Turtle Beach unveils Stealth Ultra, a smart gaming controller with a screen for your social media

Finally, a wireless controller built for both PC and Xbox that actually works.

Image: Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra

If you’re a fan of Turtle Beach controllers, you’re in for a treat today. Back in October, they teased some sort of new, glowing controller in their holiday catalog and well, today’s announcement for the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra is prettier and more useful than we could have possibly imagined.

It’s not often that a controller announcement merits a lot of words, especially from Turtle Beach, but we’ve got quite a bit of ground to cover with the Stealth Ultra.

It’s important to note, before we get into it, that the controller may be branded under their Stealth line, similar to their higher-quality headsets. But, this controller has the same shape and functionality that you’d see from their fantastic Recon controllers.

However, from the get-go, it’s easy to see some huge improvements from their usual Recon lineup. First off, it’s both 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth, which you can swap back and forth between the options on the fly. This sets it apart from the previous Recon Cloud controller that only offered Bluetooth for Android phones and had very spotty settings when used on a PC. A 2.4GHz capability would solve all of that.

Another interesting feature is that the controller touts a 30-hour battery life. But only that, but it comes with a charging dock, which is new to Turtle Beach controllers. While it’s hard to tell, this length is likely on Bluetooth mode. But, with a 10-foot charging cable in the box that allows you to charge and play at the same time, as well as an easy dock to charge with, that’s probably okay.

The controller itself has removable thumbstick caps, similar to other brands like SCUF, and comes with four replacements in the box, which gives various options for comfort and for when they finally wear down. It also offers a hard-shell case for travel that also offers holes to allow the controller to charge while it’s napping.

Visually, the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra is stunning. Not only do you get full lighting customization around the grips, but there is a full LCD screen built into the top portion of the controller with a ton of functionality and options.

But, then, the Stealth Ultra goes one further and offers the ability to check your social media notifications directly from your controller’s screen via Bluetooth to your phone. It’s not stated if you can check your text messages as well, though.

Similar to the VelocityOne flight stick that Turtle Beach also offers, the screen on the controller allows better visualization of options and menus, as well as changing your profiles and color schemes on the fly.

Image: Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra

While it’s easy to miss, the Stealth Ultra feels like Turtle Beach has finally learned some lessons from its ROCCAT acquisition back in 2019. If you use both Turtle Beach and ROCCAT gear, you likely know what I mean. Certain functions (such as both the 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth being built in, as well as RGB lighting) feel right out of the ROCCAT Vulcan and Kone lineups.

The Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra comes out on December 15th, 2023. You can currently pre-order it directly from their website. But, it’ll hit other major retailers the same day.

The pricing is $199.99, which may seem like quite a bit at first for a gaming controller. But, for the amount that you get out of this, with high battery life, the dock, RGB lighting, multiple connectivity options, and a built-in screen on the controller, Turtle Beach is finally ready to sit at the big kid’s table alongside SCUF and Razer going into this holiday.

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