My immediate thoughts in comparison on to the T16k.m stick after receiving it, setting up, and calibrating. I have not tested in any apps such as ED, DCS or SC yet.
1. Lovely base. Heavy metal base plate with four rubber grips, sticks to the desk with zero movement. The base is the exact same depth as the T16, but slightly narrower. Therefore it fits exactly where the old one was.
2. Premium grip is all plastic, so inevitably feels cheaper by comparison due to the lightness, but nothing wrong with it. It is slightly taller than the T16.
Installation looks simple, but agreed was slightly more fiddly than expected. When setting the twist using the fasteners and hex bolt, the pin connecting the base and grip came out again, and caused minor damage to the plastic on the bottom of the grip, but nothing consequential.
3. Buttons and switches
Grip buttons - feel solid. Pinky (shift) therefore needs a good push, you will not be pressing it by accident.
Hats and ministick all feel good. The ministick is actually the one on the top left, I assumed it to be the grey middle thumb button, which is just a hat.
Trigger - perhaps the one thing that I like more on the T16, but I'll see after some gaming. T16 has a clear solid click which feels strong, whereas the VKB is much softer. I wouldn't say it's cheap, just different. I can't tell where the second stage is at all though.
The rapid fire second trigger is essentially a two way click hat / button, you can push it forward / up or backward / down, however you would prefer to describe it.
Base buttons - solid click to all of them, very slight play in the side to side but nothing that bothers me. The eject button feels the cheapest of all of them, slightly ill fitting but still not a big deal. I won't be using it as a throttle, but the throttle slider is definitely better than the T16 stick's.
The Premium grip comes with a second palm rest with a few extra mm depth, but for now I don't think I need it. I can reach both the upper reaches of the hats, as well as the mid thumb hat and pinky button as it is. It also comes with a replacement button and hat for two positions, and you can open the grip and swap them without affecting the warranty if you prefer those.
4. Stick control - I didn't mind the T16 gimbal / cam+spring / whatever it is called. By comparison this one is a little softer with less resistance on all three axes. The twist feels very nice, and just strong enough that you won't do it by accident.
5. Calibration - I plugged the stick into one of my front USB 3.0 tower ports (not a motherboard port at the back), as I would with my T16, and the auto-calibration worked fine without problems first time. I'll need to test game responses of course.
6. The box says Limited Edition. I was not aware that the K will be in limited in any form, but perhaps it will not always be available as a single package.
I'm using it conjunction with the T16 TWCS throttle as before, so off to test the lot in game. Hope that helps
Edit
7. I've now tested in games for a couple of hours and I'm very happy. The control is very easy and precise, with a high quality / 'expensive' feel, for want of a better description. A step up from the T16 and feels really good.
vkbcontrollers.com
