Turtle Beach Recon Chat fills a much needed gap for gamers

The Turtle Beach Recon Chat fills a much-needed gap that's been missing in the gaming world. An affordable chat headset that doesn't skimp on comfort.

Many non-gamers wrongly assume that most gamers are a hermitic bunch sitting alone in a basement playing all day. As fellow gamers here at Movie TV Tech Geeks, we know we’re are a very social lot.

Networking plays as big a role in the gaming worlds as the actual games whether you’re playing on an Xbox One, Nintendo Switch or PS4. When networking first started it was with the Dreamcast and getting excited to hear five-second voice clips coming at a then blazing fast 56K.

Xbox Live changed things and opened up this world to everyone, and you could find yourself being trash talked to by a ten-year-old who had just blown your team to smithereens.

The online multiplayer world has gotten very competitive so when something new that stands out is always exciting to try out. That’s where Turtle Beach’s Recon Chat has created something for the budget conscious without having to forgo quality.

turtle beach recon chat box

At just $19.99, this is a steal, and it comes with some pretty sweet features. The Turtle Beach Recon Chat comes with a single earpiece which comes in handy so that you are able to chat with friends online but still hear audio in your environment. This can be handy if you’ve got kids (in today’s world, many dads are moms are hardcore gaming as much as when they were teens) or just need to hear the doorbell for the pizza guy.

turtle beach recon gamer set

The earpiece is made of perforated plastic with slots to make this possible. All those tiny holes let exterior noise pass through the unit rather easily. Some might feel that this cuts down on the total game immersion experience, but the Recon Chat seems more about making sure the player is also aware of their environmental surroundings. Surprisingly, this doesn’t affect the sound quality which is crisp and clear.

turtle beach recon chat blue headset gaming

The mic is easy to bend so online chat is very comfortable, and there’s a mute switch installed on the in-line controls. There’s also a speaker volume wheel to make it easy to crank up the volume and drop it down.

turtle beach recon chat volume set

The Recon Chat has a 3.5mm wired jack, making it compatible universally, plus you get a choice of PS4 blue and Xbox One green, but either can be used with both devices along with nearly all mobile devices.

One of the most important details is covered with the Recon Chat which is comfort. With a headband made of flexible plastic and foam to keep your head quite comfortable. If one ear is getting a little tired or sore, it’s made so you can switch ears.

turlet beach gamer blue headset frontal view

Another great thing that is covered is for people who wear glasses. Since having Lasik surgery, I forget about the pain of having to adjust your glasses (or popping in contact lenses) when you want to go multiplayer. Turtle Beach has listened to gamers and worked that into the Recon Chat. The ear covering actually has a molded ‘pass-through’ for the rims of your glasses while also keeping that pressure off both your temples and ears. It’s so simple, it makes you wonder why others haven’t been doing this already.

Several of us put the Recon Chat through the intense testing process, and I’m surprised to say that it’s very impressive for a product that’s only $20. Often, we assume cheap means ‘cheap,’ but this is that rare time when the low price is just another perk. Our average time of wearing was about four hours (yes, I was stuck playing Tekken 7 and got very addicted), and I could have continued on. Where many headbands can begin to feel constricting (especially those Beats ones), this didn’t, and the audio for chat was crystal clear. People on the other end even said that my voice came across clear and sharp too with no static or any of those other weird audio issues.

The Turtle Beach Recon Chat is a cheap, great alternative to replacing those crappy headsets that come with most game consoles now. They were smart in filling a great niche that’s been overlooked for too long.

This could work great when you’ve got a lot of gamers over and want to still play others online, it’s more of a shared experience.

Now you can toss that chat headset that Sony or Microsoft included in your PS4 or Xbox One and head over to Turtle Beach to see their entire line of headsets. They’ve got them for all budgets, but don’t forget to enter the giveaway below for your chance to win your own Recon Chat headset.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Turtle Beach sent us a free Recon Chat headset to review. As our readers know this doesn’t influence us in our reviews, and we’ll let you know what we really think about it.