Review: Turtle Beach Airlite Fit For Nintendo Switch 2 -Frills, All-Round Solid Bargain Headset

Between everyone at Nintendo Life, we’ve already got quite the heady (thanks) collection of gaming headsets for Switch 2 since the new console launched. You can find our in our Best Nintendo Switch 2 Gaming Headsets guide.

However, one thing that we don’t have a whole lot of choice on, and especially if you’re looking for any sort of reasonable level of quality, is a decent budget offering. Until now!

Turtle Beach, who I’m certain you’re all familiar with, has just launched its Turtle Beach Airlite Fit for Switch 2, a headset that’s priced at £19.99 / $27.99 (although I’ve already seen it out and about and selling for brand new at £15 on the UK high street, so keep your eyes peeled for bargains if you’re interested).

So it’s about as budget as you’d really expect, or want, to go with this sort of gear, but does it work well? Is it worth a punt or not? Well, yes. Yes it is. It isn’t going to blow your socks off, or your eardrums, which is fair enough at this price, but it is well-made, stylish, and fully officially licensed and branded. I would say it’s a really nice shout for kids also. My eight-year-old can wear it comfortably, and so can I. Sorted.

In terms of build quality, the design, as you can see from our pics, is robust and does a good job of making the whole thing feel sturdy and comfortable on your head. There are no thin or easily breakable parts, it’s all housed in one solid unit, and the foam strip under the headband keeps things comfy whilst the actual ear-pads are decent. I’m not a huge fan of fully-enclosed headsets like this by default, as they get too warm for me with my big old ears stuffed into those foamy cups, but these ones are fine for the most part; comfy, with no surprises — and the jersey-knit covering feels soft but durable.

To adjust the size, you can move the headband through several satisfying clicks on the appropriately-coloured left and right sides, and again this all feels much more robust than you might expect. The mic is surrounded by a soft rubber cover, and can be adjusted to sit as you like it on its little multi-directional wand. And, for the price, the sound quality of the mic is perfectly adequate.

And “adequate” is how I’d describe the entire aural experience, to be honest. You don’t have all the latest tech and modes and fancy stuff here, but the 40mm speakers ensure bass is decent, holding its own in gunfights and explosions without getting muffled or distorted (my usual issue with cheap headsets), and the overall sound levels out of the box (no you can’t adjust anything outside of what the Switch 2 console already allows itself), do just fine across the board.

It follows that there are no fancy ways to connect here, either. It’s wired via audio-jack or bust, but that’s fine. I expect all of this at this price point.

My only major gripe with this headset is that its volume doesn’t turn up loud enough. Of course, this is going to vary based on how loud you like things, but maxing out the audio dial on the headset left me wanting more. To be clear, it’s nowhere near too low, we don’t have that issue at all, but it lacks punch and the top-out volume for me is about 25% too low for what I prefer.

And to make that volume change, there’s just the one big chunky dial to consider, and to mute your mic you simply lift it up until it clicks into place. Again, nothing fancy, but this makes for a clean design, as there aren’t buttons and lights and things to accidentally press everywhere. Silver linings! At 228g it’s super light on the head, too.

All that said, Turtle Beach has given us a very sturdy, tidy and nicely designed budget headset. It 100% isn’t going to set the world alight, but that’s not its point, as the sound here gets the job done. Where it elevates itself beyond other budget sets for me is in its official branding and stylish shaping, which really does give off the air of a more expensive set of cans. It’s also a really good option for kids, as the robustness ensures they won’t break it after just ten minutes.

Judged purely on its sound quality and features, this is a very solid headset that gets done what’s needed. Throw in the better-than-expected design, and that budget-price point and, for folks looking a bargain buy, the Airlite Fit for Switch 2 creep up into highly recommended territory.