HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless Gaming Headset Review

Big Battery Life Meets Bland Iteration

Photo taken by the author.

HyperX placed all their proverbial bets on 300 hours of wireless battery life, and they hope users will come along with them for the ride. So as not to bury the lede: yes, this new headset does have the capability to hit 300 hours of battery life. But if you’re a fan of this series of products, you need to know about the other tweaks they made before you take the plunge.

The HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless goes for $200 (official site here), putting it in the upper tier price wise compared to the rest of the headset market. Its new marquee feature is massive battery life, but it also promises to bring in all the things that people love about the classic wired Cloud Alpha. Spoiler: it comes somewhat close to doing that. The headset is currently only available in the standard HyperX black and red color scheme, but I’m hoping it’ll come out in other colors in the future.

I have tons of experience with the Cloud Alpha family. I’ve reviewed the base headset, as well as two different colorways of the “S” update. When this wireless model was due for release in February, I spent a full month with the original version so that I would be ready to spot the differences in the new one as soon as it arrived.

The original wired Cloud Alpha (right) has nicer padding and a sleeker cup design. Photo taken by the author.

Of course, the universe and the chip supply/demand situation had different plans for the Alpha Wireless. It finally launched in mid-April, two months after its original release schedule. Also, the differences from the original version are so pronounced that I could have picked them out without revisiting the old one. This is a gentle refinement of what came before with just a few big changes…though not all of them are for the better.

I sat in on the virtual press briefing for this headset last December, though since then I’ve stopped taking review units from tech companies in part because I’m shifting focus to also cover more gaming software. I don’t use affiliate links, and I never monetized a review here on Medium that was written based on a free product sample.