Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset Review

I’m a giant fan of the ultra-lightweight headsets that make up the RIG brand. I’ve been utilizing them for a very good few years, and by no means fail to marvel on the sheer weightlessness that they provide. Even after being taken over by NACON a few years again, it’s that feathery nature that continues to be RIG’s USP. 

However now Turtle Seaside are muscling in on that sector of the market, delivering their very own ultra-lightweight headset to the plenty. It comes within the type of the Turtle Seaside Stealth 500 Headset, Designed for Xbox. 

A light-weight Turtle Seaside headset

Irrespective of for those who’re a gaming veteran or are comparatively new to the scene, for those who play video games, you’ll know of Turtle Seaside. They’ve obtained a ton of headsets accessible throughout the market, every overlaying its personal little area of interest part. There are a budget ones, the mid-rangers and the absolutely pimped out hyper-expensive choices. It signifies that Turtle Seaside has your again it doesn’t matter what you might be after. However I don’t assume that they’ve ever created a headset that’s so light-weight in all of their time. In truth, it’s so gentle that choosing up the field will confuse you as as to if there’s something really inside… 

The Turtle Beach Stealth 500 headset is an effective wanting factor. All black in color, it’s unmistakably Turtle Seaside. And that’s not simply due to the daring silver lettering that adores the outer sides of every earcup. It seems like a high quality product in hand, regardless of that gentle nature, and also you’ll haven’t any points with sticking this one in your head for hours at a time. Once more, that 232 gram weight just about calls for you achieve this. 

Operating a suspension-styled materials headband on the underside of the plastic skeletal body, adjustment of the Stealth 500 is easy, operating the same path to the overwhelming majority of different headsets that don’t have slidable bands. As an alternative, a pull and push notch association permits you to shift the five hundred via varied measurement ratios, guaranteeing that it must be good for becoming to a variety of head varieties. And the perfect factor about that system? When you’ve obtained it arrange the way you prefer it, there isn’t a want for any modifications to the fitment, leaving you protected within the information that each single time you chuck this in your head, it’ll be excellent. 

Reminiscence-foamed earcups

Every of the earcups then feed properly off the underside of the scarf, aesthetically pleasing as they match however nonetheless enable a little bit of motion. These oval cups match absolutely over your ears too, encasing issues to make sure that each single little little bit of audio that’s pushed via the 40mm drivers goes the place it must – into your ear canal. Pleather cushioning with an entire ton of squidge and reminiscence foam sponginess ensures some very good consolation too. And properly, that cushioning is sort of deep, and at no level have we ever felt our ears pushing in opposition to the drivers inside. That will appear to be a small level, nevertheless it’s one thing many gaming headsets get fallacious… In truth, comfort-wise, the Stealth 500 is about pretty much as good as you may get. 

From there, the controls are all located on the left cup, together with a flip-to-mute mic that’s sensible. There’s zero room for flexibility with this mic, and it’s possible you’ll assume that originally it appears a bit of quick in size, however we’ve had no complaints with it in use; teammates and colleagues very happy with the way it delivers tones. You’d not count on something in any other case from Turtle Seaside although. 

A few properly positioned quantity dials enable straightforward modification of each the grasp quantity and that of some recreation/chat balancing, with appreciation being given to Turtle Seaside for splitting these onto two separate dials. Maybe it will have been good to have some notches on these to permit straightforward dialling in, nevertheless it’s no large deal actually. Round these controls, sitting on the identical cup are a ton of different buttons – energy (clearly) which doubles as much as swap on Turtle Seaside’ Superhuman Mode, an EQ button, Bluetooth button and Fast Switcher, as you shift from Bluetooth to wi-fi and again once more. 

Bluetooth or Wi-fi

Out of the field the Turtle Seaside Stealth 500 Headset will deal with audio from a variety of sources, whether or not through built-in Bluetooth (excellent for cell phones), or via the included USB-A dongle (Xbox, PlayStation or Swap). That dongle is tiny too, a lot smaller than many now we have used over time, and by plugging it into the console of your selection, you’ll be capable to utilise the two.4GHZ wi-fi capabilities of the Stealth 500. It’s actually the way in which to go too, with a low-latency promise guaranteeing that we’ve witnessed nothing however immediacy with our audio via Xbox Collection X|S. 

That’s important too, as any type of audio lag while gaming is usually a killer – actually so relying on the video games that you simply play. For us, we’re not often discovered frequenting the cut-throat world of a web based a number of shooter, or equally fast-paced video games, however have discovered the Stealth 500 to be greater than up for the job via a variety of racers (The Crew Motorfest, principally), some multiplayer golf via Golf With Your Friends and extra slower-paced puzzlers. And once more, as a result of gentle nature we’ve discovered ourselves sporting this for nights on finish, pleased with every part delivered. 

We also needs to point out the audio high quality, which, as anticipated from Turtle Seaside, is great. The Stealth 500 delivers wealthy, deep audio that matches completely with our most well-liked soundscapes. It additionally will get a lot loud, guaranteeing full immersion, while there may be little or no leakage out the opposite method; these cups creating a stunning seal to make sure you can swap off from the skin world. 

It’s additionally able to powering via these nights like there isn’t a tomorrow. We usually don’t observe battery life, relying as a substitute on intestine feeling. And this headset positively delivers. Turtle Seaside promise some 40-hours of battery life earlier than requiring successful of cost via USB-C (a really quick cable included within the field, however principally simply use any USB-C cable you could have kicking round), and we expect they’re just about on the cash there. We’ve actually not discovered ourselves struggling to repeatedly seize for this headset. 

What’s to not like?

So what’s there to not like concerning the Turtle Seaside Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox? 

Nicely, we’d a lot favor to not have to make use of a dongle for wi-fi connectivity, and would love Turtle Seaside to get some full Xbox integration in place to unlock a treasured USB-A port on console. And it have to be stated that preliminary setup has been a bit flakey, requiring a full console reset and a few fiddling round to be able to get the dongle to pair up with the headset. These frustrations are lengthy up to now, however we’ll admit it was an early concern. And albeit, getting related to Turtle Seaside’s Swarm Android App has been nothing however a problem. 

Since that point, connection has been strong, however other than that, we’d have additionally most well-liked a number of the buttons and controls to be cut up throughout each cups. There’s nothing fallacious per se with how they’re arrange on Stealth 500, however it might sometimes really feel a bit of cluttered. 

The construct does have a considerably plasticky really feel, which is a trade-off for the light-weight design. Nevertheless, contemplating the burden, worth, and Turtle Seaside’s status for high quality audio, this headset presents wonderful worth. Whereas we’re not about to ditch our beloved SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wireless headset or Turtle Seaside’s personal Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX for the Stealth 500 as our essential headset, it’s a unbelievable choice for informal gaming classes.

The place to purchase the Turtle Seaside Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox

Big thanks exit to Turtle Seaside for offering the Stealth 500 Headset for assessment. Hit up Turtle Beach direct to get a unit for your self. It is best to count on to pay £80 or much less.