Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 gaming headset review

If a manufacturer is serious about slapping ‘gaming’ in front of their latest wireless headset, it effectively has to come with some form of 2.4GHz low-latency connectivity. And while there are plenty of examples of multiplatform wireless gaming headsets nowadays, it’s still at least a minor inconvenience to shift 2.4GHz connectivity between compatible devices.

But not anymore. At least, that’s not the case with one of the biggest selling points of the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 line of gaming headsets, which have two slimline USB dongles. Effectively, you can bounce between low-latency, and surprisingly long-range 2.4GHz connectivity on two devices at the press of a button. That part is obviously a big convenience pro, but let’s dive into how that benefit fits into the full picture.

If you wanna go nuts, you can spend around $750 on the top end of town: namely, the Logitech G Astro A50 X or the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. With an RRP of $399, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 is closer to contemporary mid-range pricing for wireless gaming headsets.

Around this price point is where you’ll find the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro, the RIG 900 HX, the Asus ROG Delta II, and the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 range. Sure, that’s some solid competition. But it also means Turtle Beach has found an appropriate price point for the feature set of the Stealth 700 Gen 3.

At first encounter, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 makes a great impression. The notched headband is easy to adjust for larger melons like mine, even while I’m wearing glasses. More importantly, there’s generous padding on both the headband and the earcups. Or so it seems. When you look inside each earcup, you can see the drivers and plastic housing.

Initially, I thought the headset was missing some crucial internal padding, but there is a thin layer of translucent mesh. Maybe it’s psychological, but I did have some comfort issues a few times deep into a multi-hour test with part of my ear touching the solid plastic. Practically, this shouldn’t really be happening. Each earcup has two centimetres of padding on the shorter front side and three centimetres on the back. With my helixes protruding two centimetres and my lobes 1.2cm, my ears should have been well and truly protected, but there’d be pressure on both after some of my longer sessions.

Admittedly, a quick readjust amended that issue, but it’s one I haven’t had with other headsets of late. In terms of physical controls, it’s a logical layout. The left earcup has power, USB-C charging port, a flat ‘Mode’ button, and separate dials for master volume and game/chat mix. On the right earcup, there’s a volume dial for Bluetooth devices nestled between two flat buttons: one for Bluetooth and the other for switching 2.4GHz dongles.

Those dongles are both flat, vertically oriented designs, which makes them much easier to fit into devices without potentially blocking other ports or vents, as is the case with L-shaped or wider dongles. The downside is the dongles are USB-A, which is okay for most gaming devices that still sport those older, chunkier ports, but less immediately compatible with anything exclusively USB-C, like the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck OLED or Asus ROG Ally X. Those flat headset buttons are also a pain to find initially until you have your muscle memory honed.

I requested the Xbox version of the Stealth 700 Gen 3 from Turtle Beach to review because, in my experience, that’s the best way to have full-platform compatibility. And while that’s true here (outside of that USB-C disclaimer above), there are some other disclaimers. Xbox consoles need special tech to support 2.4GHz dongles, which is why the PlayStation version of the Stealth 700 Gen 3 may be the better pick if you’re looking to connect to multiple non-Xbox products, including gaming laptops.

In fairness, I tested the Xbox dongle in my old desktop computer and was able to get it to work, albeit without the volume controls functioning (Windows 11 detected the dongle as an Xbox controller). Personally, that’s the goal for my home setup, really: a fixed 2.4GHz dongle for my main PC and one on rotation for other compatible platforms.

The Stealth 700 Gen 3 is effectively a plug-and-play headset, and Bluetooth devices are a cinch to connect, too. It’s a shame they aren’t sporting Bluetooth 5.3 or 5.4 for the lowest latency and, potentially, a more viable workaround for USB-C gaming devices that are effectively relegated to Bluetooth connectivity. That is unless you have a USB-A to USB-C adaptor.

Really, the only pain during the initial configuration was the firmware update. My instincts told me to download the Turtle Beach Swarm II PC software for firmware updates, but the correct response was to use the Swarm II mobile companion app. That’s a bit odd when I had to connect the dongles to my PC anyway to do the update. Regardless, about 10 minutes later I was up and going.

In terms of sound, the Stealth 700 Gen 3s are great with default settings and even better with non-default presets. I found that I shifted between the ‘Bass Boost’ setting and the ‘Bass and Treble Boost’ preset, both of which offered big, well-balanced with better lows sound. There’s also a Vocal Boost option, which is situationally helpful. All in, I reckon I spent around 40+ hours with the Stealth 700 Gen 3s on my noggin, cranking tunes, watching videos and playing a whole lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Hell Let Loose.

Reports from the frontline were that the microphone sounds great, which isn’t typically the feedback I get from my unashamedly honest squad mates when I’m testing a headset with an average mic. That microphone tucks away, too, so the Stealth 700 Gen 3 is practical even as everyday headphones. The volume gets so loud that I rarely went beyond 50%, but the sound did bleed the more I cranked it up.

My biggest gripe (and pro-est tip) is to turn the headset on before you put them on your ears. The initial starting beep is painfully loud and is aural chilli in terms of cut-through. On the competitive front, there’s Turtle Beach’s Superhuman Hearing feature, which I didn’t find overly necessary given the already well-balanced audio, but it does add an extra competitive edge if you want to hear footsteps more than you want quality overall audio.

As a PC main, I typically shun mobile companion apps in favour of PC software, but I spent most of my tweaking time with the Swarm II mobile app. I did bemoan having to tap a ‘Get connected’ button whenever I opened the app; just automatically connect to save me the 10–30 seconds of waiting, please.

Admittedly, the app isn’t super necessary if you familiarise yourself with the physical controls. That flat ‘Mode’ button, for instance, jumps between the game presets, frustratingly without a vocal cue, so you’re reliant on interpreting beeps. In the app, though, you can create custom presets, personalise mic settings, and remap the ‘Mode’ button.

But really, most of my time in the companion app was spent marvelling at the slowly descending battery percentage. Turtle Beach rates the Stealth 700 Gen 3s for 80 hours, which is already incredibly impressive for a 2.4GHz wireless headset. When I was manually recording the hours, I tracked 24.5 hours with the battery at 75%. But that doesn’t tell the full story. There were two-hour sessions where the battery percentage didn’t change at all.

As I write this review after 40+ hours of use and no recharging, the battery just ticked to 48%. Admittedly, it was stuck on 48% before beeping at me every four minutes eventually to indicate low battery before finally registering 8% battery. Still, the longevity is insane, and Turtle Beach reckons you can get three hours of play from a 15-minute charge, which felt true when I recharged. You can also play with a USB-C charging cable connected, so you never need to be out of the game.

The real versatility is in platform switching at the press of a button. I’m the kind of gamer who can easily talk himself out of playing on a platform if there’s effort involved, with VR being the biggest culprit in terms of initial effort barriers. I typically use a separate headset when shifting between devices just to avoid shifting a DAC or dongle. But the Stealth 700 Gen 3 not only let me have two platforms ready to go semi-permanently, those USB flash drive-sized dongles are a cinch to relocate. Just don’t lose ’em because there’s nowhere convenient to store them on the headset.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 gaming headset ticks a lot of the right boxes. It’s a competitively priced wireless gaming headset with solid out-of-the-box sound that can viably operate as an all-week gaming device and/or everyday headphones. Noise cancelling would elevate it further, but given what you get for the mid-range wireless price, the Stealth 700 Gen 3 is absolutely worth considering if you want low-latency audio across multiple devices.