Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot is a wireless smart controller with a neat gimmick that offers functionality. It asks and answers the question of: why settle with multiple controllers when you can do it all with one? Because this controller has the ability to take the shape of multiple configuration for various genres of games, to become the ideal controller for each gaming situation without ever needing to switch to another controller to accomplish this. It’s a controller I didn’t expect much from initially, but the more I used it, the more uses it had for me. The Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot may not be on your radar, but it should be.
Not to be confused with the Stealth Ultra, the Stealth Pivot is more than it seems. This controller I was sent is only made for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. So there’s a definite drawback in anyone interested in PlayStation-compatible controllers.
The standout feature and draw of picking up this controller is its rotating modules. In impressive shell, the Stealth Pivot can flip the areas where the left joystick and d-pad reside to reveal a better d-pad and new buttons, “LSB” and “RSB” as well as the right side to move the face buttons further down while adding the shoulder buttons as face buttons. This controller is built to be a multi-genre, and you can even flip-on-the-fly. I was concerned you’d have to be out of a game, or have to unplug the controller to pivot it into position, but no, it just works flawlessly even if you’re in the middle of a fight.
There’s lots of locks and sliders on this controller. The Stealth Pivot not only has the rotating faces, but you can adjust the throw of the triggers to be shorter pulls, and even the thumbsticks rotate to give you additional height and greater degrees of movement. It’s a really adaptable controller. And in a bold claim, Turtle Beach ensures these will be anti-drift thumbsticks – “antidrift” is printed right on the controller. In order to pivot the faces, the thumbsticks need to be in their lowest positions, and the locks need to be released. It’s not cumbersome, but it does take a few steps to get everything into position, and re-lock them to ensure nothing moves unnecessarily during the heat of an intense battle. It’s all intuitive and really cool to put into action.
This controller is built with low-latency wireless and Bluetooth. Both work effortlessly, and are a breeze to setup. The controller boasts a 20-hour battery life which I can attest to. The modes of play, or how you pivot the faces does not impact, it holds a steady charge and lasts up to 20 hours, no problem. I was even able to play games with the controller plugged in while it charged, so there’s no downtime.
In practice, I played the newly released SONIC x SHADOW GENERATIONS with it, and it worked exactly how you’d expect in its default form. I then loaded up some racing games, specifically The Crew Motorfest and CarX Street, and it worked great there. But I felt like I wasn’t really pushing this controller to its limits or capabilities, so I decided to pivot in a different direction.
I loaded up Mortal Kombat 1, and it works great in its default mode, but especially by pivoting the right side for more face buttons, and even the left side to get a dedicated d-pad. I made sure this felt just as good in Street Fighter 6, and that was definitely the case. It feels great as a fighting game controller, and not having to pull out a fightstick or other dedicated fight controller was surreal.
Lastly I needed to try some new retro-styled games: Volgarr the Viking II and Prison City, both of which felt like a dream with both sections pivoted. This is a controller that excelled at anything I threw at it, and the controller adapted to all of them instead of me adapting to a controller.
This controller does feature a screen, but it’s smaller than that found on something like the Stealth Ultra. It’s a smaller screen, which also adjusts the placement of the Xbox buttons, which took some getting used to. The LEDs that reside below the Xbox logo button are bright, and can be customized to your liking.
Turtle Beach never forgets its roots, and the Stealth Pivot continues to have enhanced audio settings and controls built-in to the controller. This controller uses the same software, the Turtle Beach Control Center 2 app on Windows. It’s here where you can adjust colors, remap buttons, and update the firmware. All standard fare, but are necessary inclusions.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot in a lot of ways is superior than the Stealth Ultra I reviewed earlier this year, but I do think the pivot feature is not going to have wide appeal. If you play a variety of games across several genres, this is really a no-brainer. It’s also a controller that’s cheaper than the Stealth Ultra and includes a lot of features from it. The Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot is a bit of a gimmick, but what a great one it is, it’s going to be my new go-to controller for some time.
A Stealth Pivot was provided in advance by Turtle Beach for review purposes
