Turtle Beach just keeps making huge moves these past few years. While they officially entered the peripheral market after purchasing ROCCAT, up until now they have not released a peripheral under the Turtle Beach brand name. Now we stare down into what could be a long line of Turtle Beach brand peripherals to come! Today we take a look at the new Turtle Beach Recon Xbox controller featuring SuperHuman Hearing sound, two mappable quick-action buttons, Pro-Aim focus mode, and ergonomic cooling grips priced at $59.99.
At first sight, the Recon controller looks a little busy but that is the beauty of its design. Its size and shape are almost identical to a standard Xbox controller similar to the Microsoft Xbox Elite. It’s mega important to stick with what you are used to, so changing the shape of a controller too much could affect your gameplay in a negative way. It features 2 mappable quick action buttons on the back that allow up to 4 different profiles. All the triggers are textured directly on the plastic for extra grip. It’s a very responsive controller with an 8-way D-pad and excellent thumbstick movement. On the outside, it features ergonomic cooling grips that are made of thin textured rubber. They are just about the perfect thickness, sometimes when the rubber is too thick it tends to rub away easily. You are not going to get fancy metal components with this controller, but you are also not paying a hefty $149.99 price tag.
Where you will find the most value in this controller is the audio system technology. Turtle Beach has integrated all the audio features that their high-end headsets like the Stealth 700 have. Easy access audio controls including EQ presets, game & chat volume mix, mic monitoring. You can select from 4 EQ presets: Signature Sound (Default), Bass Boost, Bass & Treble Boost, and Vocal Boost. The one integration I am most hyped about is the SuperHuman hearing technology. It tunes your audio to enhance subtle sounds like reloads and footsteps. I have said it before and I will say it again SuperHuman Hearing is next-level technology. Now, any headset you plug into the Recon controller will have SuperHuman hearing at its disposal. This is so much fire, but it makes sense Turtle Beach would keep the audio technology flowing over all their devices. You will also of course have access to a chat mixer that adjusts the balance of the game and chat volume. Finally, a feature I am personally not much a fan of which is mic monitoring. It allows you to hear your own voice in your headset, it just doesn’t feel right to me I always have it off.
Recon features vibration feedback due to its integrated dual motors in the handles and triggers. I do like this feature, but it doesn’t affect the overall performance of the controller. It does make the gaming experience mad “LIT” though; you can feel your gun recoil or even the airplane fly over your head. Right now, adjustability is limited to 4 sensitivity settings featured in the dial-in Pro-Aim system. According to the support and download section on the product page, there is no software that will allow you to deep adjust sensitivity, dead zones, and vibration levels. But unless you are an Esports professional the 4 settings should have you covered for any situation. It’s important to take into consideration the price bracket of the Recon controller as we do in all our reviews. You will not see deep customization features in anything priced under $129.99. It’s a solid performing controller with really high-end audio features you can only get from patent Turtle Beach technology. Just keep doing what you are doing Turtle Beach, I got my eye on you, a phenomenal buy at $59.99.
