Turtle Beach is releasing a modular wireless Xbox controller called the Stealth Pivot that launches November 26, and preorders are available now at Amazon. Compared to Turtle Beach’s Stealth Ultra ($200) and other customizable controllers, including Victrix’s modular controller ($180), the Stealth Pivot is surprisingly “cheap” at $130.
$130 | Releases November 26
Unlike other modular controllers that use detachable pieces, the Stealth Pivot features two rotating modules that are integrated directly into the gamepad.
The right module features a standard thumbstick and four face buttons on one side and a six-button fight pad on the other.
The left module has the standard thumbstick and D-pad on one side, but if you flip this one, you’ll have a D-pad above two face buttons.
The modules can be flipped on the fly to match your preferred layout. For example, you can use the standard Xbox controller layout for first-person shooters, then flip to the six-button module for fighting games. We’re not sure how helpful the extra two face buttons on the left module would be, but Turtle Beach was smart to move the D-pad into the other slot for fighting games, side-scrollers, and other games that feel more natural with D-pad movement controls.
Both thumbsticks use Hall Effect anti-drift sensors.
While the reversible modules are the Stealth Pivot’s main features, the controller can be customized in other ways, such as adjustable trigger and thumbstick sensitivity, four remappable microswitch buttons, adjustable trigger locks, and digital or analog modes for the D-pad.
The Stealth Pivot sports some other cool features, including a mini-LED which is used to configure up to five custom control profiles, adjust settings, and even display social notifications or other alerts. It also supports rumble and various Turtle Beach audio enhancement features like EQ presets, chat volume mixing, and more. It can connect via 2.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.2, or wired USB to Xbox consoles, PC, or mobile. In wireless mode, it offers up to 20 hours of battery life and has quick charging via USB-C.
Turtle Beach brought over many of the Stealth Pivot’s features from the Stealth Ultra, which released last holiday for $200. The Stealth Ultra uses microswitches for all of its buttons, while microswitches appear to be limited to the remappable back buttons on the Pivot. The Ultra also has two nice bonuses you won’t find with the Pivot: a carrying case and charging stand.
Until we get our hands on the Pivot, we won’t know how the build quality compares to the Ultra, which impressed us when we tested it last year. That said, the Pivot’s rotating modules, at face value, are probably more important than microswitches and carrying cases for many Xbox and PC users. And if you want microswitch buttons, we’d now recommend the recently released Razer Wolverine V3 Pro over the Stealth Ultra. Razer’s first wireless controller for Xbox and PC also costs $200 and is a better overall Elite Series 2 alternative than the Stealth Ultra.
The Stealth Pivot is the latest modular controller on the market, but not the only one. One of the most notable is the Victrix Pro BFG, which is one of our favorite controllers on Xbox and PS5. The Xbox model is available for $180 at Amazon, while the PS5 version is discounted to $155 (was $180). Special edition variants based on Call of Duty and Tekken are also available.
If you’re interested in a modular controller specifically for PC, it’s worth noting you can buy either the PlayStation or Xbox version of the Pro BFG.
