Turtle Beach's new headset has a lovely new design and some impressive features

I've been testing the best gaming headsets for well over half a decade now, which gives me quite a big back catalogue of headset knowledge to fall back on when new versions launch. I really liked the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro back in 2022, for instance, but I'm pleased to see that a newly announced successor looks like it fixes some of the small issues the previous version had.

The Stealth Pro II just got unveiled, and features an all-new design that looks far more modern and sleek, as well as some big audio upgrades that should see the headset compete with the high-end models that I favour from SteelSeries.

For one thing, the new headset has certification for both Hi-Res Wireless Audio and Dolby Atmos spatial audio, when connected to a system that can support them (meaning a PC in the former case, and a PC or Xbox in the latter). That should help ensure that its precision is more impressive than ever.

What I'm more interested in is the new design, which features a "mesh fabric suspension headband" that should make the headset lighter and more comfortable to wear. I found the Stealth Pro was pretty chunky and heavy, in contrast to some of the competition, so this could be a big change.

The headset also looks sleeker, in my opinion, although I'm interested to see that the microphone is still one that can be flipped out of the way rather than properly hidden or retracted – I prefer the latter, but I'm always open-minded about design choices like this.

Swappable batteries return, this time giving 40 hours of gameplay on a single charge, with a base station housing your spare while it charges up. That means you basically have unlimited battery life, and the base station also seems to be where device swapping is routed through, with up to four connections that you can toggle between.

There's active noise-cancelling, like before, but I'd assume it'll be upgraded, while the 60mm drivers should power really great sound quality even if you don't have Atmos active.

There will be two versions on sale, in classic style (blame Xbox's expensive certification for this) – and the Xbox version will be the one to buy, since it'll work with Xbox, PC, PlayStation and Bluetooth. The "PC & PlayStation" version is the same, minus the Xbox support.

There won't be a price difference between the two, crucially, so any version of the Stealth Pro II will come in at a chunky 349.99/€349.99/£299.99. That means it's at the top-end of the market, albeit not coming near the ultra-luxury territory staked out by the £600 SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite.