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Hands on: HyperX's Cloud Mix headset jumps between desktop gaming & your iPhone

The Cloud Mix attempts to break gaming headsets out of their niche by making them compatible with your iPhone, iPad, and other Bluetooth devices.

For newcomers, the key feature of gaming headsets is a boom mic. Many multiplayer games — especially squad-based shooters, like "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and "Rainbow Six: Siege" — practically demand voice chat. We also live in an era when Twitch and YouTube streamers can become celebrities, and while the best have studio mics, a good gaming headset will do.

There's typically a focus on high-quality audio as well, since the concern is not just entertainment but on replacing desktop speakers, and ensuring you can pinpoint where shots are coming from.

Maximum quality means a wired connection, however, and boom mics are awkward and ridiculous when used away from a desk.

Enter the Cloud Mix. Shen you're done on your PC or console, you can unplug it, remove the boom, and turn on Bluetooth. It has a 20-hour battery, and a built-in mic takes over if you need to make a phone call. There's no support for voice assistants like Siri.

We're still testing the headset, but one thing we can confirm is that it sounds amazing. It supports frequencies between 10 hertz and 40 kilohertz, and manages to be sharp across the board, often bringing out nuances in music that you might've missed. Stereo panning is somehow more noticeable too.

HyperX Cloud Mix

Unlike some of the recent headphones we've tried, there's nothing special about configuration. Once you've paired with a device through its Bluetooth settings menu, that's it. There's no companion app or custom EQ, not that you'd really need either.

Given that the Cloud Mix isn't a $400 beast (it comes in at $200) we weren't expecting the best construction, but it actually uses a surprisingly sturdy mix of metal and plastic. Its padding is comfortable enough for all-day wear, if liable to get hot without occasional breaks. Our only design complaint so far it's that the product is pretty bulky — it won't look subtle when you're riding the subway.

Keep following AppleInsider for a full review in the near future.