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I’m a big fan of the ultra-lightweight headsets that make up the RIG brand. I’ve been using them for a good few years, and never fail to marvel at the sheer weightlessness that they offer. Even after being taken over by NACON a couple of years back, it’s that feathery nature that continues to be RIG’s USP.
But now Turtle Beach are muscling in on that sector of the market, delivering their own ultra-lightweight headset to the masses. It comes in the form of the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset, Designed for Xbox.
A lightweight Turtle Beach headset
No matter if you’re a gaming veteran or are relatively new to the scene, if you play games, you’ll know of Turtle Beach. They’ve got a ton of headsets available across the market, each covering its own little niche section. There are the cheap ones, the mid-rangers and the fully pimped out hyper-expensive options. It means that Turtle Beach has your back no matter what you are after. But I don’t think that they’ve ever created a headset that is so lightweight in all of their time. In fact, it’s so light that picking up the box will confuse you as to whether there’s anything actually inside…
The Turtle Beach Stealth 500 headset is a good looking thing. All black in colour, it’s unmistakably Turtle Beach. And that’s not just because of the bold silver lettering that adores the outer sides of each earcup. It feels like a quality product in hand, despite that light nature, and you’ll have no issues with sticking this one on your head for hours at a time. Again, that 232 gram weight pretty much demands you do so.
Running a suspension-styled material headband on the underside of the plastic skeletal frame, adjustment of the Stealth 500 is simple, running a similar route to the vast majority of other headsets that don’t have slidable bands. Instead, a pull and push notch arrangement allows you to shift the 500 through various size ratios, ensuring that it should be good for fitting to a number of head types. And the best thing about that system? Once you’ve got it set up how you like it, there is no need for any changes to the fitment, leaving you safe in the knowledge that every single time you chuck this on your head, it’ll be perfect.
Memory-foamed earcups
Each of the earcups then feed nicely off the bottom of the headband, aesthetically pleasing as they fit but still allow a bit of movement. These oval cups fit fully over your ears too, encasing things to ensure that every single little bit of audio that is pushed through the 40mm drivers goes where it needs to – into your ear canal. Pleather cushioning with a whole ton of squidge and memory foam sponginess ensures some superb comfort too. And nicely, that cushioning is quite deep, and at no point have we ever felt our ears pushing against the drivers inside. That may seem like a small point, but it’s something many gaming headsets get wrong… In fact, comfort-wise, the Stealth 500 is about as good as you can get.
From there, the controls are all situated on the left cup, along with a flip-to-mute mic that is brilliant. There’s zero room for flexibility with this mic, and you may think that initially it seems a little short in length, but we’ve had no complaints with it in use; teammates and colleagues more than happy with how it delivers tones. You’d not expect anything otherwise from Turtle Beach though.
A couple of well placed volume dials allow easy amendment of both the master volume and that of some game/chat balancing, with appreciation being given to Turtle Beach for splitting those onto two separate dials. Perhaps it would have been nice to have some notches on those to allow easy dialling in, but it’s no big deal really. Around those controls, sitting on the same cup are a ton of other buttons – power (obviously) which doubles up to switch on Turtle Beach’ Superhuman Mode, an EQ button, Bluetooth button and Quick Switcher, as you shift from Bluetooth to wireless and back again.
Bluetooth or Wireless
Out of the box the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset will handle audio from a number of sources, whether via integrated Bluetooth (perfect for mobile phones), or through the included USB-A dongle (Xbox, PlayStation or Switch). That dongle is tiny too, much smaller than many we have used over the years, and by plugging it into the console of your choice, you’ll be able to utilise the 2.4GHZ wireless capabilities of the Stealth 500. It’s really the way to go too, with a low-latency promise ensuring that we’ve witnessed nothing but immediacy with our audio through Xbox Series X|S.
That is essential too, as any form of audio lag whilst gaming can be a killer – literally so depending on the games that you play. For us, we’re rarely found frequenting the cut-throat world of an online multiple shooter, or equally fast-paced games, but have found the Stealth 500 to be more than up for the job through a number of racers (The Crew Motorfest, mostly), some multiplayer golf through Golf With Your Friends and more slower-paced puzzlers. And again, due to the light nature we’ve found ourselves wearing this for nights on end, happy with everything delivered.
We should also mention the audio quality, which, as expected from Turtle Beach, is excellent. The Stealth 500 delivers rich, deep audio that fits perfectly with our preferred soundscapes. It also gets plenty loud, ensuring full immersion, whilst there is very little leakage out the other way; those cups creating a lovely seal to ensure you can switch off from the outside world.
It’s also capable of powering through those nights like there is no tomorrow. We generally don’t track battery life, relying instead on gut feeling. And this headset definitely delivers. Turtle Beach promise some 40-hours of battery life before requiring a hit of charge through USB-C (a very short cable included in the box, but mostly just use any USB-C cable you have kicking around), and we think they are pretty much on the money there. We’ve certainly not found ourselves struggling to continually grab for this headset.
What’s not to like?
So what is there to not like about the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox?
Well, we’d much prefer to not have to use a dongle for wireless connectivity, and would love Turtle Beach to get some full Xbox integration in place to free up a precious USB-A port on console. And it must be said that initial setup has been a bit flakey, requiring a full console reset and some fiddling around in order to get the dongle to pair up with the headset. Those frustrations are long in the past, but we’ll admit it was an early concern. And frankly, getting connected to Turtle Beach’s Swarm Android App has been nothing but a hassle.
Since that time, connection has been solid, but aside from that, we’d have also preferred some of the buttons and controls to be split across both cups. There’s nothing wrong per se with how they are set up on Stealth 500, but it can occasionally feel a little cluttered.
The build does have a somewhat plasticky feel, which is a trade-off for the lightweight design. However, considering the weight, price, and Turtle Beach’s reputation for quality audio, this headset offers excellent value. While we’re not about to ditch our beloved SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wireless headset or Turtle Beach’s own Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX for the Stealth 500 as our main headset, it’s a fantastic option for casual gaming sessions.
Where to buy the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox
Huge thanks go out to Turtle Beach for providing the Stealth 500 Headset for review. Hit up Turtle Beach direct to get a unit for yourself. You should expect to pay £80 or less.