Like
- Very comfortable
- Good battery life
Don’t like
- Few features and controls
- No wired operation
The company has tweaked the features and design in the two years since the last version shipped. It’s still dongle-friendly for any hardware with a USB-C port or a USB-A port via the adapter, notably the PS5 and Nintendo Switch in addition to the PC (the software only runs on Windows).
It has only basic controls: power, mic mute and volume.
The 53mm drivers seem to be the same ones as before, but now they’re angled, in theory to deliver the sound more precisely toward your ear. The software provides a basic 10-point graphic equalizer with a handful of presets and the ability to create custom ones. The DTS surround is usually pretty good but didn’t seem quite as 360-degree here, mostly in the rear channels, and you can’t adjust them at all. The headset does include a lifetime activation for the DTS Sound Unbound app.
They’re not exceptionally sound isolating, just about as much as you expect from leatherette and memory foam — muffled but not silent. Through walls the signal reached about 30 feet before starting to get spotty. Though they charge via USB-C, they don’t operate via USB and there’s no 3.5mm analog jack, which comes in handy when you’re playing a fun game of “is it a dongle or headset fail?”
HyperX remains one of my favorite gaming headset brands, and the Cloud 3 Wireless does a fine job of maintaining the reputation of its Cloud kin — it’s comfortable, with solid audio and battery life. And if you find it on sale, it’s a good deal as well.
