HyperX Cloud Earbuds Review: Switch-Centric Earphones

It’s no doubt that HyperX, Kingston’s Gaming Division emphasizes on Gaming Peripherals. With that said, they have manufactured really impressive products like the Cloud Alpha, their Alloy series keyboards and so on. One of their latest addition to their lineup is the HyperX Cloud Earbuds – which is targetted towards Nintendo Switch Users. Is it something that’s worth the buy or something you should get along with your Nintendo Switch?

Find out more in our HyperX Cloud Earbuds Review

Design and Build Quality

1/7

In terms of design, the HyperX Cloud Earbud has a simple design going around. The first thing you’ll notice is the cable itself as it has a flat style non-tangle cable and doesn’t have any fancy braided material along the headphones. It comes in this red finish that could be striking for some but since it’s the company’s brand color, we can see why they have opted in for the Red color. The jack is in an L shape which is a nice touch. One other design that stands out from the HyperX Cloud Earbud is the Ear tip. It uses their proprietary patented silicone ear tips with gives a comfortable fit. We’ll talk more about it in a bit.

In terms of build quality, the headphone feels nice as it is indeed made on materials that have the tendency to last long. The earpiece is constructed in this plastic housing – giving it a light feeling as you wear it. On the left side, you’ll see that it has a one-button remote that gives you simple controls – like pausing, skipping and so on. Finally, you can adjust the cable with no issue as well. It’s nice that they have gone for an L-Shaped Connector as it offers a better structural rigidity from issues like cable fraying of sorts.

1/3

One other good thing to notice is that, HyperX has included a Hard-shell case which is – without a doubt the best move because it allows you to keep your Cloud Earbuds safe as you travel.

What’s Inside

Inside the box, you’ll find the usual Manual and the headphones itself. Following that, you’ll find some additional accessories. For instance, different size ear tips and a Case to store your HyperX Cloud Earbuds when it’s not in use.

Specification

Comfort

1/3

The Cloud Earbud has this rather different and unique ear tip design going around. And look at this proprietary style earbuds, you’ll want to keep your tips safe as it’s hard to get at the nearest store or anywhere for that matter. It took me few tries to figure out how to wear the headphones. You have to tilt it, place the earpiece in first and then slide the whole earpiece down. It’s comfortable and if you use it for a longer period, you won’t have any discomfort – which is a nice touch. But during my commute, there are times the headphones have fallen out of my ear constantly moving around looking for directions. It fits fine, but I can’t really say it fits secure.

Sound Quality

Now we have tried the HyperX Cloud Earbuds with a Nintendo Switch for Gaming and, used it on our daily driver replacing our go-to headphones which we use on a daily basis. The devices we used to test the sound quality are – ASUS ROG Scar Edition, Samsung Galaxy Note8 and Mi 8 respectively.

Gaming

As HyperX likes to call the Cloud Earbuds more of a Switch, we still went and tried the HyperX Cloud on Switch and on my Laptop. Now, during my time with the Switch, I played titles like Mario Odyssey, Overcooked 2, LA Noire and Doom to see how good it is. The headphone does put the vocals up at the front and it surprisingly captured the details well. Like with Mario Odyssey, you can tell when Bowser flies away in his ship – gives more of a directional audio vibe to it. The sound staging, in my opinion, could have been better because it feels like it sounds in a limited space – like it’s constrained. But then you won’t notice it as the in-ear on its own sure does sound good. Better than I imagined.

Music

As for music, we used local native files instead of Spotify or Apple Music. In this case, we used .m4a and .mp3 files to get an idea of how the in-ear headphones sound. We chose 5 songs.

• Justin Timberlake’s Supply
• Kodaline’s Born Again
• Halsey’s Without Me
• Ta-ku’s American Girl
• Arianna Grande’s R.E.M
• Billie Ellish’s Lovely

The first thing we noticed with the Cloud Earbuds is the fact that the in-ears emphasize more on the vocals. It prioritizes vocals over the instruments, this brings me to the point – when you are on a call with someone, the voice of the other person is a lot clear and easy to hear, which is without a doubt a nice choice. Back to the music, the instruments are audible, and I wouldn’t say it’s almost on par as an audiophile grade headphone, but it sounds okay. The Cloud Earbuds can handle bass and it isn’t too intense. Kind of a sweet spot, I’d say. The mids and highs are balanced alright.

Conclusion

If you are someone who wants to grab your hands on a headphone for your Switch, by all means – the HyperX Cloud Earbuds is one good option. Even if you plan to use it with your phone, go ahead. HyperX Cloud Earbuds is worth the consideration as it does have a good microphone, nice case to store it away, tangle free cord and my favorite – 3.5mm port.

I wish HyperX sells extra ear tips for their Cloud Earbuds at stores as it would be a lifesaver because I have nearly lost one almost 5-6 times.