I’m an enormous fan of the ultra-lightweight headsets that make up the RIG model. I’ve been utilizing them for a superb 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 Seashore 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 Seashore Stealth 500 Headset, Designed for Xbox.
A light-weight Turtle Seashore headset
Irrespective of in the event you’re a gaming veteran or are comparatively new to the scene, in the event you play video games, you’ll know of Turtle Seashore. They’ve bought a ton of headsets accessible throughout the market, every masking 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 Seashore has your again it doesn’t matter what you’re after. However I don’t assume that they’ve ever created a headset that’s so light-weight in all of their time. The truth is, it’s so mild that choosing up the field will confuse you as as to if there’s something truly inside…
The Turtle Seashore Stealth 500 headset is an effective trying factor. All black in color, it’s unmistakably Turtle Seashore. And that’s not simply due to the daring silver lettering that adores the outer sides of every earcup. It looks like a top quality product in hand, regardless of that mild 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.
Working a suspension-styled materials headband on the underside of the plastic skeletal body, adjustment of the Stealth 500 is easy, operating an analogous path to the overwhelming majority of different headsets that don’t have slidable bands. As an alternative, a pull and push notch association means that you can shift the five hundred by means of varied dimension ratios, making certain that it ought to be good for becoming to quite a lot of head sorts. And the very best factor about that system? When you’ve bought it arrange the way you prefer it, there isn’t any want for any adjustments to the fitment, leaving you protected within the information that each single time you chuck this in your head, it’ll be good.
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 by means of 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 kind of deep, and at no level have we ever felt our ears pushing in opposition to the drivers inside. Which will seem to be a small level, but it surely’s one thing many gaming headsets get unsuitable… The truth is, comfort-wise, the Stealth 500 is about nearly as good as you will 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 chances are you’ll assume that originally it appears somewhat brief 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 anticipate something in any other case from Turtle Seashore although.
A few effectively positioned quantity dials enable simple modification of each the grasp quantity and that of some sport/chat balancing, with appreciation being given to Turtle Seashore for splitting these onto two separate dials. Maybe it could have been good to have some notches on these to permit simple dialling in, but it surely’s no huge 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 Seashore’ 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 Seashore Stealth 500 Headset will deal with audio from quite a lot of sources, whether or not by way of built-in Bluetooth (good for cell phones), or by means of the included USB-A dongle (Xbox, PlayStation or Swap). That dongle is tiny too, a lot smaller than many we’ve used through the years, and by plugging it into the console of your selection, you’ll be capable of utilise the two.4GHZ wi-fi capabilities of the Stealth 500. It’s actually the best way to go too, with a low-latency promise making certain that we’ve witnessed nothing however immediacy with our audio by means of Xbox Collection X|S.
That’s important too, as any type of audio lag while gaming generally is a killer – actually so relying on the video games that you just play. For us, we’re not often discovered frequenting the cut-throat world of an internet a number of shooter, or equally fast-paced video games, however have discovered the Stealth 500 to be greater than up for the job by means of quite a lot of racers (The Crew Motorfest, principally), some multiplayer golf by means of Golf With Your Buddies and extra slower-paced puzzlers. And once more, because of the mild nature we’ve discovered ourselves carrying this for nights on finish, pleased with every part delivered.
We must also point out the audio high quality, which, as anticipated from Turtle Seashore, is great. The Stealth 500 delivers wealthy, deep audio that matches completely with our most popular soundscapes. It additionally will get a lot loud, making certain full immersion, while there may be little or no leakage out the opposite means; these cups creating a beautiful seal to make sure you can swap off from the skin world.
It’s additionally able to powering by means of these nights like there isn’t any tomorrow. We usually don’t observe battery life, relying as a substitute on intestine feeling. And this headset positively delivers. Turtle Seashore promise some 40-hours of battery life earlier than requiring a success of cost by means of USB-C (a really brief cable included within the field, however principally simply use any USB-C cable you have got kicking round), and we expect they’re just about on the cash there. We’ve definitely 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 Seashore Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox?
Properly, we’d a lot desire to not have to make use of a dongle for wi-fi connectivity, and would love Turtle Seashore to get some full Xbox integration in place to unlock a treasured USB-A port on console. And it have to be mentioned that preliminary setup has been a bit flakey, requiring a full console reset and a few fiddling round with a view to get the dongle to pair up with the headset. These frustrations are lengthy previously, however we’ll admit it was an early concern. And admittedly, getting linked to Turtle Seashore’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 popular among the buttons and controls to be cut up throughout each cups. There’s nothing unsuitable per se with how they’re arrange on Stealth 500, however it will probably often really feel somewhat cluttered.
The construct does have a considerably plasticky really feel, which is a trade-off for the light-weight design. Nonetheless, contemplating the burden, worth, and Turtle Seashore’s popularity for high quality audio, this headset gives glorious worth. Whereas we’re not about to ditch our beloved SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wi-fi headset or Turtle Seashore’s personal Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX for the Stealth 500 as our fundamental headset, it’s a unbelievable choice for informal gaming periods.
The place to purchase the Turtle Seashore Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox
Big thanks exit to Turtle Seashore for offering the Stealth 500 Headset for evaluation. Hit up Turtle Seashore direct to get a unit for your self. It is best to anticipate to pay £80 or much less.
