saitek x52 pro flight control system review

One of the features that I did like was the little stick that doubles as a mouse control, which fits just under your thumb and is just fantastic to use. It is a bit on the large size but I have to say that it is rather comfy and fits my hand very well indeed. At the bottom of the X52 Pro’s joystick are 3 toggle switches, perfect for less used controls such as landing gear and/or flaps.Īlso I can’t forget the other half of the X52 Pro and that is the throttle control. The unit is made from brushed aluminium and high quality plastic it feels very sturdy and also comes with some suction caps to ensure that the joystick stays in place.Īs for the overall look of the X52 Pro, well compared to the silver X52 (none pro) it looks fantastic but then again I was never a fan of the colour scheme of the X52 and I didn’t like the feel of the system itself when I used it. I’m sure that if I went away and came back to it a few months on it wouldn’t take me too long to get back into the swing of things. The product overall has a fantastic build quality, I cannot fault it the feel of the grip and smoothness of the throttle just cannot be faulted, although I have to admit that the joystick was a little on the limp side, but after using it on some games I really got used to it and didn’t notice this issue. The button when behind its safety cover glows green and when the safety cover is up changes to red which I found pretty cool.

There are four other fire buttons gracing the stick, one of which is covered by a safety cover, great idea as long as you remember to put it back down and don’t accidently fire a missile before you have lock. There is a fantastically useful two stage primary trigger, give it a gentle pull to activate your pulse lasers, squeeze it all the way to fire you’re missiles after you have locked on to a target. system is designed for your hands never to leave the controls, shame that I couldn’t find the ‘buzz the misses for a cup of tea’ button. makers need to be very clever about button use and ergonomics.Īs I first put my hands on both the joystick and throttle control I noticed that every finger was either resting on or near to a button which is the way that it should be, because as I said earlier the H.O.T.A.S. Considering most aircraft have hundreds of buttons, H.O.T.A.S. (Hands On Throttle And Stick) which means the pilot can access every setting without ever having to take their hands off the controls. As you can see the X52 Pro out of the box is a complete H.O.T.A.S. So I can see a lot of people thinking just over £100 for what can basically only be used for a handful of games is a lot of money.Īs you can see the size of the box gives away just how big the X52 is and it will take up a lot of space on your desk so I hope that you have made room (it took me a good half an hour of cleaning my desk space before I could set it up).

The X52 is created for a very small market. That market being both flight and space simulators although I have also heard that it can be used for the Mechwarrior series. I know that I said I’m currently not averse to purchasing one of these if I like what I see, but I can also see the other side of the coin as well. With that in mind today I will be testing the Saitek X52 Pro Flight system. I think that it may have backfired for him a bit because I’m more than up for the challenge of testing a peripheral that I might also be looking to purchase in the up and coming months. In his infinite wisdom, my editor Steve decided to give me something that he thought I might find interesting to test or it might have been a hint that I might be talking a bit too much about 2 certain Kickstarter games called Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen.

Saitek x52 pro flight control system review