Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 420X Review

Our Verdict

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 420X delivers rich wireless audio on Xbox One, though its ear cups aren't the coziest.

For

Rich, bass-heavy sound
Long bombardment life
Lightweight
Useful sound presets

Confronting

Somewhat strong ear cups
Mobile cable however requires battery power for calls and music

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Turtle Embankment Ear Strength Stealth 420X delivers rich wireless audio on Xbox I, though its ear cups aren't the coziest.

Pros

+
Rich, bass-heavy sound
+
Long battery life
+
Lightweight
+
Useful sound presets

Cons

-
Somewhat stiff ear cups
-
Mobile cable notwithstanding requires battery power for calls and music

The Turtle Embankment Ear Force Stealth 420X ($149) is a gaming headset built to offer players maximum freedom, delivering fully wireless game and chat audio that allow you to play completely untethered from your controller. Its lightweight blueprint works great wirelessly and offers rich audio that tin can be tweaked via 4 useful presets. Despite existence a little strong and snug, the Stealth 420X is one of the best wireless Xbox I headsets in its price range.

Design and Setup

True to its namesake, the Turtle Beach Ear Forcefulness Stealth 420X has a pretty inconspicuous pattern. This all-blackness headset sports green highlights around its slick, oval ear cups, which are held together by a circular, plastic band with a rubbery Turtle Beach logo at the elevation.

The Stealth'due south swiveling ear cups can be laid flat for easy storage, and its superflexible microphone can exist removed if yous'd rather utilise only the headphones. The correct ear loving cup packs a Mute button on the front, with dials for game and chat volume, a preset switch and a micro-USB charging port located on the dorsum. Overall, I found the Stealth's controls easy to accomplish, though information technology took a while to distinguish the game volume and chat volume switches.

Setting up the Stealth is a sure-fire — you merely plug the included wireless transmitter into your Xbox 1's USB port, agree the pairing button and then hold downwards the headset's power button.

Comfort

The Stealth'south perforated, faux-leather ear cushions and headband felt a little too stiff for my liking, and the headset itself felt slightly too snug. Withal, I got more than comfortable with the headset over time, mostly cheers to how pleasantly lightweight it is.

Weighing but viii.6 ounces, the Stealth never weighed my head down whenever I ran to the kitchen to take hold of a snack. Competing Xbox I headsets, such as the Polk Striker Zx ($149) and Plantronics Rig Flex Sixty ($129), take softer ear cups but are heavier, at 11.ii ounces and nine.6 ounces, respectively. They're also non wireless.

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Gaming Performance

The Stealth 420X delivers where it counts, offering booming bass and plenty of particular for both immersive and competitive gaming.

Turtle Beach'southward headset was an excellent companion for Halo 5, every bit I was able to easily pinpoint every bullet, grenade and stride headed my mode. Explosions sounded accordingly booming, and everything from rattling gunfire to in-game churr came through crisply.

I was able to easily pinpoint every bullet, grenade and pace headed my mode.

The Stealth'due south deep bass really shined when I played Mortal Kombat 10, particularly with the headset'southward optional bass boost on. From the horns of the haunting soundtrack to the thud of every dial and kick, every particular sounded rich — including the fell, head-ripping noises of my graphic symbol's fatality.

I switched to the decidedly more lighthearted Sunset Overdrive to run across how the Stealth handled open up-globe chance games, and was satisfied with the corporeality of atmosphere the headset captured. I could tell where each of the game'due south energy-drink-fueled zombies were coming from, and everything from its punk-rock soundtrack to the sounds of exploding teddy bears were filled with a good level of detail.

The Stealth offers iv sound presets: Natural Sound, Bass Boost, Bass & Treble Boost, and Voice Heave. I liked the overall balance that Natural Sound provided, but was even more than impressed by the level of low-finish impact that Bass Boost added to each game. Bass & Treble Boost seems ideal for those who want maximum intensity, while Voice Boost did a good chore of highlighting background chatter.

Music Performance

The Stealth packs an attachable mobile cable for listening to music and making calls on the go, but there'southward a slightly frustrating catch: Despite my use of an analog connectedness, the mobile cablevision still requires the headset to be charged upward and powered on.

Turtle Beach claims yous'll get 15 hours of battery life from the Stealth, and the headset delivers.

Fortunately, you'll go impressive audio quality and some actress functionality in render. The headset handled Yellowcard's violin-laced rock tracks with ease, assuasive me to conspicuously distinguish each instrument while feeling the full impact of the bass and drums.

The mobile cable sports an inline remote with a microphone and a single button, which worked reliably for pausing and skipping tracks as well as answering and ending calls. When chatting with a co-worker over the inline microphone, I was told that my voice was a bit muffled but nonetheless clear enough for a chat.

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Bombardment Life and Microphone

Turtle Beach claims you'll get 15 hours of bombardment life from the Stealth, and the headset delivers. Since my get-go full charge, I've been playing for well over that amount of time, and have yet to get a depression battery alert. By comparison, the much more expensive Astro A50 ($299) lasted me nearly viii and a one-half hours of combined employ.

According to my friends, the Stealth allowed my voice to come up through conspicuously on Xbox Live. I'm a fan of how flexible the mic is, and its ability to let you hear your own phonation while chatting is useful. Information technology's likewise worth noting that the Stealth offers fully wireless chat, dissimilar other wireless headsets such as the Astro A50, which requires you lot to plug into your controller to talk to friends.

Lesser Line

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 420X offers supremely satisfying sound, complete with rich bass and a handful of useful options for customizing its sound. Its lightweight pattern is suited to long gaming binges, as is its undecayed 15-hour bombardment.

Nonetheless, the Stealth's ear cups are a petty stiff, and I still prefer the Plantronics Rig Flex LX ($129) and Polk Striker Pro Zx ($149) in terms of pure condolement. Withal, those headsets aren't fully wireless, making the Stealth one of the best options for Xbox I gamers who want to play completely untethered.

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored and was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide. When not at work, you lot can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the all-time Avenger.