When I was selecting a title for this review, it dawned on me that Turtle Beach’s stock trade symbol is cleverly named HEAR. How fitting for a company who dominantly supplies sound equipment.
As amusing as I found that to be, there are a lot of amusing things all over the internet. One of the most common ways of sharing funny content online is through a meme: a picture or GIF that displays a funny picture, clip, or wordage.
A well-known meme is the one made famous by the boxer, John Cena. There is a published YouTube video posted years ago which included a theme song for his entrance. His slogan was, “you can’t see me,” and that one line exploded all over the internet.
People from all over began making the joke that if John Cena is in a picture or video, he’s not there. Even if you can see him and everyone else knows he’s in the picture, it’s quite common for people to pretend he’s missing. It’s a joke and leads to some funny internet content.
The same goes for camo gear. The internet associates camo gear with ‘invisible’ considering that is its primary goal in battle. So, memes once again have spread all over the internet laughing about how a man may not be wearing any pants because they are camo or how a soldier may just be made up of a floating head and arms. People pretend to see right through the camo.
In any war-style game camo is always an option for customizations. Players can add camo skins to their character’s uniform, face, guns, or knives. It’s a no-brainer for game developers, and it helps spice up the content. Even I enjoy the customizations when I play war-style games.
For the camo lovers out there, who love their games just as much, they tend to buy camo everything. It’s become a fashion trend and can add some neat style to an otherwise every day, plain outfit.
To fill the gap, Turtle Beach is attempting to give you a stealthy headset while providing a crisp sounding game. Wrapped in camouflage green fabric, Turtle Beach’s new Recon Camo headset is a big speaker, loud-sounding, comfortable headset that could even prove useful in Afghanistan.
Our pictures are not invisible; the camo headset does exist. You’ll have to take our word for it. ?
Welcome to my review of the Turtle Beach Recon Camo headset.
Design
Beginning with the body of the Recon Camo, it’s made entirely from plastic with no apparent metal or aluminum. While it is plastic, the plastic used is a thicker material and does not feel cheap or flimsy.
To match the green body, there is green camo all over the headset. You’ll find the camo covering the earcups and headband foam as well as some of it peeking through the rear side of the earcups. As it is forest camo, there is a mixture of light and dark green, tan, and black colors.
Turtle Beach used a soft felt material which covers the non-memory foam on the earcups and headband. There is plenty of comfy foam, but I would have preferred to see memory foam used. The felt material does an excellent job of preventing head discomfort, though you will get hair-indentations that often comes with wearing headphones for a long time.
Even though the foam is not a form-fitting memory-foam, I must say that the thicker plush foam does do a great job at enclosing your entire ear. While listening to music or playing games, the sound does not leak in or out whatsoever.
Turtle Beach used oval-shaped earcups, which I prefer, and both earcups can rotate in and out for a better fit around your head.
When the headphones are not in use, the earcups rotate towards you by 90 degrees. Placing the headphones around your neck, the earcups lie flat against your chest. Not my preferred rotation, but it’s comfortable for when you aren’t using them.
Regarding the headband, the Recon Camo does an excellent job of stretching outwards. The plastic body gives a lot of leeway for stretching and was comfortable for the multiple people I had tried the Recon Camo on.
Like the earcups, the headband is plush and contains a lot of foam. There will be the same hair-indentation after long periods of use, but for non-memory foam, it’s decent.
To transmit power and sound, the Recon Camo has a non-detachable rubberized cable that terminates in a 3.5mm headphone jack. The cable is an okay-length and has an inline mute and volume switch. Oddly, when the mute switch is activated, there isn’t a red indicator to quickly identify that you are on mute.
For communication, Turtle Beach includes their renowned detachable and bendable microphone. Like other Turtle Beach headphones, the microphone can be moved to any position and has a large pop filter on the end of it.
Outside of the forest camo, there aren’t a whole lot of design aspects on the Recon Camo. It’s a headset geared towards practicality rather than designed focus.
Functionality
Creating sound on the Recon Camo are 50mm speakers that pump out loud and serious sound.
Listening to music right away, the Recon Camo sounds acceptably good. Instruments are loud, clear, and crisp. In fact, I was enjoying my music on a headset that has a niece userbase.
Mids and highs were fantastic, with lows being average in my book. The 50mm drivers do another great job at producing head bouncing bass too.
I listened to an assortment of different music on the Recon Camo, and it all sounded really, really great. You could sing along to it all, and you felt as if the music was inside your head. It battles well against the highly praised HyperX Cloud IIs.
Switching gears to gaming, the love for the sound continues. I could hear my teammates communicating, footsteps of the enemy, and gunfire that was miles away. Playing Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG, and Civilization VI, I thought that the Recon Camo would play just fine on any game out there.
Whether or not you are a fan of the camo coloring, the sound really brings these headphones to life and drammatically reinforces what I mentioned earlier on how the Recon Camo is a practical headset that is geared towards just being something good without being fancy.
All of this sound can be enjoyed on your Xbox One, PS4, PC, Mac, or mobile device. It’s a staple of Turtle Beach to include full compatibility, and I enjoy seeing it on the Recon Camo too. You will need to use any adapters required such as the Xbox One controller adapter.
The microphone sounds acceptable to the receiving listener with little to no audio distortion of the operator’s voice. You can tell that there is a microphone in use, as there is some white noise, but nothing that would stop you from shouting orders in a game. The microphone can be removed when not in use.
For comfortability, there are a few adjustments I would make. The headband can start to give you a headache after an extended gaming session, and the attached cable is too short. At three feet, it’s difficult to plug into a desktop computer that is located on the floor.
As for the positives of comfort, the earcup’s felt material prevents your head from overheating, plus its soft touch isn’t bothersome in the way that fake leather can be after it ages. The wide-range of height adjustment means everyone can enjoy the Recon Camo.
The Recon Camo may be the first headset that I have ever reviewed where I can easily say that it can take constant abuse. The plastic body and felt padding easily gives the durability rating an A+. Drops, bangs, and accidents aren’t going to phase the Recon Camo.
My Final Thoughts
Overall, the Recon Camo has been a decent and practical headset to review. Turtle Beach didn’t go wild or try to make the headset something that it’s not. It may be camo colored with a niche market, but they packed in some serious speakers to draw more people in.
Listening to the Recon Camo was a great experience, and I felt that any user of the headset would feel the same. Everything I listened to and every game I played performed flawlessly with loud, clear sounds. While listening, the Recon Camo was also comfortable to wear.
Priced at $59.99 I feel that the Recon Camo has a high price tag for not a whole lot. Yes, the speakers are worth it, but if you aren’t a fan of felt earcups, camo coloring, or lacking features such as Bluetooth, you may not be fully satisfied.
I see the Recon Camo being great for teenagers or young gamers who may be rougher with their equipment. If the prices were to drop, I would also say that any gamer would enjoy these headphones. The coloring may not be for me, but the speakers sure are.
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© 2018 Justin Vendette