Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra Controller

Details: Category: Hardware; By Jason Gress; 01.Feb; Hits: 1406

Hardware Info:

Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra Controller
Two-tone controller fully compatible with Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Windows 10/11
Wireless connectivity via 2.4GHz dongle for Bluetooth
Wired connectivity via included 10-foot long USB-C cable
Dual rumble motors in the handles and triggers (impulse trigger rumble supported)
Hall-Effect joysticks and triggers
Microswitch Buttons and D-Pad
Additional Xbox Series X|S Share button present
Trigger distance limiting toggle
Built-In Command Display for adjusting controller settings
Four additional rear buttons which are programmable to any face button
Customizable RGB LED lights on the handles
Pro-Aim Focus Mode available
3.5mm stereo audio jack for headphones and headsets
Volume and chat adjustments available
Four audio EQ profiles to choose from
SuperHuman Hearing mode available
Mic monitor feature available, and Chat Audio volume level adjustable on Xbox
Up to 30-hour battery life
Charging dock included
Protective storage case included
Swappable analog stick caps included

MSRP: $199.99
(Amazon Affiliate Link)

Thank you Turtle Beach for sending us this controller to review!

I have a confession to make: I'm a controller nut. Well, technically, I like input devices of all kinds, so I have flightsticks/joysticks, a racing wheel, fightsticks, and tons and tons of gamepads. On or near my desk, where my PC gaming rig is, I have ... umm seven controllers to choose from. Yeah, I might have a problem. (This Stealth Ultra, two other controllers I've reviewed, an Xbox One controller, an Xbox Series controller, a DualSense, and a Steam Controller.) Anyhow, since I've used a lot of controllers over the years, I have become somewhat picky on what makes a controller a cut above the rest.

The Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra wireless controller is Turtle Beach's newest flagship controller after their stellar first showings in the Recon and React-R models. While those controllers are a great value but not necessarily better than first-party controllers, this Stealth Ultra is meant to take on the best controllers out there, at least for Xbox One/Series as well as Windows PCs. There has also been a resurgence of competition in the controller space lately, with the arrival of hall-effect joysticks and triggers, really making this market much more interesting.

When you first open the Stealth Ultra's box, it leaves a great first impression. Inside, you see a strong and great looking case that the controller is in, which has purple accents and what appears to be Turtle Beach's new logo emblazoned on it in purple. Once you unzip it and open the sealed bags, you see a high-quality case lined with a soft velvet-like material, a small zipper pouch for the transmitter and analog stick caps, a ten foot long USB-A to USB-C cable, a USB transmitter, and the controller along with its charging dock. The case itself also has a feature I haven't seen before: an access door so you can plug in the charging dock, and charge the controller while it is still in the case. That's a great design idea that I haven't seen before, and is also really practical!

I have to say, I'm glad a charging dock is included. Sometimes they can be unwieldy and more trouble than they are worth, but on this they did a great job making both sides magnetic, and even used the magnets' polarity to make sure that putting the controller on the charger backwards is impossible. You can also leave the dongle connected to the dock, but if your setup makes it easier to plug the dongle directly into your computer or Xbox, you can do that, too. I found the charging dock to work just fine via a USB charging plug, so you aren't limited on how to use it. The controller also turned on my Xbox Series when I turned on my controller, which not all third-party controllers can do.

When picking up the Stealth Ultra itself, I noticed a few things. For one, the build quality is quite nice, with a good looking and feeling set of materials and colors. The main body of the controller is black, with rubber grip handles. The center area it also plastic, but has a shinier finish in a dark copper-like color. It's sharp. In between the center and the handles are two rings of RGB LEDs, that you can customize. The D-Pad has an aluminum-like finish, and an interesting texture with concentric rings. I like it; it looks and feels premium, rather than just another piece of plastic. The sticks feel great in use, though I think the default caps are a bit small, and need the included cap covers to feel nice. Each button is a microswitch like you might see on a mouse, and feels incredibly premium to the touch. You also quickly notice the four rear buttons, and the tactile bumps on them and the bumpers and triggers, which I liked on TB's other controllers and love here. But above all of that, right in the top center, you have what Turtle Beach calls their Command Display. This thing looks awesome, and makes quite a statement.

Several of Turtle Beach's higher-end controllers lately have been including embedded displays, and I'm all for it. I loved it on the VelocityOne Flightstick, and it's just as good (if not better) here. In this case, not only does it look amazing, but you can adjust most settings you might want right from the controller's display. I cannot emphasize enough how extremely cool this is. You press the '+' button that's right under the Share button, and the screen pops on and screen icons highlight, showing you what button to press to activate that menu item. Do you want to adjust LED colors, or brightness? You just have to navigate a simple menu with the D-Pad and change it right then and there. Do you want multiple profiles and wish to switch between them? Yup, you can do it all right on the controller. You can make up to ten onboard profiles! That's a lot, and more than any of the competition that I've personally worked with.

Highlights:

Strong Points: Incredibly premium controller with lots of neat features; hall-effect sticks and triggers feel great with zero deadzones; color display looks awesome and really makes the already premium controller seem special; charging dock and case (with pass-through cable port) is quite innovative; microswitch buttons and D-Pad feel premium
Weak Points: Microswitch buttons and D-Pad are a matter of taste, and seem to require a slightly harder press than some controllers; poor placement of 'view' (aka select) button; analog stick caps are a little small without covers on the

The feature set of the onboard Command Display is quite extensive. Here is a short list of some of the things it can do:

Stick and Trigger Calibration
Set Brightness for Screen, LED
Set Screen and Sleep Timeout
Set Charging LED Brightness
Set Social Alert Color (more on that later)
Setup Social Alerts (also more later)
Connect via dongle or Bluetooth, including activating Pairing mode
Connect to App Link on Mobile via Bluetooth
Lighting Color, Effects, and Effects Speed
Vibration Levels for Left and Right Sides, as well as Triggers
Axis Sensitivities and Deadzones for Left and Right Sticks and Triggers
Rear Button Customization

If you have a set of headphones plugged in, there are even more functions available, including volume, chat/game mix, and one of five EQ profiles. You can also enable or disable microphone monitoring, adjust the mic gain, or mute it. I love that you can change all of these while looking at a convenient LCD screen so you don't have to guess or remember strange button combinations; it's all on-screen for you.

One advertised feature is the social alerts option. It advertises support for WhatsApp, but I don't use that app. It's a neat idea that I probably will never use, and it didn't do anything when I connected the controller to my phone for app link. This is a gimmick that is all but useless to me, because if I get a phone notification that I care about, I'll check my phone, and I rarely look at my controller while playing a game. I understand that Turtle Beach is trying to innovate here, so I don't knock them for trying out something new. Sometimes you don't know if a feature will be a success without trying it, after all. Outside of this, almost every option in the controller menu seems quite useful otherwise.

As you can see, this thing is quite full-featured. The mobile and Windows app offer pretty much the same functionality, so I only really launch the apps when I need to verify if there are firmware updates; otherwise, I rely on the awesome Command Display. Outside of that, which we've already covered extensively, the joysticks, buttons, and triggers are also a cut above most gamepads.

Perhaps the most important improvement over most controllers are the Hall-Effect joysticks and triggers. For those not aware, Hall-Effect controls use a contactless magnetic system to measure the position of the stick or trigger. This leads to perfect precision and a long-lasting device that never, ever drifts. This is a big deal, as you can enjoy motion as close to perfect as is possible on a gamepad. You can configure the controller to have a 0% dead zone without worrying about drift. What this means is that the game will register even the slightest movement, and letting go and being dead center will not drift like it does with many controllers. This can be quite revolutionary for some games. The triggers work similarly.

Another neat feature with the triggers is there is a switch for each one that lets you set the throw depth. By default, if you pull the trigger slightly, it increments the analog trigger axis slightly. If you flip the switch, the triggers essentially become digital, as the slightest movement maxes out the analog range, and the triggers are prevented from moving very far. When I tried this gamepad out for Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, I found that enabling this switch made the controller so much better for heavy kicks, which maps to the right trigger by default. It's more than a slight improvement; it's almost revolutionary. I also found this to be equally excellent for 2D platforming games that use the trigger for skill execution, as you want it to trigger as quickly and confidently as possible.

All of the main buttons, except for the view/menu/Xbox/share buttons, use microswitches instead of membranes. These buttons feel amazing, and the confidence you can get while playing and being able to hear when the buttons activate because of the switch sound is quite remarkable. I didn't think I'd like it until I was practicing for dragon punches, which I found harder to do than I liked at first. However, once I realized I could feel and listen for D-Pad actuation, I came to realize that my motions weren't quite right. Once I knew with confidence what I was pressing, activating those elusive punches got a lot more consistent.

There is one downside to the microswitch buttons, though. Pressing them takes slightly more pressure than the membrane buttons on some of my other controllers. What I found is that if I tended to button-mash on a game, my right thumb started to hurt. This is likely compounded with me not getting any younger, so soft buttons and ergonomics get more and more important as I get older and more sore. Even so, I enjoy using this controller so much that I still use it anyway. With that said, it would be nice if it was possible to program one of the four rear buttons to execute turbo keypresses, for example.

Being a Steam Deck owner and with my main PC being dual-boot, I tend to try most hardware in Linux to see how it does. Out of the box, Steam Deck does not work with the Stealth Ultra. (Keep in mind that Turtle Beach does not officially support it, either.) However, if you are technical enough to compile a kernel module from source, this driver here: https://github.com/medusalix/xone supports the Stealth Ultra perfectly. As of this writing, you need to use the nightly git version, not the 0.3 release. I would imagine any future 0.4+ releases will work out of the box. Everything works, even the headphone jack. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is the share button, unless connecting via Bluetooth. Actually, looking closer, Steam has that problem in Windows also, so it might not be just the Linux driver. As for Bluetooth, you can connect this controller to your phone and it works perfectly, at least on my Android phone.

Turtle Beach's Stealth Ultra is quite an impressive controller, and probably my favorite Xbox/PC controller to date. (The DualSense is probably my next favorite for comfort, and if I want less common features like touchpad or gyro.) It's not inexpensive, but you do get something for that money. It works over both 2.4GHz dongle and Bluetooth. I found the battery life to be amazing over Bluetooth, probably close to the rated 30 hours, though there is no rumble support (at least in my case it didn't work). If you use it normally via dongle with full rumble, expect it to last around about half of that 30 hours. Having a charging dock is extremely convenient, and that well thought-out case is also great. The controller itself is so premium that I look for excuses to use it. It's one of the best Xbox and PC gamepads on the market right now, and worth a closer look for anyone looking to get into premium controllers. If you want a top-of-the-line controller, give the Stealth Ultra a serious consideration.