Trust Gaming GXT 391 Thian Review
A sustainable gaming headset with a budget price
Verdict
The Trust Gaming GXT 391 Thian is a decent eco-friendly wireless gaming headset. Sustainability was at the heart of this peripheral, but that’s no excuse for a dull design.
Pros
- Eco-friendly design
- Wireless connection
- Lightweight build
Cons
- No detachable mic
- Lack of noise cancellation
- Underwhelming design
Availability
- UKRRP: £59.99
- USAunavailable
- Europeunavailable
- Canadaunavailable
- Australiaunavailable
Key Features
- Eco friendlyThe Thian is designed with sustainability at heart.
- Wireless connectionUses a USB dongle to connect to devices via wireless.
- Lightweight buildThe GXT 391 Thian weighs 197g.
- Multi-platformCan be used on PC, laptops, and consoles.
Introduction
Trust Gaming’s GXT 391 Thian is a wireless gaming headset made from recyclable materials and designed with sustainability in mind.
It comes with a rechargeable battery, is not crazy expensive, and is compatible with consoles as well as PCs. But do its price and eco-friendly design make up for its lack of features? And is it good enough to make our best gaming headset list?
Design and features
- Made with recyclable materials
- Simple plain design
- Lightweight, breathable and comfortable design
The Trust Gaming GXT 391 Thian has an over-ear design, with rounded ear cups, and “GXTrust” printed in matte silver across the middle. The cups are part white and part black, made of a cushioned faux-leather fabric, covered by a soft mesh top layer.
The padding is not the most voluptuous, but the headset is light – not uncomfortable. The frame is matte black plastic with white cushioning and can be adjusted to fit.
On the left cup you’ll find the microphone, which isn’t detachable. It can be rotated within 45 degrees, and its length can be twisted into the shape you want.
Also on the left cup are the controls. There’s the power switch, a mic mute button, and the volume control. There are two ports, one for the rechargeable USB cable and one for the 1.2 m audio cable.
Between these is a power status light: it shines blue when the headset is on, and red when it’s charging. It sadly doesn’t do anything to indicate battery life; instead, a jingle similar to the Super Mario Bros. 1-up sound is played through the headset when juice is running low.
The Trust GXT 391 Thian comes with a rechargeable battery. From a full charge, the battery lasted me about two days, but it wasn’t through continuous use. If you don’t use the headset for five minutes it will auto-power off. It takes a little over three hours to fully charge. It irritated me that I couldn’t use the headset while charging, on account of the bundled charging wire being only 30cm long. Wires for PC peripherals should be longer because your PC is rarely right next to you.
The headset connects wirelessly via a dongle at 5.8 GHz, meaning you can leave the room where your PC/console is, and keep speaking to friends or listening to music. There is no Bluetooth, which seems like a bit of an oversight in case you want to connect to mobile or Nintendo Switch – but this is a budget headset.
There is no available software for the Trust Thian GXT 391 Gaming headset, while the only lighting on the Thian is on the on/off switch and battery indicator. Sadly, the Thian doesn’t have noise cancellation, sound isolation or virtual surround sound, which, for me, loses it a lot of points.
Performance
- Good sound quality
- The microphone is strong and clear
- Good energy saving
The Trust Gaming GXT 391 Thian has more than decent sound quality. It’s not as loud as other headsets I’ve tested, though it’s still clear and loud enough.
The sensitivity of the Thian is 100 dB, which is good for its 40mm drivers, as it improves the output without rinsing out the power, adding to the headset’s eco-friendliness. The Thian is clear at lower volumes and doesn’t distort at higher volumes.
The sound frequency of the Thian is 20-20,000 Hz, which across all frequencies is adequately supported by the 40mm drivers. The sound is great, not just for gaming, but also for music and making voice calls.
For gaming, I tested the GXT 391 Thian in different games. I used the Sims 4’s Create a Sim mode to hear the differences in male and female, low to high-pitched voices: all were clear and had no distortion even at the highest volume.
I played ARK: Survival Evolved to hear how the headset fared with jungle and various animal sounds. It was immersive and clear. Most if not all sound was picked up clearly with no distortion.
For shooters, like Destiny 2 and Warframe, I wanted to see how guns and other weapon sounds came through, particularly how clear they sounded from several directions. There wasn’t the best clarity when it came to omnidirectional gunfire. This is why either virtual or 3D surround sound is important to me when it comes to gaming headsets.
The headset doesn’t have any equalisation options built into it, not even a good old bass boost. But bearing in mind the Thian is primarily intended for use with PC this isn’t a huge problem – you can also equalise the sound in software.
The microphone worked very well for voice calls. I tested the headset in a team game using Discord for voice communication. My team and I could hear each other well, and the mute button was convenient.
I used the GXT 391 Thian headset on Facebook Messenger for a normal family group call. I could hear all voices without merging. My family even noted that they could hear me more than they did through my dedicated mic.
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Should you buy it?
If you want a decent cost-effective eco-friendly gaming headset
The best aspects of this gaming headset is its low price and eco-friendly design. If those are important factors for you, this is a good option.
If you want advanced features
My biggest gripe with this GXT 391 Thian is the lack of features. There’s no Bluetooth, companion app, RGB lighting, noise cancellation or even 3D audio. Even at this price, you can find headsets with more features than this.
Final Thoughts
The Trust Gaming GXT 391 Thian is a budget gaming headset that prioritises sustainability over most everything. That is not to say it doesn’t perform well, because it does – it has a nice crisp sound, and its microphone captured my voice clearly.
It just looks a bit dull. And it lacks some key features like noise cancelling and surround sound. These features would have increased the price and worsened battery life, though.
As it is, the battery life of a couple of days of heavy use is decent. The fact it takes three hours to fully charge is less decent, particularly since the included charging wire is so short.
All in all the Thian is a good budget headset at £59.99; it will achieve everything you need a headset to do; there’s just no wow factor.
How we test
All headphones reviewed are tested thoroughly over a sufficient period of time. Features are compared to the industry standard to ensure all features are adequately compared.
Used as a main headset for over two weeks.
Tested multiple game genres, including FPS, MOBA, RTS, and simulation.
Tested music playback.
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FAQs
No, there is no available software that comes with the Trust Gaming headset.
You can certainly use the mic to record if you please, but it would be advisable to get a mic that is designed for audio recording for the best possible performance and recording quality.
Full specification
Sustainability
Trusted Reviews holds the fact that global warming is not a myth as a core value and will continuously endeavor to help protect our planet from harm in its business practices.
As part of this mission, whenever we review a product we send the company a series of questions to help us gauge and make transparent the impact the device has on the environment.
You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page. In lieu of answering each of these questions, Vivo has provided us with its company Sustainability Report.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
