As a chronic music addict, I am pretty much incapable of saying no if the chance to borrow some high-end headphones presents itself. And so I found myself testing the HyperX Cloud III Wireless headset from HP's gaming accessories brand over a period of a couple of months this spring and summer. I loved the sound, the comfort and the look, but there was one fatal flaw, a flaw I found was making the collective internet scream with frustration.
I am always grateful to receive these loan devices from the many hardware makers and their hard-working PR representatives. That doesn't mean we give out the regular high grades you see on this site because we want to be nice; it's because most of the time, this stuff is good, and our criticisms come down to minor niggles or personal taste. And like most of the products sent our way, the HyperX Cloud III Wireless is a quality device.
For the most part.
You sure?
Yep. I first tested the headset in conjunction with my testing and reviewing the HP Omen Transcend 14, which is one of the best gaming laptops I've ever used (it even helped me enjoy Cities: Skylines II, and that game is hopelessly broken).
The sound is both deep and rich, which suits my varied musical diet of rock, house music, drum&bass and fierce girlboss pop perfectly, as well as maximising the richness of the soundscapes in the various games I played on the Omen. The microphone worked well, and talking voices were clear on video calls at work.
The headset is also comfortable to wear, with a mix of high-quality metal-and-plastic construction and faux leather padding that doesn't get overly hot on your ears, even after a couple of hours of wearing them.
Combine that with the price tag of £/$110-140 and you've got yourself a cool-looking gaming headset that works perfectly well for creative pursuits and hybrid working too. Does it look a bit 'gamer'? Well, yes. It's a HyperX-branded gaming headset. Red and black are the only acceptable colours in that situation, after all.
Okay, so what's the problem here?
This goddamn thing.
This, my dear beloved reader, is the WiFi stick/dongle/thing/bane of my life that comes with the HyperX Cloud III Wireless headset.
You see, this headset isn't one of your normal ordinary regular everyday Bluetooth-connected kits. The Cloud III connects via this included WiFi dongle, which you plug into your computer for the connection magic to unfold.
And I hate it.
Well, that sounds like a you problem
Now, when I used the headset with another HP product, the Omen Transcend 14, it all went swimmingly. The included Ngenuity software on the Omen hooked up the headset to the computer almost automagically, and I enjoyed playing around with sound settings and more.
And then I tried using it with literally anything else.
Of course it won't connect to my phone because there's absolutely no way I'm attaching a massive WiFi dongle to the underside of it only to see it immediately fall into a drain or get broken in my pocket.
And connecting it to any other laptop or computer gave me the worst thing any headphones can: no sound.
Usually when I encounter technical issues like this, I correctly assume I've been stupid somewhere along the way and just need to read the instructions a couple more times. Not so much here. I downloaded the Ngenuity software onto my non-HP laptop to see if that fixed it. Nope. I restarted the laptop. Nope. I restarted the headset. Double nope. I checked the drivers. Up to date. I checked whether I accidentally pressed a mute button somewhere. Not the case, for once. I considered whether this was all an extended hallucination. Not likely.
As I was getting increasingly frustrated and angry at this point, I decided to seek advice from The Bad Place, also known to some as the internet.
And within seconds, I discovered I was not alone.
Threads upon threads on Reddit, Facebook and other less reputable social media platforms of people furiously wrestling with the exact same problem. They had a cool, fancy new Cloud III headset, and it was giving them the silent treatment.
And the solutions provided by their fellow sufferers got increasingly ludicrous. For some, a simple system restart sorted it. I was immediately filled with envy at those fortunate souls. Others had to resort to more extreme measures.
- "You have to turn Spatial Sound from Off to Windows Sonic and back for it to work," said one user, elaborating that they had to do this about 10 times a day.
- Another user found they had to "right click on Sound icon on Windows, open sound settings, turn on Mono audio and turn it off" again
- Yet another had to rotate the dongle around USB ports on their computer throughout the day.
- And then one user decided to use their old Cloud II dongle, at which point it apparently worked perfectly.
What all those users did was get really angry, at something that should have been a source of joy, and almost entirely is. Except for that one vital part that isn't. The user experience.
In any case, it's ridiculous.
Whether the problem is the WiFi dongle or not, I don't know for sure, although a lot hints to it being a partner to this audio crime. What I know is that HP have tried to be too clever for their own good here. Why use a WiFi dongle to begin with? Just make it a Bluetooth connection. You make loads of those under various brand names, HP (such as the delightful Poly headset I absolutely loved last year), so just keep it simple. Adding an extra step to your connectivity journey is inconvenient to begin with, let alone when it seems to go wrong, like it has here. The margins are so narrow in this competitive market that any little disadvantage will mean people will buy something else.
Hopefully, a quick software or driver update from the capable minds at HP will make my little venting session look embarrassingly out of date soon, because when the HyperX Cloud III headset works, it works so well, you guys.
And dear HP, I hope you'll continue to send me devices to test in the future, because they're usually pretty ace.
