HyperX Cloud Flight

Short on looks, long on performance

Another month and another excellent headset from HyperX arrives in the office. This time around HyperX has delivered their first wireless headset, and it’s a stunner. The basic design of the headset sits somewhere between the Cloud Alpha and Cloud Stinger, with a simple padded headstrap and plastic hinges attaching the wellcushioned earcups. The most noticeable difference between this headset and any of those that came before is the lack of wires. You can also plug the headset in using a regular 3.5mm cable if you want some wires in your life. It’s not the most striking looking headset in the world, but it sits very comfortably on your head and sounds a treat.

The earcups each house a nice 50mm driver and deliver the stereo performance that we’ve come to expect from HyperX headsets, with a big, open sound and good reproduction across the spectrum. The fact that the Cloud Flight headset doesn’t support any kind of surround sound is a little disappointing considering a number of other wireless headsets around the same price point offer virtual 5.1 or 7.1, and the fact that HyperX has already showed it can deliver excellent virtual surround with the Cloud II headset makes the absence seem a little odd. The most logical reason to not include virtual surround seems to be battery optimisation. The box boasts 30 hours of battery life, but that’s only true when the lights are off, otherwise the battery life is halved. DANIEL WILKS