Between myself and four teenage kids who play a hell of a lot games, my house has a tendency to burn through controllers like nobody’s business. It’s where gaming accessories go to die, and so I’m always on the lookout for affordable but dependable controllers like the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave Wired Controller. I tend to go for solid brands with budget options, as they last a little longer and don’t break my heart when they inevitably develop problems.
What I like about the Afterglow Wave is how it feels reassuringly hefty in my hands, and looks and feels like a standard Xbox gamepad. It naturally fits all the hand sizes in my household, and performs really well across Xbox, Switch, or PC. It is wired, of course, which I usually avoid, but at least there’s no latency or lag to worry about.
As is increasingly common, it also features Hall Effect thumbsticks, which is a technology seen more and more in less expensive models as newer bells and whistles like TMR become hallmarks of the more pricier options. As a result, even with excessive use, it’s highly unlikely the Afterglow Wave will develop the dreaded stick-drift problem.
In fact, the Afterglow Wave features a few options that you wouldn’t normally see on a controller in this price range, which is testament to what Turtle Beach have done here. For a start, it comes with impulse triggers, which have three stops and go some way to emulating much more expensive pro controllers. This gives you much more control over the Wave’s hair triggers, and combines with the ergonomic grip and high quality sticks to create a really comfortable, responsive gamepad. It’s got a pretty heavy standard rumble setting, too, if you like that kind of thing.
If you don’t you can change it, and customise the back button behaviour using the Turtle Beach companion app. You can also control the RGB lighting display, which may be a little ostentatious for some but which really suits the overall design of the controller. I’ve argued before that excessive RGB is kind of wasted on controllers, but the wavy design of the Afterglow lends itself to the softly undulating RGB and has an almost hypnotic quality.
The Turtle Beach Afterglow Wave is a very well-made controller, and works very well on all platforms except the PS5. The attached USB-C cable has a good length, and the weight and feel of the device itself are perfectly balanced for long periods of play. Crucially it also feels sturdy and expensive despite the relatively low price-point.
With adjustable back buttons and the lovely clicky feel of its adaptive triggers, the Afterglow Wave does a great job of appearing high-budget and really stands out among other wired controllers in its price range.
