The Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra is a high-performance controller designed for Xbox and PC. This exceptional controller aims to provide a superior gaming experience for consumers by providing some of the highest-end features available on a third-party controller. Featuring lag-free wireless technology, Hall effect thumbsticks, a full-colour Connected Command Display and a quick charge dock with a 30-hour battery life, Turtle Beach is aiming its sights on becoming the gold standard in the controller market.
The Stealth Ultra is a beautiful-looking controller. Featuring some impressive design features, it sets itself apart in the crowd. Rubberized palm grips highlighted by literal LED light strips give the controller a pristine, premium look and feel. Each section of the controller is separated by a different texture, further accentuating every element of the design. Along with the usual buttons we are accustomed to seeing on an Xbox controller, the Stealth Ultra also features a few additional ones.
Touching briefly on the LED lighting, the Stealth Ultra comes with Intelligent RGB that does more than simply look pretty. Leveraging the power of the Command Display (more on this later), the RGB can be used to communicate several important pieces of information, from battery status to social media alerts. All of this can be managed from the controller display as well as Turtle Beach’s Control Center 2.0 application.
On the underside of the Ultra are 4 programmable buttons that can be mapped at will and include a Pro-Aim option. Practically, this pro-aim button allows the user to adjust the aim stick sensitivity to increase accuracy over long range or while zoomed in. Two toggles next to the triggers allow for adjustable tripper stops giving gamers one more layer of control and customization.
Travelling back to the faceplate, gamers will be greeted with two unique features of the Stealth Ultra. A 1.5-inch full-colour display adorns the top center of the controller. From here, you can access every feature of the Stealth Ultra by activating the Command Display Dashboard button located at the bottom center of the controller. Once activated, the thumbsticks, bumpers and face buttons allow you to navigate the various menus and settings.
Speaking of the Command Display Dashboard, this is where the Stealth Ultra really begins to set itself apart from the crowd. A host of features wait to be unlocked from its various menus and settings all of which are easy to access and navigate. Almost every feature can be managed from here though a couple of features (namely social media integration, yes that is a thing) require the Control Center 2.0 app to set up. At the time of testing, the app was unavailable, so the social media features were not tested.
“Turtle Beach has done an exceptional job at making the Stealth Ultra easy to use, with a quick menu selection for setup and no complex re-syncing or app opening needed.”
However, the vast majority of available features can all be adjusted from the controller. This includes vibration control, button mapping, lighting, connection, social media engagement (as noted, the setup must be completed on the app first), mixer control (if a compatible headset is plugged into the controller), and calibration, to name a few. Turtle Beach is working hard to make sure that everything a gamer could need to customize their controller experience is at their fingertips.
To help manage all of this customization, Turtle Beach has allotted 10 onboard profiles that can each be customized and saved individually. This becomes exceptionally helpful when switching between games or even systems. With full support for Xbox Series S/X, PC, Android and iOS, the multi-profile setup allows for full control of the gaming experience.
The reality is that it all works exceptionally well. Without using the manual or any other references, setting up and customizing the controller felt intuitive and easy. Menus are marked out and easy to find. At no point did I struggle to find the setting I was looking for. Compared to other third-party controllers with custom features I’ve tested, it’s a pleasant affair.
Shifting to thumbsticks and buttons, the Stealth Ultra genuinely shines again. Leveraging Hall effect thumbsticks (a trend that we are seeing more and more of), the Stealth Ultra uses magnetic, contactless inputs to achieve what has traditionally been handled by mechanical analog sticks. The result is a smooth, responsive experience with less wear and tear on the components.
“Leveraging the power of the Command Display, the Stealth Ultra’s Intelligent RGB can communicate important information, from battery status to social media alerts.”
Likewise, Turtle Beach utilizes microswitches for the face buttons to help increase the accuracy of input registration and the controller’s longevity. Rated for 5 million clicks, these microswitches make up the core of the D-Pad, ABXY, Mappable buttons and bumpers. In play, the switches feel exceptionally responsive, never once missing an input from my hands. It also meant that I couldn’t blame the controller every time I died in the new Firefight mode in Halo Infinite. I really didn’t throw that grenade before I died, after all.
To manage the support for Xbox, PC, Android and iOS, the Stealth Ultra leverages both 2.4 GHz wireless as well as Bluetooth. Designed with high-performance gaming in mind the Stealth Ultra excels at switching between systems without any noticeable lag. Using the Command Display gamers can swap between Xbox/PC and mobile with a quick menu navigation. Likewise, with the profile hot swapping it’s easy to set a profile for each system, down to LED colour and sensitivity.
In testing, the Stealth Ultra performed well regarding low latency input. There was no noticeable lag over Wi-Fi, and everything felt responsive on both PC and Xbox. Bluetooth ran just as well, connecting to my Google Pixel and playing Diablo Immortal was as simple as adding a new Bluetooth device.
This brings up a point of note about the Stealth Ultra that is worth mentioning. Turtle Beach has done an exceptional job at making the Stealth Ultra easy to use. No matter what system(s) you choose to play on, a quick menu selection gets set up and running. No complex re-syncing or opening of apps to connect. Simply navigating to the connection menu and selecting connect sees you running your favourite dungeon in a matter of seconds. While there are many features to rave about with the Stealth Ultra, perhaps the most underrated is its ease of use.
The Stealth Ultra also comes with a nice quality-of-life feature in the form of a case and a quick charging dock. According to the spec sheet, the dock can charge the Ultra in just two hours. While I’ve not completely drained the battery, It was noticeable how quickly the controller jumped from 60 to 80 percent in a mere matter of minutes. As a fun aside, while charging, the LEDs change colour to indicate how far along you are in the charging cycle. It’s not necessary but it is nice.
I mention the case because Turtle Beach raised the bar once again by including a pass-through for the cable. This allows the dock and controller to sit perfectly in the case while charging. It’s a fun little quality-of-life feature that allows you to close up the case while the controller is being charged.
One last feature of the included dock is that it is magnetic. This is an incredibly nice feature. When the controller is placed on the dock the magnets slide the controller into the contacts perfectly so that you are guaranteed a perfect connection each time. The days of your controller sitting half on the dock and never charging are a thing of the past.
As for battery life, Turtle Beach claims that a user can get 30 hours of game time before the controller needs to charge. While I’ve not yet run it for 30 hours, there are two notable observations. During my playtime with the controller, I noticed that the battery maintained its percentage particularly well. Second, while 30 hours does seem obtainable, you’ll need to tweak some settings, such as display uptime and LED strip light settings, to achieve this. Thankfully, Turtle Beach made it easy by adding battery life options in the settings portion of the Command Display Dashboard.
The Stealth Ultra Controller for Xbox is an exceptionally well-designed and crafted controller. Turtle Beach has gone above and beyond regarding function and quality of life features. It is the Cadillac of controllers and offers everything needed for high-performance gaming. While it does come with a high price point of $199.99 when you consider the price tag of other elite-level controllers, the Stealth Ultra raises the bar on what we can expect from a third-party controller.
