Considering the Saitek X52 or the X55

[Halvard]

Hello Forum People

Now i've been playing ED since its "release", done pirating/exploring/trading and bounty hunting, and I am really enjoying it even if only able to play after work, however I currently find myself relaying more and more on keyboard commands for various different functions, as sadly i cant map everything to my Thrustmaster X Hotas, even with multiple combos.

So i've been looking around the market and i've noticed the Saitek X52, Which seems to meet my button requirements however one thing i absolutely love about my thrust-master X Hotas is the joystick resistance feature on the bottom. Allowing me to turn it from some limp wristed joystick that flops all over the place to a joystick that actually requires effort for me to move it.

However none of the reviews i've checked about the x52 seem to mention a feature similar to this, though i have seen a lot of videos on modding the saitek X52 and the pro, so is this a missing feature that requires a user mod to fix.

Also i see theres two version of the x52 on the market so what's the real difference between the two versions i.e the pro vs normal (is it worth the extra money)

Or should i just go for the X55 Rhino which appears to have loads of buttons and according to reviews appears to have decent joystick resistance

TLDR
Three questions about the saitek x52 and the x55 Rhino
1) Is there any joystick resistance feature, because some of the videos on youtube seem to suggest that the stick can be moved by a light touch, and i prefer a joystick to actually have some resistance? (Especially if its over 100 squid)
2) Is there any real difference in the two versions of the saitek X52 I.E between the x52 vs x52 pro?
3) Is the X55 the only real choice for what i'm after? (Decent Joystick Resistance + Loads of mappable buttons)

Thanks for reading and hopefully providing some insight.

 

[TurkeyVulture]

I vote for the X55. Has plenty of resistance, and you can change out the springs to increase/decrease it. All the buttons you need and more.

Haven't tried the X52, but I'm VERY happy with X55.

 

[jgm]

You can also put yaw on to the X-55 stick, which for me was the decider.

It comes with software that you can use to alter the response curve for each function. You can also add deadzones in the Saitek software, but I found that you also need to add a small deadzone in ED as well to stop drift.

 

[Forceflow]

One of the reasons why I went with the X52 (pro in my case, but doesn't matter as the non pro has this as well) is that the mode switcher is accessible with your thumb on the stick without removing your hand. This means that you can switch between three different modes each with a completely unique set of button-selection if you want. In my case I have a fighting mode and a navigation mode. The latter let's me look and navigate through all the games navigation menus with ease. Really handy if you just scanned a ship and want to check out it's wanted status.
I thought about also using the third mode so that I could also change the energy layout without removing my hand, but I decided I needed it too often during battle so I wired it to the joystick switches on the base. (Which means that I actually have to remove my hand from the throttle to change the energy settings and lower the landing gear)
Another small thing that I personally like on the pro (I believe that is a pro only feature) is that you can change the individual colors of the LEDs on the stick. While not something critical I find that this makes it easier to get used to your button layout in the beginning. For example I assigned the three switches in the base green, yellow and red. Green = more power to engine, yellow = sys and red = weapons. Again, nothing big, but this combined with the fact that personally I find the pro looks much better than the non-pro made me go for it.
The X55 looks pretty nice as well, but I would really consider the X52 because of the mode switcher. It's there in the X55, too, but you have to take your hand off the throttle to switch it since it's at the base of the throttle. As for the stiffness of the stick, I simply took a strip of paper, folded it several times and then stuck it under the spring. There's a convenient groove in the metal there and I never had to touch it ever since then. Really, really easy to do.