Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX Review: ‘Maximum Compatibility and Enhanced Battery Life’

TURTLE BEACH STEALTH 600 GEN 2 MAX REVIEW FOR PC, PS5, PS4, XBOX SERIES X|S, AND XBOX ONE.

Turtle Beach is back with “MAX” variants of some of its most popular gaming headsets. Today, I’m looking at the Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX, a souped-up version that delivers enhanced features like better battery life and more comprehensive compatibility with next-gen systems. These new features are great to see, but are they worth the $30 bump in price? This is my Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX review.

Familiar first impressions

Unboxing the MAX variant of the Stealth 600 Gen 2 was a familiar experience. It’s a similar — if not the exact same — build as before, with my black review sample looking very stealthy. The total black look is appreciated, as accent colors can sometimes appear overly “gamery” or childish. For those who disagree, well there’s a white camo version and a brilliant red option.

The plastic-heavy construction would make me hesitate to throw it into a bag for travel and I’d personally recommend keeping it permanently at your gaming setup in a place where it won’t be sat on or assaulted by a pet/child. With the price of this headset now breaching into triple figures, it deserves a bit more caution.

Power of the dongle

The key highlight of the unboxing was the USB dongle, which now has a switch for alternating between “Xbox” and “USB.” Obviously, the Xbox toggle is for compatibility with Microsoft’s line of consoles, while USB is for everything else, including PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Support for all major platforms is a big achievement and one of the standout features of the MAX version.

Buy the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX on Amazon.

Testing between an Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC went flawlessly. Both game and voice chat worked perfectly, with very little tweaking required for audio levels between systems. My teammates reported that I could be heard just fine in competitive titles like Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone and the mic’s quality is perfectly passable for these applications.

Solid out-of-the-box sound with potential to tweak

I’ve always had a soft spot for Turtle Beach’s audio tuning and I’m pretty happy with the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX. While I don’t personally like the “Superhuman Hearing” EQ setting, which appears to give higher frequencies a significant boost in addition to a compressor that makes the audio significantly worse to my ears, keeping this headset in its default state kept me happy enough. I could track enemy footsteps and callouts easily, while still appreciating the bassy boom of nearby explosions. It’s a nice balance that doesn’t offend (until you start messing with the EQ settings).

I normally plug my wireless headset in to charge each night, but when testing the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX, I left it unplugged to test the claimed 48-hour battery life. I have to say, Turtle Beach isn’t lying with its longevity promise. This thing goes and goes and goes.

While it doesn’t come close to the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless, the Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX is still a big endurance contender. Perhaps most impressive is the quick-charging feature, powering the headset with 8.5 hours of battery life with just 15 minutes of charging. Battery anxiety is no more!

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX review: The final verdict

At $129.99, the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX comes in at $30 more than the original non-MAX version. When it comes to comparing the RRPs, I think the MAX is well worth the investment for the enhanced compatibility and big battery life.

If you’re looking to buy one great bang for your buck headset to use across all major gaming systems, combined with the longevity to keep you going for weeks between charges, then the Stealth 600 Gen MAX is a fantastic option.

Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX review unit was provided by Turtle Beach.