Turtle Beach’s new React-R controller brings handy audio features down to a lower budget
The Turtle Beach React-R is the latest controller from the gaming accessories brand, newly available in the USA today for $39.99. It’s a wired Xbox and PC controller with a detachable USB-C cable, officially licensed by Microsoft, and it mixes some of Turtle Beach’s audio chops from its headsets into an affordable gamepad.
The React-R is a bit like Turtle Beach stripped down its Recon controller and gave it a slightly worse name. For $20 less than the Recon, the React-R offers nice quality face buttons, sticks, triggers, and two programmable rear buttons. Some of those buttons, particularly the shoulders, sound a bit more hollow in their clickiness — but that wasn’t something that felt especially premium on its pricier counterpart either.
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There are textured bumps all along the React-R’s shoulder buttons, though not as prominent as the ones on the Recon. The raised texture along the hand grips of the React-R are grippy and comfy enough, though they don’t feel as nice as the Recon’s soft-touch rubber grips. However, a big feature that’s trickled down to the React-R is Turtle Beach’s excellent audio tricks.
The React-R has Turtle Beach’s badly-named-but-actually-good feature, Superhuman Hearing. Just like on the Recon, when you have any wired headset plugged in, you can press the S icon button, and the React-R balances the game audio mix to draw out sounds like character footsteps and gunfire. This was the feature that tipped the scales and convinced me to give the Turtle Beach Recon the nod for best controller for shooters in our buying guide. It’s either the best gaming audio feature around or an amazing placebo effect that leads me to having a better KDR, but either way, it’s cool to see it offered in a cheaper
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