The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II Headset is one of the best I’ve ever used. That’s a bold statement, I suppose, but given I’ve been wearing headphones, earbuds, and the like for a long time now, I think it’s one I’ll happily stand by.
I want to start, strangely enough, with the unboxing experience. The Stealth Pro II has a removable battery, but I was genuinely pleasantly shocked when I realised that the package includes two of them. The USB connected receiver has a port you can have a second battery constantly on charge, meaning if you do somehow drain the battery (it lasts ages) you can just switch them out, and have the original one charging while you get on with more gaming.
But that’s not even it. The lovely case it comes in feels premium, and aside the USB/cabled received, there is a USB dongle, which is another lovely surprise. You see, the Stealth Pro II is designed to be used for more than one thing. I plugged the receiver into my XBOX Series X, but the USB dongle can be put somewhere else, and you can switch between them with the touch of a button. On top of that, you can also mix in Bluetooth studio, which has its own separate rocker for volume. This is a seriously malleable bit of kit, and one you never have to mess around with much, once set up. If you want a third of fourth piece of kit, you can even buy an additional transmitter or two.
What this means in actuality is that after I’d connected it all, I could pick the headset up and it’d automatically connect to my XBOX, then another time I’d pick up the Rog ALLY X and it’d automatically connect to that. Likewise, the Switch 2 can use it via Bluetooth, so suddenly I’ve got a one and done headset, that is of premium build quality and sounds great.
On the subject of sound, then, I played through most of Gears of War: E-Day with this thing, and it sounds incredible. The guns have a heft to them I hadn’t heard in a while, and the audio design for that game, combined with the performance and quality of the Stealth Pro II meant that I could hear Locust off-screen and could turn on a dime and end them with ease. No sneaking up on me, ta.
Likewise, the mic quality is superb, although I’m not a huge fan of a detachable mic. It can be muted by simply lifting the mic up to the highest position, and it connects via a (rather old fashioned, if truth be told) Mini USB-looking port. It’s lightweight and good enough quality for any situation you’d be wearing a headset style setup, just don’t expect it to replace a proper XLR mic if you’re wanting to use it for recording, etc.
There’s an in-built mic if you don’t want to use the floating mic, and it has noise cancellation that can be toggled to pick up room noise or not (or to let you hear yourself), and while it’s not of the same level of noise cancellation as, say, Apple’s AirPods, it’s absolutely enough to be “in the moment” in a game. I found a little movement with the cans themselves improved the cancellation, but again, it was never an issue really.
As is the norm for any modern audio device these days, there’s an App for the Stealth Pro II. Called “Swarm II”, you can customise to your heart’s content here. Whether you’re on iOS, PC or Android, you can link it up and mess around with EQ settings, and even adjust the mic controls. If you’re wanting per game presets, this is where you’ll find it.
Ultimately, it’s also a hugely comfortable headset. I wear glasses and this can cause issues, but I haven’t had any problems with this particular Turtle Beach headset. I will say, there are a lot of buttons, and I do approve of this because it means you can have an XBOX game in controlled by your left set of cans (there’s controls for game chat mix, and overall volume), but also control a Bluetooth signal with the right side, so you can take call without ever leaving the game. These are niche examples, of course, but the functionality is nice, that’s for sure.
Turtle Beach has long been a quality manufacturer of this type of thing, but with the Stealth Pro II I’m left wondering where’s next. It’s an expensive product, retailing for £299.99 but it’s one that comes with so much in the box, I think anyone would be happy with the product. An outstanding headset with numerous options, this is best in class, and one I’ll be using for a very, very long time.
