x52 vs thrustmaster hotas X
- Thread starter Zallibik
- Start date
The X52 looks like a Christmas tree compared to the Thrustmaster. Though there are more buttons on the Saitek. The problem is the rotary knobs on the X52 throttle, which you cannot really use in ED so they are more or less wasted.
That was the main reason I kicked my X52 and got a CH combo instead. Lots of intelligently placed buttons. The other negative thing with Saitek is that the build quality is a bit like a lottery game. You might get one that will work for the next 100 years, or you get a dud that starts to fail after 2 months. Saitek got a bit lazy with the QA in the past.
That was the main reason I kicked my X52 and got a CH combo instead. Lots of intelligently placed buttons. The other negative thing with Saitek is that the build quality is a bit like a lottery game. You might get one that will work for the next 100 years, or you get a dud that starts to fail after 2 months. Saitek got a bit lazy with the QA in the past.
I own both the T-flight Hotas x and an x52 pro (coincidentally I have a standard x52 here too).
Bought the T-flight for £20 second hand when I found I didn't have the control I needed with an xbox pad. Was pretty impressed really, its a decent stick for such a small amount.
On the plus side its responsive and accurate enough, also has a nice "detent" in the centre of the throttle range which is really handy for coming to a dead stop when parking your starboat.
On the negative side it does feel very much a toy, its well made but well made from cheap plastic. The biggest problem is a huge lack of buttons and only one view hat. It does have a nice analogue control on the front of the throttle for lateral thrust but I didn't find that useful in ED.
The x52 feels much more premium, I have heard from various sources around the web that some have a problem with deadzone and range of movement, you see a lot of people saying modding the position of the sensor magnets solves this and I was all ready to do this but when mine arrived I found no problems with it at all in this regard.
The stick is huge compared to the t-flight. The range of movement is far bigger on the x52, this took some getting used to as the t-flight had a much shorter throw. Consequently the accuracy is greater on the x52, it gives much more granular control. THREE hat switches on the x52 is good, the ability to in software have a shift button which allows you to have a second function for each button or control gives you SIX!! hats! Thats plenty. Another function of the x52 is that it allows you to change the programmed profile of the controls on the fly to 3 different modes. This means that each button or function of the stick can do 6 different things, That gives you 18 hats, which is silly. The lower hand rest part of the stick including the pinkie button can be adjusted up and down to fit your hands. Having used mine for a few nights now I love it and think its much better than the t-flight.
The throttle has a few tricks too, when this HOTAS is better supported in the game things like the dials and mouse nub will become very useful. The throttle has its own detent in the range but its at around 75% which is less useful for parking but happily in combat seems to be around the blue marker which makes finding the ideal turning speed a little easier.
The software supplied by Saitek is not great, well its powerful but difficult to use. Once you get the hang of it its very powerful what you can do. For instance, instead of assigning my buttons to functions within the games interface I just leave the standard keyboard settings at their defaults and in the saitek software map the buttons to the relevant keyboard presses.
I was lucky enough to find an x52 for my friend for £50 and even luckier to find a pro version for myself also for £50, the average price second hand on feebay is around £75-£90 for an x52. A pro version sold for over £180 on there last week and another for over £140, they are hard to find new and expensive second hand but keep looking as they are totally worth it.
If you can think of any other info you would like to know just ask, happy to help.
*small addendum*
As Juppstein pointed out above there have been complaints in the past about build quality for these but I took this with a pinch of salt. If something does what its supposed to do you dont see a lot of web activity saying so but if there are reasonable percentage of them not working correctly you hear a lot of web noise, you can look at that from a glass half empty or half full perspective. I bought mine knowing there might be problems but also knowing there were solutions I was willing to try.
As for the christmas lights, they are indeed pretty, they are also dimmable in the control panel interface so not a problem. Also on the pro the colours are changeable, red green or amber.
Last edited: