I have been using mine for two days now and can't understand the posts saying poor quality bla bla bla. It is certainly way better quality in feel and use than my old Thrustmaster X Hotas which lasted me 6yrs before the yaw function got so much drift it made a new buy necessary. The X56 is solid and while researching various Hotas replacements it is clear that the bad ones were the last batch of Saitek ones with the blue on black design Logitech inherited. Logitech have since changed the spec and improved the new ones with the black and silvery/grey design.
There are three colour bands in the settings red, green and blue, each of which can be stylised giving a decent spectrum of colours including the red on the bottom and blue down the side. When I got it I followed the instructions by first installing the software downloaded from the Logitech site. As with my old Hotas I calibrated it from the Windows devices and printers screen icon. The first time I played after setting the binds I did notice that the joystick was very imprecise and thought I might test out the springs to see if that helped. After watching a review video on You Tube I decided to calibrate the X56 from the Logitech settings panel instead of in Windows and what a difference from before, now the joystick is seriously precise. I had been using a small hauler I bought for testing as I wanted to keep rebuy costs low in the event of a disaster but immediately went back and retrieved my Corvette from storage before taking a few missions and immediately flew through the letterbox as easy as going through the eye of a needle.
If you have the funds, play several flight sim/ space sim games a lot then I suppose long term the really expensive gear is good economics but if like me you play a couple of hours daily on ED or other game then the X56 is more than adequate in my opinion. Another thing not mentioned is the fact that some people are heavy handed and I suspect many of the problems written about here about faulty products etc are more to do with playing styles. I myself am very light handed and my old Hotas X lasted me 6yrs before the yaw and a somewhat imprecise hat switch made me get a new hotas. 90% or so of my old Hotas X controls are still working perfectly well after 6yrs and this in a unit that cost me £35 at the time. So with sensible use there is no reason to doubt that the X56 @ £215 should far outlast that. In fact I am 70yrs old so it will likely outlast me as well.
It's nice that you give so expert feedback after a full two days of use. I dare to say that yes, within the first weeks of having the device i also had no problems. (Once i solved the often reported problem of it the device being power hungry by getting a powered USB hub. )
On throwing it around or handling it badly: i also don't agree there. The devices are screwed to my table, so unless i start throwing around the table the chance of them being tossed around, bruised or anything like that are rather low.
[Also, i have a small metal plate taped to the top, where a plush pet with a magnet inside is being held in place. Even just moving the stick like 50% to the side and releasing it is enough that the pet goes flying, and i use the second weakest centering spring. Yet the pet is fine there, even when i do combat flying, be it Elite Dangerous or Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. So again, i am rather sure that my handling of the stick is not too wild. ]
Yet over the years, i went through a number of X55/X56es. The old Saitek ones broke down once a year and the usual problem was broken wires. (So, i always was able to replace them on warranty. )
The new Logitech device lasted for 3 years and 4 months and the first defect now was that a soldering broke. It was a wire in the grip. I resoldered it, the device is fine again, but when i next time have to open the joysticks grip, i will also use a little glue to fix them in position. The wire currently is dangling down from the top of the joystick. The plate where the POV and 4 way switches are attached is where the cable bundle from goes to from the base, from there on it's loose wires going to all the other buttons. So as the wires are soldered to the plate and the switch, but not held in place by any other means, they are subject to gravitation when moving the joystick. And movement, no matter if fast or slow, results in them also moving a little bit.
One of the Saitek built sticks i opened later. (I have one spare, as one time support just told me to cut off the USB cables and send a picture to confirm that i disabled the device and then sent me a new one. ) The wires in there are still of the "solid core" type. (Excuse if the term is not correct, my am not sure on the proper english term here. ) In the newer Logitech device, when i opened it up, i found the wires to be have a mesh core.
This means that the cables indeed are of higher quality and less prone of breaking. I am quite confident that the higher quality of the cables is the reason why the stick lasted about three times as long as its Saitek-built predecessors. But where the wires are soldered in place, the soldering eliminates the flexibility. So logically, that's where it broke. It's a very logical consequence of how the wires are put into the device, without being held in place at other places than where they were soldered to the board and switch.
So yes, both from how long my device lasted without problems and on what i saw on the wires, Logitech improved some parts compared to the old Saitek/Madcatz version. But while the parts are of better quality, some of the inherent problems could only be properly fixed by completely redesigning the devices internals. As it's unlikely that Logitech will do that, higher than usual wear and tear is simple designed into the device and will happen, no matter how carefully and properly you use it.
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