Living with a roommate means that sometimes you need to be polite and change your habits. For example, it's pretty rude of me to be blasting my video games at odd hours of the night while my roommate is trying to catch some sleep. Unfortunately, my TV doesn't have a headphone jack, so that means it was time to try out a headset. I had wanted to get a new headset anyway, as the only one I was using was the included headset in the Xbox One box. Cue the entrance of the Kingston HyperX Cloud II.
I was impressed by the headset immediately. The packaging was very elegant, with the headset resting in a lovely red box. Once out of the box, the build quality also showed, with the ear cups prodiving a nice heft to them. They aren't too heavy though, so your neck will not get tired holding them up during long gaming sessions. The headset comes with the standard 3.5mm headphone jack attached to the left cup.
To get this headset into either PC mode or gaming mode does require a bit of construction. There is an included small piece of plastic that, once removed, exposes the port where the microphone arm gets attached. The microphone arm attaches snugly to the rest of the headset, and looks built on from even short distances. Removing the microphone arm is super simple too, just pop it back out. Make sure to hold on to that small piece of plastic if you don't want the microphone jack exposed while you use the headset as regular headphones.
As for PC mode, there is also a special USB dongle that comes bundled with the headset. The 3.5mm jack can plug into this dongle, greatly improving the speaker capabilities. With the USB dongle in place, the HyperX Cloud II is capable of 7.1 Virtual surround sound. The dongle provides a button that allows for users to easily switch the surround sound on and off as well. This dongle also contains buttons to adjust both the microphone volume as well as the game volume.
The HyperX Cloud II is also a versatile headset, compatible with just about every platform. The 3.5mm jack works just like any other, so the HyperX Cloud II can serve like normal headphones with any device. The USB dongle works on both PC and Mac, and the headset can be used for gaming with a PS4. Heck, there's even an airplane adapter included for flights. To get the HyperX Cloud II working on an Xbox One the headset adapter is needed. This isn't a Kingston thing, the adapter is needed for any headset to be used on the Xbox One.
As far as use though, I put this headset through it's paces, which is to say many hours of GTA Online. The headset felt comfortable throughout my play sessions, without me feeling like my head was being squished. Out of the box, the cups have a leather-like cover on them, but Kingston has also included velour ear covers if you're Zapp Brannigan. The headphone cord is also long enough that I never felt like I was tied down too much.
All in all, this is a great gaming headset. Sound come through beautifully, and my friends reported that they heard me clearly as well. The 7.1 Virtual surround sound capabilities also can produce amazing moments, unfortunately only on PC or Mac though. It's great to know that I can now play games at all hours of the day without getting any knocks on my bedroom door.
So what do you think? Are you in the market for a new gaming headset, or a new high-quality pair of headphones? Does the Kingston HyperX Cloud II seem appealing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
