Turtle Beach Star Wars X-Wing Pilot Gaming Headset Review

A Closer Look

First impressions of this headset are certainly positive, as the design looks absolutely stunning. The mixture of PlayStation 1 era greys and the bright orange really stands out, even more so in a market that’s still dominated by a range of black headsets with a little touch of colour.

The build quality isn’t the greatest in the world, but for a headset in this price range, it’s about on par with the competition. There’s an adjustable slider just above each ear cup, allowing you to tweak the fit, and there are some nice decals printed onto the side too.

The ear cups are certainly typical Turtle Beach in design, with the first noticeable difference from other models in this price range being the closed back design. This closed design should help block a good bit of external noise and tighten up the bass response, but the flat surface also gives a nice area for that “X-Wing Squadron” badge too.

Around the other side, you’ll find the same matching decals. Here you can also better see the U-shaped mount for the ear cups, which allows for a little bit of pivot, helping provide a closer and more comfortable fit around your ears.

The top of the mount also turns inwards, this helps provide a little adjust while they’re on  your head, but also provides a much more comfortable resting position while wearing them around your neck between games.

Overall, they’re a pretty stylish bit of kit given their respective budget and are sure to win over the hearts of a Star Wars loving gamer, but how do they sound? Remarkably great! For an affordable headset, Turtle Beach hasn’t cheaped out on the drivers and that closed back design really brings the goods when it comes to the bass frequencies. There’s a tight bass here, with plenty of detail, the mids have a good amount of punch to them and the treble is nice and high. All this is helped even further by the tight and close fit of the ear cups. The leather is a little tough and the foam is a bit hard, but that’s to be expected and it will wear in a bit over time, but it’s virtually air tight over your ears and that helps block out a lot of external noise and keeps a lot of sound in too.

The headband is a little hard, with only a little padding and more would have been welcome, but the lightweight design of the headset means that it’s far from uncomfortable after extended use. There’s a good range of adjustment to the headband too, making it suitable for younger users, and it managed to fit my fairly large head with ease too.

The microphone is a lot better than I expected, nice and clear, does pick up too much ambient noise and is easily positioned to suit your needs. It’s nothing exceptional in terms of performance and there’s no voice monitoring feature, which can be a bit disorienting if you’ve got the game audio turned up, but overall it does a good job.