Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot PC/Xbox Controller Review

Turtle Beach might be best known for its gaming headsets, but I’ve recently grown fond of its controllers, too. They are often well-priced, robust gamepads that deliver a solid experience — and occasionally a gimmick. With the Stealth Pivot controller, Turtle Beach is really pushing the boat out by including physical pivoting components. It’s interesting and impressive to see, but is it really worth the investment for PC and Xbox players? This is my review.

It pivots

Let’s first address the elephant in the room: the pivoting. The Stealth Pivot has both right and left pivoting control segments that can be rotated to reveal alternate control layouts. In its default state, the Stealth Pivot looks like your standard Xbox controller layout. Flip the left segment over, however, and you’re treated to a D-pad in the primary position, along with a couple of buttons. Pivot the right segment, and you’re given a fightstick-esque set of buttons.

For those who play retro and/or fighting games, the additional controller options should immediately stand out as interesting. Analog sticks rarely satisfy enthusiasts of these genres, so having the ability to pivot to a better option certainly makes sense.

Hall effect upgrade

Aside from the ability to pivot, the Stealth Pivot’s other standout features include Hall effect thumbsticks to eliminate stick drift, four remappable buttons, adjustable trigger stops, and even a screen for monitoring profiles and tweaking settings. It is also compatible with Turtle Beach’s app, should you wish to boot that up for additional customization.

Winning components

There are many things I like about the Stealth Pivot. The pivoting itself works well, with all buttons working as you’d expect. Moving between retro titles that work best with the D-pad to a fighting game that works best with the D-pad and six fightstick-like buttons, and then back to something like Elden Ring and using the stock configuration, is an impressive thing.

Hall effect sticks are always nice to see on a modern controller, so it’s good that Turtle Beach has included them on this more premium product.

Build quality is a standout, too. Although I was worried the pivoting mechanisms might feel cheap and loose, I’m pleasantly surprised that Turtle Beach has kept the product feeling solid.

It’s not all good

On to the negatives. For me, as good as the materials and build feel, the price just seems too high. At $129.99, I feel like only true diehard retro/fighting game fans will be willing to pay. Even then, they would likely already have dedicated fight sticks or retro pads.

If the price dropped a little, I could see the Stealth Pivot being more widely adopted. I do wonder if the built-in display was totally necessary. Perhaps that feature could have been cut to lower the overall cost to the consumer.

Of course, if the built-in display was removed, then users would have to fully depend upon the Turtle Beach companion app which is unfortunately very clunky to use. To be frank, it could use an overhaul.

My final issue with the Stealth Pivot is to do with its Xbox compatibility. While it’s primarily marketed as a PC controller, I can’t help but be disappointed that Xbox support is limited to a wired connection only.

Disclosure: Review sample provided by Turtle Beach.