Games Booth

Ear Force XO One Review, by Ryan Hunt.

I’ve had a set of Turtle Beach P11’s for as long as I can remember and they’ve truly served me well. As you know, here at Gamesbooth, we’ve had our fair share of headsets through our doors, some we’ve liked and some we haven’t. When Turtle Beach launched the XO One in the middle of 2014, I was keen to try them, but for a variety of reasons (the main one being I didn’t own and Xbox One at the time), I couldn’t get a chance to try them until towards the end of the year.

The most important part that you want to know, is the cost of the XO One’s, well they retail about the £50-£55 mark, but this could change (don’t quote me on it), since Turtle Beach have made the recent announcement of the Elite 800X headphones for the console - which come with a whopping £249 price tag – so you’d better be a keen / pro gamer for those! However, this now means that Turtle Beach has about six sets of headphones for the next generation console, in a range of price points.

For £50 these headphones pack a great deal in, including 500mm drivers, wireless surround sound and they even include the controller adapter – which is required for use with the Xbox controller – which itself can cost about £40.  So you’re really getting a bargain bundle when purchasing this headset.

So what’s it sound like, after all that’s what you bought it for right? To gain an advantage over the enemy. Well, the sound quality on these bad boys is so fantastic it's almost like a real surround sound system. You can literally hear every bullet casing hit the floor in perfect clarity. The mic is detachable, so if you don't need it just remove it and it’s no longer in your way.  In addition, although for the Xbox One, you can use them on any device, albeit with limited functionality, such as your phone or tablet or anything with a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The form factor of the headphones is OK, it’s not got the high quality feel of other headsets and does in fact have a plasticky feel, but that comes with the price point I guess.  The padding is limited to say the least, a small band across the very top of your head and some cushioned over the ear, ear cups.  But, you can’t have everything right? Not for £50.

Over all I'd say the only problem you have to decide upon is to spend you’re hard earned cash on the XO One or do you work a little harder, dig a little deeper and spring for one of the more expensive sets in the XO or Stealth range.

I honestly can't think of any major downsides - the adapter for the controller can be a bit tough to remove and the lack of padding may begin to bother you after a few hours, or in a few months when it’s beginning to wear,  but technically and for that price point it has to be a recommended headphone for those who have just got their Xbox One for Christmas.

Looking forward to reviewing more from Turtle Beach in the future – especially those new Stealth 800X’s J. 

10/10