Kingston Technologies, an American company, known for manufacturing flash memory solutions, introduced a whole new range of gaming headsets with HyperX eSports team sponsorship. The additions under HyperX umbrella includes- Cloud Core, Cloud II, Cloud and Cloud Drone.
In this article, we are reviewing HyperX Cloud Drone, the latest offering from Kingston is priced at 2,600 INR on Amazon India. Let’s check out if it proffers some legendary stuff for passionate gamers and audiophiles or not!
Design & Build
The HyperX Cloud Drone, oddly named apparently doesn’t look like a drone but surely is the lightest offering from Cloud range at 220g. At first glance, the whole design looks premium with robust yet lightweight build entirely made of plastic. Red padding on the headband and red colored HyperX logo on the oval-shaped ear cups breaks the black supremacy. The headband is adjustable according to the convenience.
With 40mm directional drivers parallel to the ears, HyperX Cloud Drone comes with leatherette memory foam on the ear cushions, perfect for long-term wear in prolonged gaming sessions. HyperX Cloud Drone positions sound directly into the ears for optimal audio output and gaming sound quality.
The mic on the left can only be turned on by pushing it all the way down. The headset features a swivel-to-mute noise-cancellation microphone that helps in reducing background noise for clear voice quality.
You can conveniently mute the microphone by flipping it vertically against the head and effortlessly control the volume via the dial located on the outer right ear cup.
The headset comes with tangle-free braided cables that ensure durability and a hassle-free audio experience. It has 3.5mm jack and an extension cable with two 3.5mm jack split, one for mic and one for headphone and approx. 2m long.
A thoughtful move! It is compatible with PCs, Xbox One1, PS4, Wii U, Mac and mobile devices. The headset is covered under two years of Warranty.
Performance
The company claims it is certified by TeamSpeak for crisp, clear voice quality, optimized for Skype and other chatting platforms as well. That seems true so far when put in real-world testing. The headphone’s audio quality is decent overall with a frequency response of 20Hz–20,000Hz and a closed back design for better isolation.
The sound surprisingly is very low even when maximized. However, the headset has excellent mid and above average highs. There was a punch of bass in the audio, resulting good sound of guns, explosions, and voice commands were noteworthy.
We electrified the performance test with few renowned games: Fallout 4, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, Sniper Elite 3, Call of Duty, and Counter-Strike. Seemingly, ambient sound of talking and walking people came out to be pleasant. Don’t expect you’ll be able to identify footsteps of your enemies coming from behind but overall it is capable of providing excellent sound engineering.
The headset outperformed several of its competitors when we tested for music and movies. The music we played was peppy, and audio output was perfect. It was soothing experience through HyperX Cloud Drone.
The sound was well tuned, natural and pure, not too loud even when played at max. Wonderfully restrained for prolonged usage I would say.
Mic test was good too if I ignore occasional echoing. I used the headset for Skype call and had no complaints from the person on the other end, right as the company claimed. As aforesaid, the volume level is substantially low even after pumping the volume up at your end, may not prove itself good enough to bass-heavy listeners.
The Verdict
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The Cloud Drone has been impressive so far for its price. The quality, design and material finish is excellent. To be precise, there’s no active noise canceling hardware, but the larger over-the-ear pads are quite capable on their own.
Its lightweight design and over-the-ear cups ensure comfort which is a plus point looking at long gaming sessions. Its two-year warranty adds a cherry on the cake of course. For gamers, who are looking for a budget friendly pair of gaming headphones, the Kingston HyperX Cloud Drone is a matchless option.
