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The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II headset includes a charging dock that's designed to charge a battery pack while you use the other. Much like the best gaming headsets, it's a feature to eliminate the annoyance of hunting down a charging cable, but I love it more for its large RGB-lit button. Pressing this down releases a mechanism that pops out the battery in a matter of seconds. It's a simple inclusion that many might gloss over, but as someone who finds charging the batteries of SteelSeries' similar headsets a pain (sometimes in the literal sense), I'm a little bit obsessed with it.
At $349.99 (Amazon), this is not a key feature that I'd want people driving to pick up the Stealth Pro II for, of course. With Prime Day gaming deals, I'm hoping we'll actually see a few dollars shaved off its lofty price tag, but we'll have to wait and see. But my achy wrists and impatience with unnecessarily awkward gaming tech are forever thankful for this little button.
I've always found swapping out the batteries of headsets like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni, and the Pro Wireless before it pretty awkward. The pair comes with an extra device (known as the Game Hub) that requires you to push and click in a spare pack for charging. SteelSeries has been using its hot-swappable battery tech for years now, and pretty much revolutionized the way modern headsets can be charged, but it's not the most efficient of processes.
You have to push it in and tuck it behind a little ridge for it to stay put. Whenever I go to take it out, I have to shove my finger inside a small slit, and it's just a bit meddlesome. Not enough that I like the headset any less, but enough for me to moan about it to you right now.
I'm not sure if the designers at Turtle Beach felt similarly, as I much prefer their take on a similar system. Pressing that lovely button I mentioned earlier pops the battery right out, and it's already sitting out in the open and easy to grab. There's no fear of breaking a nail or causing aches in my old-age gaming pensioner finger joints, just an easy-breezy experience.
It may feel a bit silly to compare the two, as the Game Hub is capable of much more than just charging. There's every chance SteelSeries may have been limited in how they could incorporate the battery system into a device that also allows you to adjust EQ settings, and in the case of the Omni, hook up to multiple consoles and mix the audio of all of them simultaneously.
Yet, this tiny battery design choice has already got me pretty intrigued and excited to see what the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II is truly capable of, the more I test it. Expect a full review (which will most definitely include more about the button) very soon.
- View all Turtle Beach headsets at Amazon
If the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II doesn't push your buttons, I've also rounded up the best PS5 headsets, the best Xbox Series X headsets, and the best Nintendo Switch headsets that you should check out.
