The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are fair wired gaming headphones. These unique in-ears have a small detachable boom mic that connects to the left earbuds, but you can easily remove it for day-to-day use. The microphone performance is quite decent overall, and the boom microphone helps separate your voice from background noise. Unfortunately, their sound profile is quite muddy and dark sounding, and while they may be suited for video game sounds, they likely won't be the best choice to listen to vocal-centric genres like pop or rock. They also aren't the most comfortable, though their large earbuds stick out far enough from your ear to reduce fatigue, which is good.
Our Verdict
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are inadequate headphones for mixed usage. While their versatile design is meant to make them suitable for both gaming as well as day-to-day use, their dark and muddy sound profile may not be well-suited for many genres of music. Despite being portable, they aren't the best choice for travel as they do a poor job isolating the low rumbles of bus or plane engines.
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Decent microphone performance for in-ears thanks to unique detachable boom mic.
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Versatile design is suitable for gaming as well as daily use.
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Cheap materials aren't the most comfortable in the ear.
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Muddy and cluttered sound profile may not be suitable for all genres.
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Mediocre noise isolation.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are poor headphones for neutral sound listening. Their bass and mid ranges are both very inaccurate, and they have a very dark and boomy sound profile. Like most in-ears, they have outstanding frequency response consistency, so you should get the same results every time you use the headphones.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are disappointing headphones for commuting or travel. Even though you can remove the boom microphone for daily use, they may not be the best option for your daily commute as their noise isolation performance is mediocre, and they do a poor job blocking out the low rumbles of bus engines. Since they're wired headphones, they don't require a battery, which is good for long flights, but they're not the most comfortable and may cause fatigue during long listening sessions.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are mediocre wired headphones for sports. While their in-ear design means that they won't cause your ears to get too warm while working out, they don't feel the most stable. Their wire is quite stiff and may easily get snagged, while their large, protruding earbuds may wobble and get loose.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are disappointing headphones for office use. While their wired design means you can use them all day without worrying about battery life, they aren't the most comfortable and will likely get sore after a full day of use. While they only do an alright job at blocking out background speech, luckily you should be able to turn them up fairly loud without bothering those around you.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are wired-only headphones and therefore can't be used for wireless gaming.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are adequate wired gaming headphones. While they may not be as comfortable as most over-ear options, they're much more breathable, so your ears won't get as hot during long gaming sessions. Their boom microphone also works fairly well, and your teammates should have no problems hearing you even in noisy environments.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are okay headphones for phone calls. Thanks to their boom mic, their microphone performance is quite decent, and voice transmitted or recorded with them will sound clear and easy to understand.
- 5.6 Mixed Usage
- 5.4 Neutral Sound
- 5.5 Commute/Travel
- 6.4 Sports/Fitness
- 5.5 Office
- 4.5 Wireless Gaming
- 6.5 Wired Gaming
- 6.5 Phone Calls
- Updated Feb 13, 2020: Review published.
- Updated Feb 11, 2020: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Feb 11, 2020: Early access published.
- Updated Feb 09, 2020: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jan 07, 2020: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Compared To Other Headphones
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are a unique pair of wired gaming in-ears that include a detachable boom microphone but in the small form factor of in-ear headphones. While they may not be as comfortable as some over-ear gaming headsets, their in-ear design means they breathe a lot better and don't cause your ears to get as hot. If you want a versatile pair of gaming headphones but would rather have something wireless, check out the Razer Hammerhead True Wireless.
See our recommendations for the best earbuds for gaming, the best gaming headsets under $50, and the best gaming headsets.
The SteelSeries TUSQ are better wired gaming headphones than the Turtle Beach Battle Buds. The SteelSeries are more comfortable, feel better built, and have a more neutral sound profile, although it's still very excited. The boom microphone also has a significantly better recording quality. However, the Turtle Beach have volume controls, and their mic is significantly better at separating your voice from ambient noise around you.
The Logitech G333 are better for wired gaming than the Turtle Beach Battle Buds. Both headphones have a boomy sound profile, but the Logitech's is more neutral, and its bass is less overwhelming, which some users may prefer. The Logitech are also better-built, more comfortable, and more stable. On the other hand, the Turtle Beach's boom mic has a much better noise handling performance and does a somewhat better job of blocking ambient noise, so they may be more suitable for use in loud environments.
The HyperX Cloud Stinger are much better wired gaming headphones than the Turtle Beach Battle Buds. The HyperX have a much better-balanced sound profile, are much more comfortable thanks to their over-ear design, and have a better microphone. On the other hand, the Turtle Beach are more portable and breathe better thanks to their in-ear design.
The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless are much better-performing gaming headphones than the Turtle Beach Battle Buds, but with a very different design. The SteelSeries are bulky over-ear headphones with a wireless dock to connect to your TV and gaming consoles to use the headphones wirelessly. Meanwhile, the Turtle Beach are wired earbuds with a small boom microphone, designed to use while gaming on a mobile device or to plug into the controller of your home console. The SteelSeries have a more balanced sound profile and a much better performing microphone. On the other hand, the Turtle Beach are much more portable.
The Corsair HS35 are slightly better-wired gaming headphones than the Turtle Beach Battle Buds. While the Corsair have a more comfortable over-ear design, the Turtle Beach have a much smaller in-ear form factor which is much more breathable during long gaming sessions. The recording quality of the Turtle Beach microphone is better, but the Corsair's microphone does a better job at separating your voice from background noise.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are better gaming headphones than the Razer Hammerhead True Wireless 2019. While the Razer are better for daily use thanks to their truly wireless design, they're Bluetooth-only, and you can't use them with a PS4 or Xbox One. The Turtle Beach are wired and can be plugged directly into your console's controller. Their microphone also performs a lot better than the Razer.
The SteelSeries Arctis 1 and the Turtle Beach Battle Buds are similarly performing wired gaming headphones. While the SteelSeries have a more comfortable over-ear design, the Turtle Beach are in-ears that are more portable and breathe better during longer gaming sessions. The microphone of the SteelSeries performs a lot better, and their sound profile is much more accurate and better-balanced.
Test Results
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are a unique-looking pair of wired in-ear headphones due to their rather large earbuds and fairly small detachable boom microphone. While we purchased the white/blue model, they're also available in black.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are fairly comfortable headphones. While their earbuds are fairly large, they stick out quite far and make no contact with your ears. Unfortunately, the tips feel cheap and are hard.
The in-line remote controls are alright. There's an easy-to-use volume slider as well as a mute microphone button. On the other side of the remote is a single button that will answer calls, pause/play music, or skip tracks when double-clicked. While the physical buttons are quite clicky, there are no audio cues.
Like most in-ears, these headphones breathe incredibly well and shouldn't cause your ears to heat up even during intense workouts.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are portable. The detachable boom microphone allows them to easily slide into a pocket or bag. However, their earbuds are large, and overall they're a bit less portable than most wired in-ear headphones.
The case that comes with these headphones is poor. It's a cheap pouch that's fairly small, and it takes a while to slide the headphones into it.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds' build quality is just alright. While the cord and in-line remote are fairly thick, they're made of cheap plastic and rubber. The weakest point is where the wire connects to each earbud, which could become an issue over time.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are decently stable in-ear headphones. Their wire is quite stiff and can easily get snagged on things. They also stick out quite far from your ear, which can cause them to feel less stable overall.
- Turtle Beach Battle Buds
- Carrying case
- 3x tip sizes
- 3x stability fins
- Sticker
- Manual
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds' sound profile is quite dark and muddy. The entire bass range is quite overpowering, and these headphones likely won't be well-suited to more vocal-centric genres.
Like most in-ears, the frequency response consistency is outstanding. Once you achieve a proper seal with the included tips, you should get the same frequency response every time you use them.
The bass accuracy is terrible. The entire range is very over-emphasized, which causes them to sound muddy and boomy.
Their mid accuracy is poor. The low-mid and mid-mid ranges are over-emphasized, while the high-mid range is accurate. This causes some lead instruments to be overpowered by the bass frequencies.
Their treble accuracy is decent. While some vocals or instruments may sound slightly harsh or piercing, higher frequencies are reduced. Sibilants like cymbals sound dull and lispy.
The peaks and dips performance is satisfactory. The first peak in the treble range causes some instruments and vocals to sound quite sharp and piercing, while the dip causes higher-pitched vocals and instruments to be pushed back in the mix. The large dip in the mid-range will cause those leads and vocals to be overpowered and lost.
These headphones' imaging is outstanding. The weighted group delay is well within very good limits throughout the entire range, ensuring tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our test unit are well-matched, which helps the accurate placement and localization of objects (vocals, instruments, footsteps) in the stereo field, though these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.
Like most in-ears, the soundstage is awful. This is because properly activating the resonances of the pinna (the outer ear) is one of the important factors in creating an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage. Since in-ears and earbuds completely bypass the pinna, their soundstage tends to be perceived as small and located inside the listener's head.
These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.
Their weighted harmonic distortion performance is very good. Even under heavy loads, audio should be clear and pure.
These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when listening using these settings.
The noise isolation performance is passable. While they're decent at blocking out background speech, they don't do much to help against the low rumbles of bus or plane engines. They do an outstanding job isolating noises in the treble range, though, like the sounds made by an A/C unit.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds' leakage is fantastic. You should be able to turn your music up to help block out background noise without bothering those around you.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds have a unique and fairly small detachable boom microphone that attaches to the left earbud. If you're looking for in-ear headphones for gaming with an in-line mic, try the Logitech G333.
The microphone's recording quality is decent. Thanks in part to the fact that these are wired headphones that don't use a Bluetooth connection, your voice will be clear and easy to understand.
The boom microphone on these headphones does a decent job with noise handling and it performs better than the similarly designed SteelSeries TUSQ's mic. Even in noisy environments, the person you're speaking to should be able to hear you fairly clearly.
These wired passive headphones have no active features.
There's no dedicated app for these headphones.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are wired-only headphones. If you're looking for Bluetooth gaming earbuds, check out the Razer Hammerhead True Wireless.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds are wired-only headphones.
The Turtle Beach Battle Buds use a standard 1/8" TRRS connection and have a fairly long wire.
You can plug these wired in-ears into the controller of a PS4 for both audio and microphone compatibility. Depending on your PC, you may need to purchase a Y-splitter.
You can plug these wired in-ears into the controller of an Xbox One for both audio and microphone compatibility. Depending on the generation of your controller, though, you may need an additional adapter.