Turtle Beach Recon 50P Gaming Headset Review UK 2026

Look, I’m going to be brutally honest from the start: the Turtle Beach Recon 50P Gaming Headset at £19.95 is what happens when a proper gaming brand tries to make something for the absolute bargain basement. And you know what? They’ve somehow pulled off something genuinely usable. Not amazing. Not impressive. But usable, which is more than I can say for most sub-£20 headsets that feel like they were designed by people who’ve never actually worn headphones.

Turtle Beach Recon 50P Headset Wired Gaming Headset - PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X or S, Xbox One and PC

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 (104,992 reviews)

£19.95

• Versatile compatibility: Works well with PS4
• High Quality 40 mm speakers: Hear every crisp high and thundering low with these large 40 mm speakers
• Convenient in-line controls: Convenient in-line controls place master volume and mic mute right at your fingertips
• Crystal clear chat: An adjustable, high-sensitivity mic picks-up your voice loud and clear and can be removed when watching movies or listening to music
• The 3D Audio advantage - Unleash the power of 3D Audio, delivering precise spatial surround sound for an immersive, realistic gaming experience on PS5

View on Amazon →

Price checked: 10 Jan 2026 | Affiliate link

📸 Product Gallery

×

‹ ›

View on Amazon

After three weeks of testing this budget warrior, I’ve worn it through marathon gaming sessions, subjected my mates to its microphone quality, and genuinely tried to break it through normal use. The verdict? It’s the gaming headset equivalent of a Dacia Sandero: nobody’s going to be impressed, but it’ll get you where you need to go without leaving you stranded.

Right, let me tell you exactly what you’re getting, what you’re compromising on, and whether this belongs on your head. Check current availability on Amazon while I break down three weeks of actual use.

Wearing Experience: The Two-Hour Wall

Here’s the thing about budget headsets: they all make grand promises about comfort, then proceed to squeeze your skull like an overenthusiastic vice. The Recon 50P is better than most at this price point, which is damning with faint praise.

For the first hour, honestly, it’s fine. The ear cups are covered in synthetic leather (let’s not pretend it’s anything else) with a thin layer of foam padding. They sit on your ears rather than around them, making these proper on-ear headphones rather than over-ear. This matters enormously for long sessions.

I tested these during a particularly long Elden Ring session, and around the 90-minute mark, I started noticing the clamping force. By hour two, I was adjusting them every fifteen minutes. By hour three, I took them off for a break and saw the red marks on my ears. This is the reality of budget gaming headsets: physics and materials science cost money.

The headband has minimal padding. It’s just thin foam over plastic, and you’ll feel it if you’ve got a prominent head shape. I don’t, and I still noticed it after extended wear. My mate Dave, who’s got a properly large head, tried them for twenty minutes and handed them back with a grimace. “Nah, mate, these are trying to crush my skull.”

Weight isn’t the issue here. At roughly 200 grams, they’re lighter than most gaming headsets. The problem is how that weight and clamping force are distributed. There’s no clever engineering here, no memory foam, no adjustable tension. You get what you get.

For glasses wearers? This gets complicated. I don’t wear glasses, but I tested with my reading glasses to simulate the experience. The ear cups press the glasses arms into your head, creating pressure points above your ears. After an hour, it becomes genuinely uncomfortable. If you wear glasses full-time, I’d seriously consider saving up for something with better ear cup design.

The adjustable headband uses a simple notched system. It clicks into place with reassuring firmness, and I never had it slip during testing. But the adjustment range is limited. If you’ve got a particularly small or large head, you might find the fit isn’t quite right.

One pleasant surprise: these don’t get ridiculously hot. The on-ear design means some airflow around your ears, unlike sealed over-ear designs that turn into saunas. During a warm December day (climate change is weird), I barely noticed heat buildup.

Sound Quality: Functional, Not Fancy

Let’s address the elephant in the room: these use 40mm drivers, which sounds impressive until you realise driver size alone tells you almost nothing about sound quality. It’s like judging a car’s performance solely by engine displacement.

I tested these with games I know intimately: Apex Legends for directional audio, Resident Evil 4 Remake for atmospheric sound design, and Forza Horizon 5 for music and engine notes. The Recon 50P delivers what I call “PlayStation 2 era” sound quality. Everything’s there, nothing’s missing, but there’s no nuance or detail.

Positional audio is adequate. In Apex Legends, I could generally tell which direction footsteps were coming from, but the imaging lacks precision. When someone’s directly behind you versus 45 degrees to your right? Clear difference. When they’re at 30 degrees versus 45 degrees? Good luck. For casual gaming, this is fine. For competitive play where audio cues matter? You’re at a disadvantage.

The frequency response is heavily V-shaped, which is marketing speak for “boosted bass and treble, scooped mids.” Explosions sound punchy, gunshots have impact, but voices and mid-range details get lost. In single-player games with cinematic audio, this actually works reasonably well. The opening of God of War Ragnarök sounded properly dramatic.

But here’s where it falls apart: music. I tested with tracks I’ve heard on everything from £20 earbuds to £300 studio monitors. Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes” sounded muddy and congested. The layered guitars that should shimmer and separate just blur together. Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta” has punchy bass but the vocal clarity suffers. These are gaming headphones that happen to play music, not the other way around.

Soundstage is narrow, as expected from closed-back on-ear headphones at this price. Everything feels like it’s happening inside your head rather than around you. There’s no sense of space or depth. Coming from literally any mid-range headset, this will feel claustrophobic.

Volume gets plenty loud through the 3.5mm connection. I tested with a PS5 controller, Xbox controller, and directly into my PC’s motherboard audio. In all cases, 70% volume was my comfortable maximum. At 100%, these get genuinely loud, though the distortion becomes noticeable.

About that “3D Audio” marketing on the box: this is standard stereo. The PS5’s Tempest 3D audio works with any headphones because it’s processed by the console, not the headset. Don’t buy these thinking there’s special spatial audio technology. There isn’t.

The bass response deserves specific mention. It’s boosted, obviously, but not to ridiculous levels. Explosions in Battlefield have weight without drowning out everything else. This is actually one area where Turtle Beach’s gaming experience shows. They’ve tuned these for game audio specifically, and it works for that purpose.

Is the sound quality good? No. Is it acceptable for gaming at fifteen quid? Honestly, yeah.

Voice Clarity: Better Than It Has Any Right To Be

Right, this shocked me. The microphone on the Recon 50P is genuinely usable. Not good, not great, but usable, which is more than I expected.

The mic is removable, which I love. When you’re watching Netflix or listening to music, you don’t need a stick poking out from your face. It attaches via a 3.5mm jack on the left ear cup and stays secure. I never had it fall out accidentally, even when taking the headset on and off repeatedly.

I recorded voice samples in Discord, PlayStation Party Chat, and using Audacity for direct comparison. The mic picks up voices clearly with reasonable accuracy. You don’t sound like you’re talking through a tin can, which is the baseline for budget headset mics.

Background noise rejection is where things get dodgy. If you’re in a quiet room, brilliant. If you’ve got a mechanical keyboard, a loud PC, or family members talking nearby, your teammates will hear everything. There’s no noise cancellation, no clever processing. The mic is omnidirectional and picks up everything within a metre or so.

During testing, my mate complained that he could hear my keyboard clearly during intense Apex matches. When I switched to a quieter membrane keyboard, the issue improved but didn’t disappear. If you’re a heavy mechanical keyboard user, be aware your team will know about it.

The mic monitoring situation is interesting: there isn’t any. You can’t hear yourself speak, which some people find disorienting. I’m used to it from years of budget headsets, but if you’re coming from something with sidetone, you’ll notice the absence.

Mic positioning matters enormously with this headset. The boom is flexible, which is great, but you need to position it correctly. Too far from your mouth and you sound distant. Too close and you get plosives (those annoying “P” and “B” pops). I found the sweet spot about two finger-widths from my mouth, angled slightly to the side.

One specific anecdote: during a particularly heated Warzone match, I was calling out enemy positions rapidly and my squadmate said, “Mate, I can actually understand you, which is more than I could say for your last headset.” That previous headset? A £12 no-name Amazon special. The Recon 50P’s mic is a proper step up from true bottom-barrel options.

The inline controls include a mic mute switch, which is essential. It’s a physical switch that clicks satisfyingly. No holding buttons, no accidentally unmuting yourself. You flip it, the mic’s muted. Simple. The volume wheel is less impressive, feeling plasticky and imprecise, but it works.

Comparison: How It Stacks Up

Let’s be realistic about what else exists in this price range and slightly above.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 Silver Gaming Headset is genuinely worth the extra tenner if you can afford it. The over-ear design makes a massive difference for comfort during long sessions. But if you literally cannot stretch to £25, the Recon 50P is your best bet.

Comparing this to something like the Sony INZONE H5 Wireless Gaming Headset feels absurd. That’s a £100+ headset with wireless connectivity, proper audio processing, and actual comfort engineering. They exist in different universes. But I mention it because if you’re serious about gaming and can save up, that’s the level where gaming headsets become genuinely good rather than “good enough.”

Against no-name Amazon basics headsets at similar prices? The Recon 50P wins easily. Turtle Beach’s experience in gaming audio shows. They know what matters for game sound and they’ve prioritised correctly within brutal budget constraints. Check the current price here to see if any deals are running.

Build Quality: Handle With Care

Let’s not dance around this: the Recon 50P is made from the cheapest plastic that could conceivably hold together. It’s lightweight because there’s barely any material here.

The headband is thin plastic with minimal reinforcement. I can flex it with moderate pressure, and I’m not trying hard. Will it snap if you sit on it? Absolutely. Will it survive being tossed in a bag? Maybe once or twice. This is a headset that demands careful handling.

During three weeks of testing, I treated these with reasonable care. No throwing them around, no sitting on them, just normal use and storage on my desk. They’ve held up fine under those conditions. But I can see exactly where they’ll break: the adjustment sliders. Those thin plastic rails will crack eventually with repeated adjustment.

The ear cups rotate slightly for a better fit, which is good. The hinges feel stable enough, though I wouldn’t want to test their long-term durability. There’s a tiny bit of creaking when you adjust them, which doesn’t inspire confidence.

The cable is permanently attached, which is both good and bad. Good because it’s one less point of failure. Bad because when (not if) the cable develops issues, the entire headset is finished. The cable is thin, unbraided, and feels like it could fray with repeated stress. I’m careful to avoid rolling over it with my chair.

Cable length is approximately 1.2 metres, which is fine for console controllers but short for desktop PC use. I had to position my PC case closer to my desk to avoid cable tension. No extension cable is included.

The 3.5mm jack is standard size with no reinforcement. This is where many budget headsets die: the cable gets yanked, the jack gets stressed, and eventually you get crackling audio or one dead channel. After three weeks, mine’s still perfect, but I’ve been deliberately gentle.

Here’s a tangent: I once had a budget headset where the cable developed a short, and I spent two weeks doing the “twist the cable until audio comes back” dance before admitting defeat. It’s the most annoying way for tech to die because it works intermittently, giving you false hope. The Recon 50P’s cable feels like it could go down that road if you’re not careful.

Will these last a year? If you’re careful, probably. If you’re rough with your gear, absolutely not. If you’ve got kids who treat electronics like indestructible toys? Buy two, because you’ll need the spare.

What Other Buyers Think

With 104,993 verified reviews and a 4.3/5 rating, the Recon 50P has one of the largest sample sizes I’ve seen for a budget gaming headset. That’s over 100,000 people who’ve bought these and bothered to leave feedback. The consensus? Exactly what you’d expect.

Positive reviews consistently mention value for money. “Can’t believe how good these sound for fifteen quid” appears in various forms hundreds of times. People coming from phone earbuds or broken headsets are genuinely impressed. The microphone quality gets specific praise, with many reviewers noting their friends said they sound clearer.

The comfort complaints are universal in negative reviews. “Hurt after an hour” is the most common criticism. People with larger heads or glasses report particular discomfort. Several reviewers mention buying these for kids, where the smaller size actually works better.

Durability concerns pop up frequently. Multiple reviews mention the headband cracking within 6-12 months. Some report cable issues after extended use. A few unlucky souls had them arrive broken or die within weeks, though that’s true of any product with this many sales.

Interestingly, quite a few reviews are from parents buying these for kids’ first gaming setup. The consensus there is positive: they’re cheap enough that damage isn’t devastating, functional enough for kids’ needs, and the removable mic means they work for school video calls too.

One recurring theme in recent reviews: people buying these as emergency replacements when their expensive headset breaks. “My £80 headset died and I needed something immediately” stories are common. Most say they’re surprised these work as temporary solutions, though nearly all plan to upgrade eventually.

The most helpful critical review I found was from someone who bought these alongside the Recon 70, tested both, and returned the 50P. Their verdict: “The extra tenner for the 70 is absolutely worth it for the comfort alone.” Hard to argue with that assessment.

Buyer Matching: Who Should Actually Buy This?

Perfect for:

• First-time gamers who need something functional immediately
• Parents buying a starter headset for kids under 12
• Emergency replacement when your main headset breaks
• Casual gamers who play less than 2 hours at a time
• Anyone with genuinely only £15-20 to spend

Wrong choice for:

• Competitive gamers who need precise audio cues
• Anyone planning 4+ hour gaming sessions
• Glasses wearers who game regularly
• People who are rough with their gear
• Anyone who can stretch budget to £30-40 for better options

Here’s the question you need to answer honestly: is this genuinely your maximum budget, or are you cheaping out? If you literally cannot afford more than twenty quid, the Recon 50P is your best option. It works. It’s functional. You’ll be able to game and chat with mates.

But if you’re buying this to save money while secretly knowing you could afford better? You’re making a false economy. You’ll be uncomfortable, you’ll be frustrated by the sound quality, and within six months you’ll buy something better anyway. Just save up the extra £15-20 for the Recon 70 or wait until you can afford a proper mid-range option.

I reckon the sweet spot for this headset is parents buying for kids. Children have smaller heads (better fit), shorter gaming sessions (comfort less critical), and a tendency to break things (cheap replacement less painful). For that use case specifically, this is brilliant.

Verdict: The Best of a Compromised Category

Right, let’s wrap this up with complete honesty. The Turtle Beach Recon 50P Gaming Headset is not a good headset. It’s a functional headset at an absurdly low price. Those are different things.

After three weeks of testing, I’m genuinely impressed that something this cheap works as well as it does. Turtle Beach has clearly thought about what matters most at this price point and made sensible compromises. The microphone is better than it needs to be. The sound quality is adequate for gaming. The weight is low. These are the right priorities.

But the compromises are real and unavoidable. Comfort is marginal. Build quality is fragile. Sound quality won’t impress anyone. If you’re coming from anything decent, this will feel like a massive downgrade.

The fundamental question is whether you’re buying this because you must or because you want to save money. If it’s the former, go ahead. You’ll get functional gaming audio and be able to chat with your mates. Mission accomplished.

If it’s the latter, you’re making a mistake. Save up. Wait for a sale. Buy something better. Your ears, head, and teammates will thank you.

For the specific buyer who needs a working gaming headset right now and has fifteen quid: this is sorted. For everyone else: keep looking.

Final Score: 6.5/10

It loses points for comfort, build quality, and sound quality. It gains points for value, microphone performance, and actually working at this price. That’s a passing grade in the budget category, which is about as enthusiastic as I can get about a £15 headset.

You can check current pricing and availability on Amazon, where it frequently appears in deals. If you can catch it under £13, that’s proper bargain territory.

For more information about Turtle Beach’s full range, visit the official Turtle Beach website. For broader gaming headset comparisons and buying advice, RTINGS has comprehensive testing across all price ranges.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my proper headset. Three weeks of budget audio testing is enough to make you appreciate what you’ve got.