thing to get cut from
the packing list is our unwieldy overthe-
ear headset. But instead of settling
for the underperforming earbuds that
came with your smartphone, GX Gaming
offers road warriors the Zabius M Mobile
Gaming Headset. It’s a beast of a headset
in earbud’s clothing.
The first thing you’ll notice about
the Zabius M is the attractive, twotone
black and red color scheme, with
metallic gray accents. We’ve been fans
of headsets with flat cabling for a while
because they resist tangling, and that’s
still true with the Zabius M. Go ahead
and stuff this headset into your pocket
(or the zippered carrying case); they’ll
quickly unwind with very little fuss
when you need them again.
The mic is located in-line along the
right-hand cable and features a callanswer/
pause button that works on both
Android and iOS devices. We also like
that the large “R” and “L” letters that
indicate the right and left earbuds are
printed on the inside of each one in
white, so you can quickly determine if
you’re about to put them on correctly
without having to flip them over.
The headset employs removable
rubber ear tips (in three sizes) to block
out external sounds and remain snugly
in place whether you’re jogging or
stationary. The portion of the Zabius
M that fits into your ear canal is
rather small, but the drivers measure a
surprisingly large 13mm in diameter,
which results in a sound that’s much
bigger than you’d expect from an earbudstyle
headset. The unit features a 20Hz
to 20kHz frequency response and a
sensitivity up to 100dB +/-3dB.
In addition to making some calls
on a smartphone, listening to music,
watching a movie, and playing a variety
of games, we also played some online
multiplayer to get a feel for how the
mic performed, and we were pleasantly
surprised. Everyone said we came across
loud and clear, and we enjoyed similar
results with the phone calls we placed
while wearing the Zabius M.
The headset features a gold-plated,
four-pin, 3.5mm audio jack that
resembles those of other mobile headsets,
but the Zabius M comes with an audio
adapter cable that splits the mic and
audio signals to separate jacks, making
it easy to plug into a PC’s front panel
audio ports. The adapter also adds
another 24 inches of length to the
headset, so you have plenty of room to
move around your PC.
Despite its color scheme, this headset
works just as well in a variety of nongaming
scenarios, making it a perfect
option for all of your mobile listening
needs. If you find yourself gaming on the
road, this is the headset you won’t want to
take off.
