Not too long before we flew out to CES 2026, Turtle Beach released the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller. Officially licensed by Nintendo, this controller offers compatibility with the Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch family of consoles. You get TMR thumbsticks, GameChat features, up to 40 hours of wireless gameplay, and that iconic and customizable Afterglow lighting. Going toe to toe with the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller in functionality, this controller comes at a competitively lower price point.
So, how does the $64.99 Afterglow Wireless Controller for Nintendo Switch 2 stack up? Let’s dive deeper to find out.
The Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller comes out of the box with a 1m / 3.3ft USB-C charging cable and a quick start guide.
Build, Features and Comfort
The Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller bears a similar overall silhouette to that of the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. It houses all of the same controls seen in Nintendo’s OEM model, with some subtle differences. While it does not have a 3.5mm jack or built-in amiibo functionality, it still sports the C Button for GameChat as well as remappable rear buttons.
Unique to the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller is its TMR thumbsticks and customizable RGB lighting. TMR thumbsticks give this controller an edge over Nintendo’s standard controller, which still uses traditional contact-based sensors. Meanwhile, as TMR focuses on contact-less magnetic sensors, TMR thumbsticks therefore offer more precision and combat stick-drift more effectively after long term use.
Near the bottom, next to the right thumbstick, you have the function button. This button allows you to change the controller’s LED color, brightness and various light modes. It can also be used to either program or clear the inputs of the controller’s rear buttons. Then on the back, you have a switch that allows you to remove the rear buttons from the back of the controller.
The Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller is as comfortable to use and handle as it is easy to look at. Its familiar size and overall shape allows you to quickly become accustomed to the button layout for the most part. I was a little thrown off that the placement of the capture and Home buttons were swapped with that of the “-“ and “+”. Leaving me to occasionally swap to the Nintendo Switch 2 Home Screen when I intended to simply pause a game. However, after enough use, I was able to develop enough muscle memory to avoid that.
Overall, the controller feels great. The face buttons have a good amount of resistance to them, making them feel satisfying to press. The rubberized and textured analog sticks are comfortable to use and easy to handle. The bumpers and triggers feel snappy and responsive while the rear buttons are easy to manage and reach for.
It was an interesting choice for Turtle Beach to include a latch that removes the rear buttons in one piece. However, playing with this rear button panel removed felt somewhat awkward, with the controller’s rear feeling a little too “flat” or sunken-in. As such, I felt it easier to simply disable the rear buttons whenever I did not want them to be in play.
The RGB lighting of the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller makes the controller visually pop. You have plenty of freedom when it comes to choosing the exact color you want and four brightness levels to choose from. Using the onboard controls to do this is also quite easy.
You also have different lighting modes to choose from, giving your controller even more style options. Of course, you are always welcome to turn off the LED’s completely if you prefer.
As far as build quality goes, the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller sports a very solid design that is easy to handle and offers a nice bit of flair.
Performance
The Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller comes ready to compete with the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro with its TMR thumbsticks. These thumbsticks felt both responsive and accurate in all of the games I used them in. When it came to first person shooters, gunplay felt close to what I expected when playing similar games on PC. Apex Legends, thankfully sporting cross-platform progression, was such a game. No one should expect Apex Legends to run as well on the Nintendo Switch 2 as it does on PC. So, I was interested in how well this controller helped close the gap on game feel on Nintendo’s latest console.
That said, I was happy with the results. Crisp controls allowed for successful matches whether it was Battle Royale or Mixtape matches like the one above. That is not to take anything away from the D-pad, however. The D-pad was also responsive and easy to manage in side-scrollers and platformers. As such, the controller also handled exceptionally well as I tried to break my Endless Challenge record on Angry Video Game Nerd 8-bit.
Lastly, the Afterglow Wireless Controller even handled well in fighters. Dragon Punch, Quarter-Circle and Half-Circle command inputs were all easy to execute. Thanks to that, I was able to enjoy the level of gameplay that I am used to when playing the various titles from the Capcom Fighting Collection 2.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the level of performance that the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller provided.
Final Thoughts
For $64.99, the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller gives you a level of performance that rivals, if not surpasses that of the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller. It offers better long-lasting thumbsticks, customizable RBG lighting and a solid feature set that practically any gamer would want. Sure, you do not get a 3.5mm headphone jack or built-in amiibo support. However, you do get a competitive feature set and solid controls for $25 less than the price of Nintendo’s OEM controller. Take all that into consideration and the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller is a solid buy for anyone looking for a new Nintendo Switch controller.
If you are interested in checking out the Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller for yourself, you can do so by clicking here.
† We were provided with a Turtle Beach Afterglow Wireless Controller for review purposes and were not compensated for this review.
