REASONS TO BUY
Incredibly comfortable
Great value
Solid sound quality
REASONS TO AVOID
Harder to mute
No mic sidetone
Kingston HyperX Cloud II Review
An excellent and affordable all-around gaming headset that's extremely comfortable, even for long sessions
RELATED: Best Gaming Headset of 2024
Our Verdict
One of our top-performing gaming headsets, the Kingston HyperX Cloud II does a great job of perfectly balancing performance and price. This headset is incredibly comfortable to wear — even for exceptionally extended gaming sessions — and delivers and transmits very clear sound. It's not too much of a hassle to use and would be a great fit for most gamers — especially those that are a bit on the more budget-conscious side and willing to take a slight hit in audio quality to save some cash.
Compare to Similar Products
 This Product Kingston HyperX Cloud II | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |  Best Overall Gaming Headset |  Best on a Tight Budget | |||
| Price | $100 List $69.75 at Amazon | $130 List $74.99 at Amazon | $119 List $63.06 at Amazon | $50 List $39.99 at Amazon | $60 List $49.98 at Amazon |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Bottom Line | If you want a great headset that does well across the board and won't blow your budget, look no further than the Cloud II | This headset offers great audio, superior comfort, and a fantastic microphone –- the only knock against it is that it is corded | A high performing yet modestly priced headset with only a few minor drawbacks | This headset is a great bargain option, holding its own with the top models while costing considerably less | Despite some shortcomings, this headset still delivers above average audio quality |
| Rating Categories | Kingston HyperX Clo... | Kraken V3 HyperSense | EPOS H3 Closed Acou... | Kingston HyperX Clo... | SteelSeries Arctis... |
| Comfort (40%) | |||||
| Audio (30%) | |||||
| Microphone (20%) | |||||
| Ease of Use (10%) | |||||
| Specs | Kingston HyperX Clo... | Kraken V3 HyperSense | EPOS H3 Closed Acou... | Kingston HyperX Clo... | SteelSeries Arctis... |
| Connection Type | USB or 3.5mm | USB | 3.5mm | 3.5mm | 3.5mm |
| Measure Max Cordlength | 10.6 ft | 6.4 ft | PC: 6.5 ft Console: 4.9 ft |
10.5 ft | 9.1 ft |
| Wireless or Wired | Wired | Wired | Wired | Wired | Wired |
| How to Mute | Switch | Button | Lift mic | Lift mic | Button |
| Detachable Microphone | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Mute and Volume Control Location | Inline (USB only) | Headphone | Headphone | Headphone | Headphone |
| Measured weight (cable hanging) | 10.9 oz | 13 oz | 10 oz | 9.5 oz | 8.8 oz |
| Measured Inner Ear Cup Opening | 1-1/2" X 2-9/16" | 1-1/2" X 2-1/2" | 1-1/2" X 2-1/2" | 1-5/8" X 2-9/16" | 1-3/4" X 2-1/4" |
| Ear Cup Shape | Oval | Oval | Asymmetric oval | Oval | Oval |
| Ear Cup Fabric Type | Leatherette Velour included |
Memory foam, leatherette, cooling mesh | Suede / leatherette | Leatherette | Fabric mesh |
| Downloadable Software | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Surround/Spacial Audio | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Manufacturer Stated Platform Compatibility | PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One (older version controllers may require an adapter) | PC, PlayStation, Switch (docked mode) | PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch | PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One (older version controllers may require an adapter) | PC, Mac, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox (Series X, S, and One), Mobile |
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Our Analysis and Test Results
Performance Comparison
The Kingston HyperX Cloud II is a great value option.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Comfort
Accounting for 40% of the total score for each of these headsets, our set of Comfort tests are by far the most important when it comes to ranking each of these products. The Cloud II is one of the most comfortable headsets that we have tested, earning it an 8 out of 10 for its superb performance across the board in our comfort tests.
Almost every single one of our comfort testers was more than happy to wear this pair of headsets for extended periods of time — usually 10+ hours. Only a single tester didn't find them comfortable enough to wear for the whole day, but still was fine wearing them for 3-4 hours.
The Cloud II has multiple notches to get that perfect adjustment.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The padding on the headband is covered with the leatherette and securely holds the headset in place, without any unnecessary pressure. The ear cups use a semi-soft padding material that adds to the overall comfort of the Cloud II. There is a decent amount of space for larger ears, with the ear cups measuring about 1.5" wide and a little over 2.5" tall. Best of all, this headset includes two sets of ear cups — one covered in leatherette and one covered in velour, allowing you to match the Cloud II to your personal preferences and make them even more comfortable.
The Cloud II is one of the most comfortable headsets we tested.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
We also particularly liked that there was a small foam pad covering the speaker plate of each ear cup, making them even more comfortable. The Cloud II is about average in terms of weight, just shy of 11 ounces, and none of our testers found it to be noticeably heavy.
The Cloud II was a strong contender for having great audio.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Audio
The Cloud II delivered another strong showing in our audio quality tests, earning a 7 out of 10 for its solid performance, putting it in the upper portion of the overall group. This set of tests accounts for 30% of the total score for each headset.
This headset is decently well balanced when listening to music, with a slight emphasis on the bass and treble tones. This provides a very immersive experience when gaming, but vocals and voices can occasionally get a little lost with the slightly subdued mid-range.
Our testers found it about average to identify the location of in-game sounds when using the Cloud II, misidentifying the location of a shooter or someone walking a handful of times. However, this headset did very well with position when given a dedicated binaural recording in our benchmarking tests.
For our other benchmarking tests, the Cloud II delivered a split performance, doing very well in the driver matching test but only mediocre in the bass quality test. The frequency stayed centered all the way through the spectrum, but there was some parasitic buzz when the bass was played at the max. This headset also does a fantastic job with voice quality, making voices sound true to life and exceptionally clear and easy to understand. The Cloud II also does a decent job of blocking out external noise, roughly halving the volume of background music or white noise.
Coming in loud and clear with the Hyperx Cloud II.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Microphone
Next, we moved on to evaluating the quality of the microphone on each headset, which constitutes 20% of the total score for each product. The Cloud II continued the trend, delivering another excellent performance and again finishing in the upper part of the group.
This model of gaming headset does a great job of capturing voice and making it sound as realistic as possible. The conversation comes across crystal-clear with no buzz at all. The only slight issue we found is that the voice sounds a little echoey — almost as if you were speaking in a large room, like a garage. It isn't overly sibilant on repeated “S” sounds and doesn't overemphasize “T” or “P” sounds.
The Cloud II is great at picking up our voice, but also others in the same room.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The Cloud II's microphone does a decent job of filtering out external noises, with gamers on the other end of the line failing to notice if we were running a fan or playing background music on low, but could definitely hear if we were eating or tv or music was playing at moderate to high volumes.
The in-line controls of the Cloud II.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Ease of Use
User-friendliness and setup of the Cloud II comprise the final 10% of its score. It finished out our tests with a decent showing.
This headset does have inline controls and we appreciated that you can adjust both the microphone volume and the headset volume, as well as mute the microphone.
With the Cloud II you can quickly adjust the speaker and mic volume.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
However, you need to slide a rather small switch to mute the mic — making it quite hard to quickly mute the mic. The Cloud II has a decently long cord at 10.6 ft, giving you ample room to move about while you are playing and still hear what is going on.
Detachable microphones are nice, like on the Hyperx Cloud II, because you can replace them without investing in a new headset.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
It has a detachable cable and mic, although it doesn't have the capability to enable a microphone sidetone.
Value
The Kingston HyperX Cloud II is a great gaming headset to consider when shopping on a budget and unwilling to make too many concessions when it comes to performance.
Conclusion
While the Cloud II couldn't claim the overall top score, it is still one of our favorites when it comes to these products. It did well across the board, delivering a great performance at an even better price. While some other products have slightly better sound quality, most are accompanied by a significant increase in price.
—David Wise and Austin Palmer
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