Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot Review

Turtle Beach has decided that they like to put screens on their gamepads. Okay: The LCD display of the excellent Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra turned out to be a lot more useful than I thought. In the case of the fresh Stealth Pivot, the screen is not even the biggest news. No, the substantial news is Pivot’s unusual approach to modular design.

Let’s get this straight though. While modular, the Pivot won’t feature on the Scuf Instinct Pro’s lunch, nor does it have the versatility of something like the Victrix Pro BFG, which boasts detachable and interchangeable components. No, Pivot is really just two things: it’s a conventional gamepad out of the box, but literally underneath its default configuration is a gamepad designed for fighting games, arcade games, or any other type of controller-centric game that doesn’t require analog sticks.

In other words, the analog sticks, D-pad, and face buttons can be “rotated” to reveal an alternate pad configuration hidden within the controller itself. It’s a nice setup.

Once you’ve slightly twisted the analog sticks and flipped the lock switch on the back, you just need to give either module a little push, revealing its warrior-friendly cousin underneath. It’s reminiscent of gamepads like the aforementioned Victrix Pro BFG controller, but since Pivot forgoes screws, it probably requires a less finicky approach (though it lacks the freedom to, say, adjust the analog sticks between symmetrical and asymmetrical placement).

Perhaps it’s better to think of Pivot less as a customizable gamepad than as a hybrid, and that vague identity extends to its “pro controller” elements. The analog sticks operate drift-free Hall effect technology, which should be considered vital in any state-of-the-art controller, and the trigger buttons have adjustable stops, which means you can vary the depth at which they are pressed. It comes with a 2.4 GHz wireless dongle and supports Bluetooth connectivity. If you have an Xbox console, Pivot must be connected using the included USB-C to A cable.

But when it comes to professional features, the P or “paddle” buttons appear for the previously mentioned blur. There are four in total, but only two at the back. The remaining two P buttons are front buttons, forming a six-button arrangement of the right rotary module. I’ve never actually used all four rear P buttons on a controller at once, but if you do and need them all on the back, Pivot won’t do it. Up to five profiles for these P buttons can be stored locally and changed on the fly via the petite screen on the gamepad itself or via Turtle Beach’s Control Center app. Each of these profiles can also store different configurations of analog stick dead zones and trigger sensitivities.

Based on this, you can probably already see that Pivot has a fairly niche operate case, but if you happen to find yourself in this niche, it could be a godsend. Instead of looking for a premium gamepad AND war stick, you can buy it and effectively get both. If you play a lot of arcade and retro games, but also like analog sticks for state-of-the-art hits, Pivot is perfect. But what if you are neither of these people? You might be better off with something else.

For all its advantages, Pivot has one drawback: it does not have touch-sensitive microswitches. To be clear, all P buttons are microswitches, but compared to the Stealth Ultra’s exceptionally clicky buttons – which feel more like mouse clicks than gamepad presses – all of the Pivot buttons have the same, slightly mushy feel as a normal Xbox controller. The touch switches above are an odd choice; In my opinion, their audible precision is perfect for fighting and arcade games, and while this is debatable, the Stealth Ultra’s touch-sensitive switches were one of my favorite features of this pad.

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Another of Pivot’s niche features is the ability to assign analog stick functions to any of the directional pads if you don’t prefer the precision of digital inputs. Oh, and there’s a slider underneath the Xbox button that makes sense as a volume knob, but it could also be assigned as a microphone volume knob, for example. The built-in screen is missing some features from the Stealth Ultra, such as the ability to adjust the sensitivity of the trigger buttons and analog sticks, but this can still be adjusted in Turtle Beach’s Control Center desktop app, where vibration settings can be adjusted and the RGB lighting can also be improved. Another marginal operate feature is social media notifications, which work through a separate app on your smartphone and are compatible with Discord and many other social media platforms. As with Stealth Ultra, this seems like an unnecessary feature that only sounds good in theory, but you might like it.

I had no connectivity issues at all, even when I had multiple pads connected via Bluetooth to the Steam Deck. Battery life is 20 hours, but if that’s not enough for you, you can rest assured that it will charge to 100% in less than half an hour. The RGB implementation is minimal – not as weirdly excessive as its predecessor – with just two colored bars on either side of the volume slider. Overall, the Pivot feels great in my hand: I like a ponderous controller, so its 300 grams was good for me.

I really enjoyed using Pivot, and if you’re going to operate replaceable face buttons, this is a brilliant pad. It’s undeniably better than a regular Xbox controller — hall-effect thumbsticks, reassignable P buttons, adjustable trigger stops — but it’s also twice as exorbitant. With that in mind, the Pivot is really for people for whom it will truly feel like two controllers in one, and in those terms it will deliver. For everyone else, its older sibling, the Stealth Ultra, can usually be purchased for the same price.