Transformative Tech or Tantalising Tease?
It could be said that there is a controller for every gaming moment.
If you need cheap, you can have cheap. If you need expensive, you can have that too, with a plethora of Xbox controllers that feel perfect as alternatives to the Xbox Elite. Hell, if you need even more customisation and personalisation, that’s entirely possible too – should you be willing to stump up some serious cash. Just take a look at our MegaModz controller and you’ll see what magic can be merged into such a pad.
But then there are also fight sticks and flight sticks, steering wheels and more, each perfectly tuned for the job at hand.
What if you could have a controller that felt perfect for multiple occasions though? A controller that was just as happy running standard pad vibes as much as being able to provide a twist; a pivot, if you will? Well, say hello to the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot Controller for Xbox. Perhaps you’ll never need to buy another controller again…
Or perhaps not actually, because whilst the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot is more than capable of covering various bases, the fact that it requires a cable for use with an Xbox console lets it down a little. For many, us in fact, a cable is rarely an issue, but it does mean that others will have to consider carefully their use scenario.
Wired Woes and Wireless Wonders
That feels even more disappointing when you consider that wireless play is possible, just via PC. We’d have snapped each and every hand off the product creation team at Turtle Beach if they could have managed to worm some wireless capabilities into the Stealth Pivot for both PC and Xbox play. Alas, it is what it is and we’ll not knock them anymore aside from what is written in this paragraph. And if that is really a big thing for you, Game Pass through PC is the way to go.
Tactile Triumph
So what do we have with the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot? Well, on the face of it, your usual Turtle Beach Xbox controller. Just a whole load different.
Granted, all the buttonry you would expect of such a pad is right here, front, centre, and around the back, with thumbsticks, a D-Pad, face buttons, triggers, bumpers and the usual trifecta of menu, select and share accompanying the Xbox Nexus button. And then, much like the vast majority of controllers that come to the market these days, there are a couple of rear-mounted programmable buttons too. Chuck in the 3.5mm audio port for wired headsets and you’d think this would be about as standard as you can get.
You’d be massively wrong.
Pretty much each and every button and feature of the Stealth Pivot has something just that little bit extra about it. Take the thumbsticks for instance. Not only are they surrounded by some seriously tactile grip, but they twist ever so slightly, allowing the player to use standard, or shorter, thumbsticks as they wish. A new gimmick? Nah, we’ve seen it plenty of times previously, but it’s something that works well here. Perhaps it would be nice to have an even higher, taller, setting, but we’re pretty sure these sticks will cover what is needed by most players.
And then there’s the D-Pad which feels great in hand, easy to use, nicely concave to allow thumb fitment. The face buttons are decent too, fairly standard in feel and perfect for anyone coming across from an official Xbox controller.
For us, the real stars are the triggers, bumpers and rear-mounted buttons. They feel superb to touch, well-contoured and full of grip and texture. Honestly, these are up there with some of our favourite bumpers and triggers found on any controller of recent times, and whilst the buttons around the back aren’t necessarily something we use too often, they sit in a great place, right under the middle finger as the Stealth Pivot is gripped.
What’s more, the triggers come with physical locks too, so if you do need some shorter, sharper shooting, this is a controller that suits.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot’s Modular Design
With a nice feeling to the controller as a whole, and a straight-up, nearly all-black, Turtle Beach aesthetic to proceedings, there’s no doubt that you’ll want to have this one in your gaming arsenal going forward. And if you want to use the Stealth Pivot as a simple swap-out for your standard Xbox controller, then by all means crack on.
But then the real magic happens. The magic of the Pivot.
Around the back of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot controller are a couple of locks. Opening these up allows you to rotate a couple of well-defined grey areas into the controller itself. That means the two thumbsticks, the D-Pad and the face buttons themselves can be rolled around, hidden inside. In their place? A D-Pad to replace the left thumbstick, left and right clickable stick buttons below that, face buttons moved down and P1 and P2 (both programmable) options in the standard face place. Yep, you’re getting something akin to a fight stick layout here, opening up even more gaming avenues.
Again, much like in its standard core layout, everything here works well, and if you’re looking for the upper hand as you brawl to the death, the Stealth Pivot will have your back.
The modules lock nicely in place too, and whilst we’ve found it a little annoying that the thumbsticks must be temporarily placed in their lower, shorter form in order to utilise the power of the pivot, that’s hardly an issue in the wider world.
Connected Command Display and Customisation
Further to all this and the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot comes with a little display – the Connected Command Display – just above the Xbox Nexus button too. It’s probably not a necessary element for many, but if you do need to be notified of messages as they come in, or want to mix up button layouts, and utilise connections to the wireless dongle, or your mobile via Bluetooth, you can. And there’s even a little slider that is best used for volume controls and mic muting.
For us, on a controller that could be said to be full of gimmicks already, the biggest is the opportunity to connect your Discord messages, or WhatsApp, social channels and more. We’re sure that would be great for some, but as an aging gamer who occasionally wants to pick up a controller to just switch off from pretty much everything else, the constant notifications aren’t something we can get fully behind. Personal preference and all that.
A High-Quality Controller with Niche Appeal
With a solid wireless connection to PC via a dongle, utilising the power of a lag-free 2.4Ghz connection powering the Stealth Pivot, and then a decently long 2.5m USB-A to USB-C cable covering the Xbox angle, this is a controller that allows for much.
We’d have loved for full wireless capabilities to make their way to Xbox consoles too (surely some switch on the dongle could have allowed for such a thing?), even being happy to chuck a few extra notes the way of Turtle Beach for a purchase of such a controller. But even then, this is a seriously clever piece of kit that gamers should flock to.
In a nutshell, need a new controller? Get the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot on your consideration list. It’s full of gimmicks, some which you’ll be drawn to, others which you won’t. Yet there’s no denying the quality of this pad. And it’s that which is the biggest appeal.
Huge thanks go out to Turtle Beach for providing their Stealth Pivot for review. You can grab one for yourself from Turtle Beach direct. Expect to pay £119.99.
