Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot Controller Review

thesixthaxis.com:

New ideas and directions are hard to find in the gaming peripheral space. Controllers do what controllers do, and for many people, the official PlayStation and Xbox controllers are as far as it goes. However, there’s a healthy competition for our fingers and thumbs rumbling away, with controllers now one of the most hotly contested sectors in gaming. Turtle Beach have come a long way from being purely a headset maker, and their latest, the Stealth Pivot, ploughs a new direction by having what can only be described as a split personality.

I loved the Stealth Ultra Pro, cementing the fact that Turtle Beach are onto A Good Thing in the controller space. Where that brought in new technology in the shape of a colour OLED screen for a bit of high-tech gloss, the Pivot is more of a Swiss Army Knife of controllers, letting you switch between a standard controller layout or a fighting/retro focussed one. It’s a brilliant idea, even if it’s answering an unasked question for many gamers.

The Pivot looks pretty familiar, taking its overall design influence from the Official Xbox Controller. Despite that, it’s primarily aimed at PC and Mobile players with Xbox functionality available if you’re wired up. On PC the best performance comes either wired or via the 2.4gHz USB-A wireless dongle, while Bluetooth will let you hop in with your mobile or Apple TV-esque device. In the hand, it’s weighty and solid, fashioned from good quality plastics.

The magic comes with its namesake. It’s called the Pivot for the two pivoting sections on the face of the controller. These rotate between a standard asymmetrical Xbox-esque layout and a six-button lineup, shifting the D-pad into a more accessible position for your thumb. All you need to do is flip the controller over, release the locking switches and rotate the controller faces to your desired position.

It’s an ingenious bit of tech, a more practical and immediate cousin to the Thrustmaster eSwap’s controller modules, and it’s super satisfying