Some gamers still use wired headsets instead of the countless wireless options on the market because they don’t want to deal with charging, but now they don’t have to. HyperX at CES 2022 a new Cloud Alpha Wireless that supposedly boasts 300 hours of battery life.
And no, I didn’t add an extra zero in there — trust me, I double-checked. That claimed runtime is downright baffling, and the thing is, there doesn’t seem to be a catch because this wireless model shares several key specs with the wired one.
More on that later. For now, I want to put these battery life claims into perspective. Nearly every gaming headset you can buy today comes with double-digit runtimes, so we were blown away when Sennheiser revealed the GSP 370, which it claims can last 100 hours on a charge. With three times that, HyperX’s Cloud Alpha Wireless isn’t even in the same league.
I mean, just look at what Gizmodo senior reporter Sam Rutherford wrote in his late-2020 HyperX Cloud II Wireless review:
“But to me, the most impressive thing about the Cloud II Wireless is how good its battery life and wireless connection are.”
The battery life of the Cloud II Wireless? 30 hours. It took HyperX a year to add another zero. That is almost two full weeks of continuous use before you have to plug in the USB-C cable. Unreal. But equally surprising is that this wireless version is about as lightweight as the wired one, coming in at a reasonable 335 grams.
As I noted, the PC headset doesn’t seem to make many, if any, tradeoffs to maximise battery life. It has updated “Dual Chamber Technology” and uses 50mm drivers, which HyperX says produce the same “sound and performance” of the original wired version while keeping this wireless one slightly thinner and allowing for a large battery.
The frame is made of aluminium and the ear cups are leatherette with “custom plus memory foam.” If they are anywhere near as comfortable as the Cloud II Wireless then you shouldn’t have problems wearing these deep into the night. The headset also has a detachable noise-cancelling microphone with LED status indicators, and volume and mic controls are on the ear cup. The headphone connects to your PC via a USB-A dongle.
HyperX told me it couldn’t reveal what magical fairy dust it sprinkled over the Alpha to get such bonkers runtimes, but I assume it’s a matter of operating at a very low power state. What HyperX did reveal is that the headset has a 1,500 mAh rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, and that the 300 hours claim is at 50% volume and was apparently already verified by a “third-party testing company.”
I still can’t wrap my head around it, so I’m going to get these shipped in to review ASAP, and while I have no clue how just yet, you bet I’ll do a battery test to make sure this thing stays powered for each of those 18,000 minutes of gameplay.
The HyperX Cloud Alpha wireless gaming headset will cost $US200 ($275) when it arrives this February.