Turtle Beach Stealth 500X Xbox One Headset Review

Peter Donnell / 10 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Turtle Beach Stealth 500X is fairly expensive and will set you back a wallet busting £199.99. This is quite a lot of money for a gaming headset, but when you take into consideration the wireless technology and overall performance, it’s on par with offerings from rival brands.

Overview

I really like this headset, although it’s admittedly not perfect. The performance is without a doubt, some of the best you’re going to get from an Xbox One right now. The drivers are powerful and clear, the microphone is exceptionally good and the microphone monitoring works really well too. The wireless technology does a superb job and I never once had any signal drop or distortion as a result of this.

All the major controls you could need are located on the side of the headset. Any controls that you’re likely not going to need to change that often are located on the base unit. The only thing I don’t like is the less than stylish microphone mount on the side of the headset; it looks clunky and cheap, but on the plus side, it is practical.

The headset is quite expensive, so leaving it on your desk or TV stand may result in it getting scratched. With that in mind, I would have liked some kind of included stand or mount, or even a protective pouch to store the headset in between uses.

Being able to recharge the headset is great, but I’m not sure why Turtle Beach used mini-USB, especially when the market has shifted towards micro-USB, but that really is only a minor issue as it still does the job at the end of the day.

Build quality is very good. The headset feels durable enough to survive a few hard knocks and bumps, but it’s also surprisingly lightweight for a wireless headset and that’s a testament to extensive R&D and play testing.

I may not like the aesthetics as much as many other Turtle Beach headsets, but I can’t argue with the performance. I know some of you care about the overall style of the headset you wear, but I’ll take performance over style any day, and the Turtle Beach Stealth 500X performs well enough to justify its lofty price tag.

Pros

Excellent sound quality
Great build quality
Perfect wireless performance
Lightweight design
Easy to setup

Cons

Bulky microphone mount
Not the best looking headset, although that is subjective

Neutral

High price tag, but you expect to pay a premium for high-end wireless headsets

“A great headset with solid all-round performance that’s perfect for gaming, as much as it is for watching a movie or listening to music. The microphone is one of the best I’ve used and while it is expensive, the powerful drivers and perfectly clear wireless technology more than justify the price tag.”