Turtle Seashore has determined it likes to place screens on its gamepads. That is tremendous: the LCD show on the superb Turtle Seashore Stealth Extremely was much more helpful than I believed it will be. In terms of the brand new Stealth Pivot, the display screen is not even the chief novelty. No, the large novelty right here is the Pivot’s uncommon strategy to modular design.
Let’s make clear that, although. Whereas modular, the Pivot is not coming for the Scuf Intuition Professional’s lunch, nor does it have the flexibility of one thing just like the Victrix Professional BFG, which boasts unscrewable swappable items. No, the Pivot is basically simply two issues: It is a standard gamepad out of the field, however actually hiding beneath its default configuration is a gamepad made for preventing video games, or arcade video games, or another type of controller-centric sport that does not require analog sticks.
In different phrases, the analog sticks, d-pad and face buttons will be “pivoted” to disclose an alternate pad configuration hidden inside the controller itself. It is a neat arrange.
As soon as you’ve got evenly twisted down the analog sticks and toggled a lock change on the rear, it is only a matter of giving both module a bit of push, revealing its fighter-friendly cousin beneath. It is harking back to gamepads just like the aforementioned Victrix Professional BFG Controller, however because the Pivot forgoes screws it arguably takes a much less fussy strategy (although it does lack the liberty of, say, adjusting the analog sticks between symmetrical and asymmetrical placement).
Turtle Seashore Stealth Pivot specs
Compatibility: Home windows 10 and 11, Xbox (wired solely), Android
Connectivity: 2.4 Ghz wi-fi, Bluetooth
Ports: USB-C, 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
Thumbstick structure: Uneven
Weight: 298 grams
Dimensions: 120x160x64.2mm
Worth: $129.99 | £119.99 | AU$249.95
Maybe it is higher to consider the Pivot much less as a customisable gamepad than a hybrid one, and this blurry id extends to its “professional controller” chops. The analog sticks use drift-free corridor impact tech, which it is best to think about important in any trendy controller, and the set off buttons have adjustable stops, that means you may change the depth of their presses. It comes with a 2.4 GHz wi-fi dongle and in addition helps Bluetooth connectivity. In case you have an Xbox, the Pivot must be wired with the included USB-C to A twine.
However the place professional options are involved, the P or “paddle” buttons are the place that aforementioned blurriness is available in. There are 4 in whole however solely two on the rear. The opposite two P buttons are face buttons, contributing to the six button structure of the proper pivoting module. I’ve by no means actually used all 4 rear P buttons on a controller directly, however if you happen to do, and also you want all of them on the rear, the Pivot will not try this. As much as 5 profiles for these P buttons will be saved domestically and adjusted on the fly both with the lil’ display screen on the gamepad itself, or utilizing Turtle Seashore’s Management Middle app. Every of those profiles also can retailer totally different configurations for analog stick deadzones and set off sensitivity.
Based mostly on this, you may most likely already see that the Pivot has a reasonably area of interest use case, however if you happen to occur to lie inside that area of interest it could be a godsend. Reasonably than forking out for a premium gamepad and a combat stick, you should buy this and successfully get each. When you occur to play a variety of arcade and retro video games, but in addition like your analog sticks for contemporary blockbusters, the Pivot is ideal. When you aren’t both of those folks, although? You might be higher off with one thing else.
For all its combat stick credentials the Pivot does have one disadvantage: it would not have tactile microswitches. To be clear, all P buttons listed here are microswitches, however in comparison with the eminently clicky buttons on the Stealth Extremely—which really feel extra like mouse clicks than gamepad presses—all buttons on the Pivot have the identical barely mushy really feel of a traditional Xbox controller. Foregoing tactile switches is an odd selection; For my part their audible precision is ideal for preventing and arcade video games, and whereas that is a matter for debate, the tactile switches on the Stealth Extremely have been one in every of my favorite qualities of that pad.
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One other of the Pivot’s good ‘n’ area of interest options is the flexibility to assign the analog stick capabilities to both of the D-pads, lest you like the exactness of digital inputs. Oh, and there is a slider beneath the Xbox button, which is sensible as a quantity wheel, however can be reassigned to be, for instance, a mic quantity wheel. The onboard display screen lacks a number of the performance seen within the Stealth Extremely, equivalent to the flexibility to tweak the sensitivity of the set off buttons and analog sticks, however that may nonetheless be adjusted in Turtle Seashore’s Management Middle desktop app the place vibration settings and RGB lighting can be tweaked. One other function of marginal use is the social media notifications, which works through a separate app in your smartphone and is appropriate with Discord and a bunch of different social media platforms. Prefer it did on the Stealth Extremely, it appears like a superfluous function that solely sounds good in principle, however it’s possible you’ll come to find it irresistible.
Purchase if…
✅ You’re keen on blockbusters, arcade and preventing video games: The Pivot mainly turns from a standard controller right into a small combat stick, making it good to the likes of Road Fighter.
Do not buy if…
❌ You do not suppose you may ever want these various face buttons: When you do not match into the (relatively giant) area of interest Turtle Seashore is focusing on right here, you most likely needn’t fork out
I had no hassle in any respect with connectivity, even after I had a handful of pads linked through Bluetooth to a Steam Deck. Battery life is a chill 20 hours, but when that is not sufficient for you relaxation assured it fees to 100% in underneath half-and-hour. The RGB implementation is minimal—not as weirdly extreme as its predecessor—with simply two vibrant bars on both aspect of the quantity slider. And total, the Pivot feels nice within the hand: I like a heavy controller so its 300 grams felt good to me.
I actually favored utilizing the Pivot, and if you are going to make use of the swappable face buttons it is a good pad. It is undeniably higher than the vanilla Xbox controller—corridor impact sticks, rebindable P buttons, adjustable set off stops—however it’s additionally double the value. Maintaining that in thoughts, the Pivot is basically for the people on the market for whom it would actually really feel like two controllers in a single, and on these phrases it succeeds. For everybody else, its older sibling the Stealth Extremely can normally be had for across the similar value on sale.
