The phrase “impressive” is insufficient to explain my expertise with HyperX’s Cloud Alpha Wireless. Most wireless gaming headsets quote roughly 30 to 40 hours of battery life. For this one, HP-owned HyperX boasts 300 hours. You learn that proper: 300. I’ve racked my mind trying to find a proof for the way these cans can final so lengthy. I’m at a loss. After utilizing them for greater than three weeks, I can report that HyperX’s declare is holding up.
Testing these headphones has been difficult. I bumped into an issue I hardly ever have with any gadget—irrespective of how laborious I attempted, the battery simply would not die. For the primary two weeks, I used the Cloud Alpha Wireless like I’d another headset—just a few hours each day whereas writing or enhancing. I did not even cost them once I took ‘em out of the field. That’s once I bought curious sufficient to start out logging my utilization hours on a spreadsheet. They’ve but to drop to zero p.c, however we’ll proceed monitoring battery life over the approaching weeks to see if there’s any trickery afoot.
The Mysterious Forever Battery
Photograph: HyperX
Like most gaming headsets, the Cloud Alpha Wireless makes use of a USB-A dongle to plug into your PC or PlayStation 4/5, and the headset communicates with it wirelessly by way of the two.4-GHz frequency (as much as 20 meters). Unlike another headsets, they can not join by way of Bluetooth or with a 3.5-mm headphone wire. Also in contrast to most headsets, they hardly must be recharged.
When I spotted the headset was nowhere near dying, I began placing it by way of a extra rigorous check. I left it enjoying music repeatedly at 50 p.c quantity, even once I wasn’t at my desk. After almost 24 straight hours of playback, HyperX’s Ngenuity software said that battery life dropped from 64 p.c to … 59. “I’m telling you, it’s running off your brainwaves,” a colleague instructed me.
I’m persevering with my assessments, even after this overview has been revealed. So far, I’ve logged greater than 112 hours of steady utilization, and the Cloud Alpha Wireless has not dipped under 32 p.c. This solely contains hours I logged after utilizing them for per week or two with common use—the true numbers are undeniably even greater.
This form of battery life is exceptional for a wi-fi gaming headset. It goes past the form of marginal enhancements you may anticipate from new {hardware}. If Apple launched a new iPhone that lasted three days on a single cost, that’d be a powerful engineering feat. If it launched a cellphone that would final a month, we might have severe questions on the way it violated the legal guidelines of physics. That’s the place HyperX has put us in.
Naturally, I requested HyperX if it might clarify the cosmic wormhole it is stealing battery life from. This is the assertion the corporate despatched by way of e mail: “While HyperX is unable to share full details [of] the design, the Alpha Wireless features the latest [integrated circuit] chip technology, a lithium-polymer 1,500-mAh battery, and updated dual-chamber technology to make room for the battery.”
The 1,500-mAh battery cell is the one tangible clue right here, however even that is not very useful. The HyperX Cloud Flight, the predecessor and a now totally unseated choose in our Best Wireless Gaming Headsets guide, additionally has a 1,500-mAh battery. Yet that headset solely lasts round 30 hours.
