Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra Controller

Written by Sean Cahill on 7/15/2024 for PC   XSX  

We’ve reached the point where it’s easier to count the types of accessories Turtle Beach doesn’t make instead of what they cover. Having been one of the industry leaders of PC accessories for years, finding new ways to bring innovation to accessories is getting quite difficult. That being said, Turtle Beach did find a way to add a new wrinkle to controllers for PC and Xbox with the Stealth Ultra Wireless Controller.

A simple idea executed fairly well

The Stealth Ultra Wireless Controller has one goal in mind: Giving a gamer a comfortable controller that allows them to also not miss important alerts when they’re locked into gaming sessions. I am 100% guilty of missing messages when I’m sitting at my desk playing games. I’ve often wondered if people consider sending a wellness check my way if I don’t respond for hours at a time. The Stealth Ultra utilizes what they call a Connected Command Display, which is a fancy way of saying there’s a display on the controller you can connect your messaging apps to. Those apps include Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Outlook, Threads, Twitch, WhatsApp, Twitter / X, and the Xbox app.

I’m primarily a PC gamer, so I don’t have much of a need to connect to Discord since it’s up on a second monitor. WhatsApp and Facebook is where I found the biggest use out of this, and honestly, the messaging works well. The alerts that pop up are easy to read and connecting to these apps isn’t too difficult. I don’t utilize Facebook much anymore but WhatsApp is something I use primarily to connect with friends in European nations where it’s extremely popular. Connectivity isn’t difficult and, as someone who doesn’t own an Xbox, I could see this being used far more on the console side for Discord connectivity. The idea is executed fairly well and I didn’t feel it was a hassle or took away from my gaming experience.

The controller feels and plays well, with a couple of exceptions…

While the connected display is the primary selling point of this controller, we have to talk about what it’s like to use for gaming. First, let me tell you that the wireless connectivity on this is fantastic. It’s a clever design by using the charging bay with a USB port on it that has the dongle for connectivity. Yes, you can use the Bluetooth to connect to Android and Smart  TV devices, but I strictly used the dongle connection. Latency was not an issue in the slightest and compatibility.

Overall, the controller is comfortable, but it’s extremely light. It checks in at just 246 grams, a full 35 grams less than my usual controller, the PS5 DualSense. Compare it to the DualSense Edge that is a whopping 325 grams and it makes for quite a change. That took a little time to get used to, as did the grips on the controller designed to help with hand sweat. The material is a little odd to the touch for me, but after a couple of hours, I was used to the different feeling compared to my normal controller. The sticks are great and utilize Anti-drift hardware which, I can safely say, works well. I didn’t have any drift no matter the game I played, and that’s always a huge concern.

That being said, this controller isn’t perfect. There are two issues that came up with one of them being more of a personal preference and the other a long-term concern. First, let’s talk about the D-pad. I’m not a fan of this design at all. After having used the PS5 DualSense for a long time, using this D-pad almost felt foreign and flimsy to me. I do use emulators and trying to platform with the D-pad was quite a pain. It’s disappointing because I rarely come across third party controllers that seem to nail both the thumbsticks and the D-pad. It’s always one or the other, never both. I know some people don’t mind it because the D-pad just doesn’t get used that much, but it’s still disappointing.

My other issue is with the four primary buttons. Turtle Beach opts to go with tactile microswitch buttons for the ABXY buttons, and while they’re fine, they don’t have a real satisfying feeling when pushing them. I’m also worried that when I’m doing hard or long presses that I’m going to break them. Granted, they’re durable, but I’m concerned about how well they’ll hold up to long-term use and if they’re more prone to button sticking than other controllers. I’ve used this controller for probably about 50 hours of gameplay with my testing and I haven’t seen signs of it yet, but these style of buttons never seem to hold up. This is partially conjecture on my point, but history is not on the side of this style.

The last thing that needs to be called out is the docking station. Largely, it’s great! There’s no question when it’s charging as it lights up and flashes when it’s put into the docking station. The cable has good length on it and the charging time is pretty fast. A minor issue is that if it needs to be charged up and you still want to leave the game up and running on the PC, the moment it starts to charge it disconnects, meaning an alert will almost certainly appear on your screen telling you as such. If you let it charge for 10-15 minutes and pull it off to start it back up, it’s not a guarantee the game is going to recognize it. EA FC 24 has mixed results with this, as did PGA Tour. It may be something regarding the EA client causing the issue as I had less of a problem with Steam but it’s something to take notice of.

Let’s talk about the cost

Controllers aren’t getting cheaper, especially those with added bells and whistles. PS5 DualSense controllers retail at $69.99 nowadays, whereas Xbox controllers usually go for $59.99. Microsoft does seem to hold sales more often than Sony does and I’ve seen the Xbox standard controllers go for $49.99 on their site.

The Stealth Ultra is marketed as a premium controller, so we can’t do a fair comparison to the standard controllers without pointing that out. The fairest comparisons are to the Xbox Elite which is normally $179.99 retail while the DualSense Edge checks in at $199.99. The Stealth Ultra is also $199.99. The differences are going to be what is important to a gamer. All three of these controllers are designed to work wirelessly without issue, though we all know that DualSenses sometimes have issues connecting to PCs as well as some compatibility issues with some applications.

All three of these elite style controllers have some extras that are customizable. For the Xbox and PS5 controllers, the swappable buttons and sticks along with truly premium feeling equipment is where the money goes. The Stealth Ultra has some extra options, such as the buttons on the fingers underneath that I have never, ever been able to use on any controller so I’m not going to hold that against them. Their selling point is the customizable display and application connectivity. Honestly, I really like being able to change some of the looks of the display and the LED colors going around the controller. I still think I prefer the DualSense over it just on feeling alone, but it’s pretty marginal. There’s also pointing out that the Stealth Ultra is more versatile with what it can connect to, and that cannot be denied.

The important question: Is it worth buying?

I struggled on this one. $200 is a lot of money to pay for a controller, but there’s clearly a large market for it given the elite controllers with the first party publishers. This really comes down to the connected display and the weight of the controller, I think. If having a very lightweight controller is important, this controller is basically perfect. I don’t think there’s a lighter one out on the market with this kind of connectivity. While I got good use out of the connected display, I think I cared less about it toward the end of the review and just really enjoyed using the controller.

Ultimately, I’m landing on “Yes” being my answer. Yeah, it’s not cheap, but you know what? I really like this controller. I’m a snob when it comes to accessories and peripherals, but this one ticks the boxes for me.

Wrapping it all up

This wasn’t an easy review. Controllers are notoriously difficult and there’s a lot of third party controllers that just flat out suck. This is not one of them, though. Turtle Beach did a great job with the overall design and feel of the Stealth Ultra and I haven’t connected my DualSense to my PC since I started this review. That, in itself, says something given the amount of hours I’ve put in on it. It’s a steep price tag but ultimately? I’m going to use this one for a long time because the positives are overwhelmingly outweighing the few negatives I have.