Turtle Seaside is throwing its hat within the premium controller ring with a brand new $200 gamepad for Xbox and PC referred to as the Stealth Extremely Wi-fi Controller, launching on December fifteenth. However as a substitute of merely including some rear buttons and hair triggers — the hallmarks of most competitive-focused gamepads — it’s additionally packing drift-proof Corridor impact sticks and a 1.5-inch display screen able to each fine-tuning settings and getting notifications out of your cellphone.
Along with being Turtle Seaside’s first foray into the ultra-pricey gamepad world, competing with the likes of the Xbox Elite Collection 2 and Scuf controllers, it’s additionally the corporate’s first absolutely wi-fi Xbox Collection X / S controller (following a development of Microsoft slowly opening up its wi-fi licensing whereas shutting some third events out). It doesn’t join fairly as effortlessly as inventory Xbox gamepads, however the Stealth Extremely makes use of a easy USB-A dongle that may be plugged into its included dock — tying up just one USB port in your Xbox console or PC for each connectivity and recharging. And, arguably most significantly, the Stealth Extremely can remotely activate an Xbox console although it connects by way of a dongle (one thing that sadly isn’t the case over in PlayStation land).
The Stealth Extremely additionally has a laundry record of premium options you usually discover in $150-plus controllers, like 4 programmable rear buttons, hair-trigger lockouts, tactile microswitches for its face buttons and bumpers, swappable thumbsticks, Bluetooth compatibility, customizable RGB lighting, and a zip-up hardshell case with passthrough USB-C charging. Essentially the most important omission from the Stealth Extremely that involves my thoughts is its lack of interchangeable D-pads (sorry, combating recreation followers), and its claimed 30 hours of battery life falls in need of the Xbox Elite’s max of 40 hours. (Although, frankly, 30 hours remains to be miles forward of any present Sony controller on the market.)
It maintains the cadre of Turtle Seaside’s software program options present in its lower-cost Recon and React-R controllers: numerous EQ presets for tweaking headset recreation audio, Superhuman Listening to to get a greater bead on enemy footsteps whereas utilizing a 3.5mm wired headset, and Professional-Intention for shortly cranking down stick sensitivity whereas attempting to choose off some correct sniper photographs.
The place the Stealth Extremely actually units itself aside are its Corridor impact sticks and that bonkers display screen jammed into the center. Corridor impact sticks are a welcome addition to this premium controller phase, as equally expensive gamepads from each Microsoft and Sony can endure from stick drift over time, however the Stealth Extremely’s display screen presents an intriguing novelty for connectivity and settings. When you might imagine it’s a touchscreen, it isn’t. The on-screen controls of the 1.5-inch show can solely be tinkered with by hitting that plus button on the underside of the controller’s face, disconnecting your inputs from the sport and dialing in what you see on the display screen.
What are you able to management on the tiny display screen? Properly, for starters, all of Turtle Seaside’s audio customizations, RGB lighting results, and as much as 10 user-customizable controller profiles. That truly sounds a lot better than different Turtle Seaside controllers, which have a cluster of considerably complicated buttons to toggle lots of these settings. The opposite use for the Stealth Extremely’s display screen is getting cellphone notifications mirrored to your gamepad instantly from iOS or Android. Android cellphone notifications require you to put in Turtle Seaside’s Management Heart 2 app, which can be used to dial in the identical settings discovered on the Stealth Extremely’s built-in display screen.
I don’t know if having cellular notifications popping up between my thumbs throughout a recreation is any much less distracting than holding them confined to my cellphone display screen, however maybe Turtle Seaside is onto one thing with a second screen-ish expertise right here. On the very least, it’s good for shortly toggling superior settings with out having to exit to your console’s dashboard or open up one other app in your PC. I’ll need to see the way it works out as soon as I get some hands-on time, and see how the Stealth Extremely stacks as much as different premium choices for Xbox and PC.