The Turtle Beach Ear Force Recon 50P (what a name huh?) is a wired headset with microphone, intended for use while gaming on PCs and consoles. Its official use and coloring scheme, however, is for a PS4 and/or PS4 Pro. Of course, because the 3.5mm audio jack is a de facto standard, this means that the headset can be used with any PC or console that uses the standard 3.5mm audio jack for audio in/out. Grab one for yourself here: https://amzn.to/2XrHseQ
This headset is targeted at the budget conscious gamer, who wants a quality product, but doesn’t want to spend several hundred dollars on it. As you can imagine, this is a very large segment of the gamer population. I would assume that this is the largest segment within the entire gamer population given what I know about gamers – being one myself and all.
My first impression when holding this in my hands, still inside the packaging, was that it looked like a quality product. After opening and holding it in my hands for a while, twisting it in all sorts of ways, tugging on cabling, etc. my opinion changed slightly. If I were to give a rating system of 1 to 10, 1 being total garbage and 10 being high-end Audio-Technicas, the Ear Force Recon 50P would be about a 5. They are not terrible, but they are not great either. They are perfectly functional, however, and would suffice for any budget gamer.
My overall experience with the product was a positive one. The packaging was adequate for a product of its price, and the product itself had quality that I felt was commensurate with the price paid for it. The product is very user-friendly for both veteran gamers and newbies. As mentioned above, the 3.5mm audio jack is a standard, so if you know how to interact with one of those, you’re golden. There are also simple instructions included, in the event you are not familiar with such witchery. The overall comfort level using these headphones is also about 5 out of 10. They are fine for several hours at a time. I wouldn’t want to wear them for an eight hour gaming session.
There aren’t many pain points or gotchas to this product, mainly because the 3.5mm audio jack is a standard. There isn’t really a way for budget gaming accessory manufacturers to circumvent that standard and still make a profit.
There are a ton of alternatives available in the gaming headset market. Just do a simple Amazon search for “gaming headset” and see what comes up. What you’ll find, however, is that just about every other non-name brand headset of similar quality on Amazon is about the same price as the Ear Force Recon 50P, or within a few dollars up or down. At that point, you have to ask yourself “Is it worth it to save two dollars and go with a no-name brand, or pay the extra two bucks and have a known name and support department behind it?” Myself – I’d just stick to the known quantity.
Should you buy these?
Ah, finally, the big question – should you buy this or not?
So first, here’s my no TL;DR verdict – YES, buy them. Go here to buy them: https://amzn.to/2XrHseQ
Why is it a definite ‘yes’ for a 5/10 product? Simple. If you are new to gaming headsets, this is a solid entry-level headset for the price. You could to a lot worse, and not much better at this price point. So this is a good buy for the beginning gamer. If you are a gaming veteran, then no doubt you’ve spent years using other headsets. At that point, you probably also understand that this is a budget headset and you know what that quality is, having yourself been a beginning gamer at some point. So unless you’re still a budget gamer, this may not be for you, and you would know that. One thing I will mention is that even for the more hardcore gamer like myself, who has super expensive cans, the Ear Force Recon 50P makes a serviceable backup set of cans, should your mains go down.
Pros
- Budget Price.
- Good quality for the price.
- Nice blue and white color scheme.
Cons
- Microphone quality is not great.
- The “pleather” ear cups can get uncomfortable after a while of using.
- The cables seem a little thin, and are not braided.
I’m Mnemonic Tutor, a long time gamer who plays literally any and all types of games. I’ve been playing games since I was five years old, and my reviews come from decades worth of experience with gaming.
Feel free to Tweet me @mnemonictutor if you want to discuss anything. I’m always on Twitter, so it is the best way to contact me. Other contact info also on my Twitter page.
Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/mnemonictutor to see most of these reviews in video form, as well as a lot of other gaming and streaming content that I publish.
If you’re on Twitch, check out my channel and throw me a follow or sub if you like the stream! – http://www.twitch.tv/mnemonictutor
If you’re on Instagram, follow me there @mnemonictutor
You can also follow our Facebook page at http://facebook.com/mnemonictutor