Turtle Beach Elite 800 review

Turtle Beach expects the Elite 800 to last for up to 10 hours on a single charge, and we consistently managed around 9-10 hours of gaming before having to return the headset to the base station. Magnets in the ear cups hold the headset in place when docked, while charging terminals refuel the batteries whenever you aren’t playing. If you have your PS4 set to supply power to your USB ports when in standby mode, you should never pick up the headset to discover you’re low on battery.

You’re spoilt for choice when it comes to sound modes; the Elite 800s have genre-specific modes for shooters, racing games and sports sims, music, movies and a ‘superhuman hearing’ mode which is designed to make it easier to hear enemy footsteps sneaking up on you. This works well, although the extra detail comes at the expense of other areas of the frequency spectrum. You can toggle through each mode with a dedicated button on the ear cupts. We preferred the Signature Sound mode, which is the default option and arguably sounds the best. As you would expect from a gaming headset there’s a generous amount of bass, but unlike other headsets we’ve tried it didn’t overwhelm the mix. Racing games had a welcome low-end rumble when accelerating out of corners, while weapons in first person shooters sounded weighty and mechanical. Surround sound was fairly convincing, and even though virtual surround will never be as immersive as a real 7.1 speaker system we could easily detect sounds behind and to the sides of our character when playing space shooter Destiny.

You can also take the Elite 800s on the move; they can pair to any standard Bluetooth device, or you can plug in a 3.5mm audio jack and use them with wired devices. An accompanying Android app lets you switch sound modes and adjust the mix, even if your device doesn’t support custom equaliser presets, so you can match the sound from your consoles when out and about. The headset isn’t particularly subtle though, so you’re sure to draw attention if you use them out in public. While you can certainly use them for listening to music and watching video, we think the boosted bass makes it more suited to games; some will love the extra grunt at the low end, but others will prefer a more flat response.

At £250, the Elite 800 is a seriously expensive headset – even if it can be used with multiple consoles and Bluetooth devices. However, it’s well-made, comfortable to wear, has great battery life and sounds fantastic in games. Whether you would actually wear it out of the house is down to personal preference, but if you’re after a dedicated headset for your Sony console, this is without a doubt the best one around.