-The HyperX Cloud Flight grants complete and utter freedom with instantaneous wireless connectivity and long-lasting battery life without sacrificing too much in terms of performance.
The Good
- Unparralleled battery life & instantaneous connectivity
- Â Clear stereo audio quality
- Lightweight & comfortable
- Â Great microphone with even better noise cancelling tech
- Â Plug-and-play
The Bad
- No surround sound
- Â Earcups might be too tight for people with large ears
The HyperX Cloud Flight grants the most seamless transition from wired to wireless out of any wireless headset on the market, with its instant connectivity, long-lasting battery life, and plug-and-play functionality. Whereas a lot of wireless headsets have connection issues and problems registering with your PC, the Cloud Flight connects the second you turn in it on, every time.
Design and quality have always been a trademark of HyperX headsets, and the Cloud Flight is no different. It has a compact, ultra-lightweight, over-ear design that sits firmly on your head without feeling overly tight. Furthermore, it has some of the most intuitive and convenient on-ear adjustments out of any headset on the market making muting and adjusting volume an absolute breeze.
Finally, the 50mm drivers provide excellent stereo audio quality with clear highs and lows and everything in between. It does not have surround sound though, and the overall sound quality is still not on par with some of the best-wired headsets, but that is to be expected when you have a wireless headset with staggering 30-hours of battery life.
The HyperX Cloud Flight has almost everything going for it. Great audio quality and a high-quality microphone that provides clear communication and great noise cancellation. Its design is comfortable, lightweight and has convenient on-ear media controls. Most importantly it’s instant connectivity, and extraordinary 30-hour battery life provides you with true wireless freedom that feels as consistent as any wired option out there. The HyperX Cloud Flight is one of the best and most user-friendly wireless headsets on the market, and when it comes to battery life and connectivity, it is second-to-none.
Design – Light as a Feather
At first glance, the HyperX Cloud Flight has a simplistic, compact design that is hard to hate on. It’s lightweight design at only 315 grams and over-ear leatherette earcups ensure a very comfortable gaming experience, even during long gaming sessions. It has a tight fit that keeps the headset firmly in place no matter how rapid head movements you tend to make while gaming. That said, the tight design might be uncomfortable if you have large ears and it does overall make it slightly less comfortable than the HyperX Cloud 2 that uses a larger earcup design.
The earcups are made out of breathable leatherette materials that keep the ears relatively cool even during warm days. Cloud Flight is a very pleasant pair of headphones to wear but does fall a bit short compared to the most comfortable ones out there like the SteelSeries Arctis or even HyperX’ own Cloud 2.
The quality is great but once again doesn’t feel as durable as the Cloud 2. However, as long as you treat it decently well, you won’t experience any issues, and it can survive a drop on the floor without any problems.
Convenient & user-friendly
The real genius in Cloud Flight’s design lies in its user-friendliness and overall convenience. It’s on-ear media controls are some of the most straightforward to use out of all the headsets I have tested. It has a large volume wheel that is easy to locate without taking off the headphones. Furthermore, the left earcup is more or less one big mute/un-mute button that makes muting your microphone in an instant easier than ever before.
The microphone is also very flexible and can easily be detached if you want to play without it or perhaps want to listen to music on your phone. One small issue on that front though is that the headset does not have regular Bluetooth and thus only works with your phone with an OTG adapter or regular jack port.
Performance – Good audio quality but battery-life is the real star of the show
Performance – Good audio quality but battery-life is the real star of the showWhen it comes to the performance of a pair of wireless gaming headphones, there are two main factors to consider. Firstly, the overall audio quality and features. Secondly, battery-life and connectivity.
Audio Quality – Good, not excellent
It is quite clear what HyperX wanted to achieve with the Cloud Flight. They wanted to create the best possible stereo audio quality that they could without it taking too much of a toll on the battery life.
So, did they succeed?
The 50mm drivers deliver wonderfully clear sound quality with vibrant and defined lows, highs and mid tones. However, it is nothing out of the ordinary, and the quality is great but nothing more than what we’d expect from a high-end gaming headset.
In terms of bass, I loved it, but some will not like it. It has an enhanced bass-reproduction system that delivers appropriate levels of bass for gaming which means not a lot. This is excellent for gaming as it allows you to get some bass without it overpowering the sound quality, allowing you to receive reliable directional sound and hear important sounds effects in-game. However, if you enjoy a lot of bass and explosive sound effects, then the Cloud Flight will probably leave you disappointed.
It also lacks surround sound which can be a huge turn off for some, especially if you mostly play immersion driven games like role-playing games. On the other hand, if you, for the most part, enjoy competitive games like CS:GO or League of Legends then you don’t need to worry. Even without surround sound, the directional sound is excellent, and you will have no issues whatsoever hearing your enemies footsteps or hearing important sound clues.
I’d say that HyperX succeeded in their mission. Its sound quality is not extraordinary, but it is of high, reliable quality with appropriate amounts of bass.
Microphone is top-notch
The detachable microphone is flexible and easily muted through the earcup. The audio quality is great and provides clear communication with your team. Lastly, it has excellent noise cancellation, so you don’t have to worry about muting yourself while eating snacks or food while playing with friends.
Battery & Connectivity – Second-to-none
Battery & Connectivity – Second-to-noneThe HyperX Cloud Flight is light on features and lacks what some consider essential, like surround sound and hard bass. But it just so happens that the lack of those features is in large part the reason why the Cloud Flight is so great as it allows for the best feature to shine. Unparalleled battery-lifetime.
The Cloud Flight can keep going for a whopping 30 hours straight, provided you don’t choose to turn on the breathing LED lighting. Luckily, the default mode is lighting turned off and with battery life at it’s best. You can however easily switch between no LED, breathing LED, and continuous lighting with the power button.
Thirty hours is absolutely crazy, and I am honestly not quite sure how they managed to pull it off. Usually, you have to choose between performance or battery and connectivity when it comes to wireless headsets, but the Cloud Flight has great overall performance and the highest battery life out of any decent headset on the market.
I played about six hours of competitive CS:GO matches with friends yesterday, and the battery still sits on 79%. Meaning that even if you play vigorously every day, you will only have to charge it every other day. If you do manage to get the battery low, it will notify you with occasional beeping sounds that indicate it has a few hours left and should be charged. You can also install the Nguity Software that allows you to monitor the exact battery percentage left.
Connectivity – An actual plug-and-play wireless headset
A big concern with wireless gaming headphones is always how strong the connection is and how easy they connect. Which is another important feature that the Cloud Flight absolutely nailed.
Once you plug in the 2.4GHz wireless USB connector, it is instantly registered by the PC, and all you then have to do it turn on the headset and you are good to go. No nonsense, no problems, it just connects instantly every time.
It is also Discord certified, and Discord is famously bad sometimes at picking up which headset and microphone you are currently using, but I haven’t experienced a single issue during my week of using the Cloud Flight.
Apart from having instant connectivity, the connection itself is also rather strong and can go through one or two walls without much issue. While waiting in queue for a match I can without trouble go into the kitchen in the next room, pour myself a cup of coffee and keep communicating with my friends and most importantly, hear when a match is ready.
I also didn’t experience a single drop or stutter as long as I stayed in the same room as the PC.
Finally, it is fully compatible with PC and PlayStation. The sound also works with Xbox and other consoles but not the microphone.
Wireless headsets can be troublesome with lousy connectivity, stutter, a constant need for recharge and so on. All of these issues are more or less non-existent with the HyperX Cloud Flight – It is a plug-and-play headset that provides true wireless freedom.
Final Verdict
If you want all the convenience and freedom of a wireless set of gaming headphones without all of the common issues that come along with it, then the HyperX Cloud Flight might be the best option on the market right now. It is unmatched in terms of connectivity, user-friendliness and battery life.
However, if you see yourself as a bit of an audiophile and value sound quality and features such as surround sound above all else, then I would recommend the SteelSeries Arctis 7 or that you go with a wired option.
