Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 30X Xbox One Headset Review

A Closer Look

First impressions of this headset are that it’s nothing too fancy, which is fine, at this price range I wasn’t expecting it to compare to the £250 high-end stuff that Turtle Beach make. What we have here is the absolute minimum of hardware you need for in-game chat functions. The perk of that is that it’s extremely lightweight and unobtrusive, something that’s going to reap benefits in those long gaming sessions. There’s a fold up boom microphone, which has a fully flexible mount to allow you to find that optimal speaking distance.

What I wasn’t expecting at this price, although it’s certainly a welcome addition, is an in-line controller. Here you’ll find two basic controls, a chat volume-wheel and the microphone mute. The idea with a headset like this is that you still use the audio of your TV or surround for gaming, relying on the headset only for the voice communication.

The headband is made from a single piece of lightweight, but relatively durable plastic. It doesn’t look too fancy, but it gets the job done and helps keep the weight nice and low.

There’s some soft foam padding on the interior edge, with a soft leather covering, it doesn’t look like much, but it’s surprisingly comfortable to wear.

There’s some soft padding on the ear cup, but you’ll notice the openings at the back. These openings mean that you can hear through that ear really well, allowing you to enjoy the sounds of your TV/surround sound without too much conflict. The smaller driver in the middle is there for the chat audio, but it sits just away from your ear, giving you a more natural listening position for both chat and ambient sound. This can, of course, be tailored to a perfect balance with the chat volume dial on the in-line controller.

There’s only one driver, so the other side is just a stopper that sits just above your ear. There’s some thick foam padding here that helps grip the headset in place, without being uncomfortable to wear.

The headset folds down easily enough and the long boom is great for finding that perfect position without being intrusive of your line of sight.

The microphone is pretty straight forward, nothing too fancy, but it certainly gets the job done. It’s quite sensitive, but not overly so and provides bright and clear chat audio, which is really what you want and given that chat is this headsets only function, it’s the one thing it needed to get right anyway.

Overall, the driver does sound nice and clear. There’s not a lot of bass on it, but that’s a good thing as voices sound more natural and open, which makes it a lot easier to have a conversation and also hear your game audio over the top.