Turtle Beach is no stranger to making high-performance gaming hardware, either through its PDP brand or its own in-house accessories. The company is perhaps best known for its gaming headsets but has leveraged its decades of experience to bring us other great gaming accessories like the Stealth Ultra wireless controller. Well, mostly great, as we’ll see.
What I like about the Stealth Ultra
Turtle Beach didn’t try to reinvent the wheel with the Stealth Ultra. The standard Xbox controller Microsoft has been refining for years arguably reached peak form with the Xbox X|S series consoles. The Stealth Ultra has a nearly identical design. Anyone who’s used an Xbox controller will feel right at home.
While the design looks similar, the materials on the Stealth Ultra feel much more premium compared to, say, the Xbox Elite controller. Even the seams where the different pieces of the controller come together are just so smooth. Aesthetically, the Stealth Ultra looks like something out of a Sci-Fi game. There’s a two-tone black and gold color scheme that’s subtle but still makes a statement, and there are two RBG light strips running down the handles, which look awesome.
The buttons, triggers and joysticks on the Stealth Ultra are a mixed bag compared to Microsoft’s Elite Series 2 controller. The Hall Effect joysticks on the Ultra are step up from the Elite, but the microswitch D-Pad, face, and back buttons, while having a shorter travel distance, feel like a step down from the Elite Series 2.
Pro-level features
The first and most noticeable pro-level feature is the large, 1.5-inch LCD display at the top of the controller. The display gives you insight into nearly everything going on in the Stealth Ultra. You can customize settings, remap the back buttons, change the lighting effects and even get some social media notifications from apps like Discord, WhatsApp and Messages (you’ll need to sync it up with your Android phone first).
It connects to Xbox or PC via a USB-C cable or 2.4GHz wireless dongle, and via Bluetooth to your Android phone. If you plug in some headphones, you can also enable Turtle Beach’s Superhuman Hearing mode, which amplifies things like footsteps and improves mic audio for coordinating with your teammates.
The Stealth Ultra also has many of the same features found on some other pro-level controllers including audio controls, being able to charge while it’s in its case, as well as the ability to shorten the travel distance for the triggers. While you can store multiple profiles on most other controllers, the Stealth Ultra lets you store up to 10, more than I’ve seen anywhere else. You can customize them on the controller itself or the Turtle Beach Control Center II app on iOS and Android.
What I don’t like about the Stealth Ultra
There are some places where the Ultra falls a bit short. First of all, battery life isn’t great. Turtle Beach promises only about 30 hours, one of the lowest I’ve seen in pro-level controllers. I found it to be even less than that in my testing. It’s not as bad as PlayStation controllers, but I got around 20 to 25 hours of game time. Luckily, it does recharge quickly with the charging dock, and you can charge it while playing.
Also, while there’s a ton of customization available, the Turtle Beach Control Center II app is bad. The UI is basic and looks like it hasn’t been updated in years. Plus, it was buggy when I tried to use it, especially on my Xbox. I had trouble with things like naming profiles, and there isn’t a way to confirm things have been saved. It looks like it’s supposed to save in real time, but there’s no indicator or anything to let you know your changes have been saved. I actually found it easier to change things directly on the controller itself.
Also, pairing and connecting the controller to my Android phone was a tad confusing. The instructions aren’t clear on how to do it. I was able to figure it out eventually, but I do wish the instructions were easier to follow.
Should you buy the Stealth Ultra?
There’s a lot to like about the Stealth Ultra. It feels great to hold and use, while the extra features are actually useful for the most part. I think my favorite thing about it is the huge number of profiles you can sync to it. I’ve got six going right now and it makes things so much easier when I can jump into a different game and my custom button mapping is ready to go. I definitely found myself enjoying gaming more when using the Stealth Ultra.
However, the lackluster battery life was kind of a bummer and the price is high. I’ve seen it on sale for as low as $155, but the full retail price is $199. That’s a lot for a controller, but if you’re a serious gamer or that great display and large number of profiles sounds intriguing to you, I think you’ll really like the Stealth Ultra especially if you can find it on sale.
