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Saitek X-55 Rhino

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Wow, this first peek is mighty interesting.

Have been flying their X-65 HOTAS for 2 years now. It's been a love/hate relationship at times though after updating drivers after their combat pedals stopped playing nice with the '65 it's been great for some time now. Smooth, sensitive control.

This new stick & throttle should grab a lot of the Warthog biz from the looks of it. Much better price as well, as in less than half the Thrustmaster's $ tag.

Thanks, uniform7.
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That does look very interesting, good price too as long as they don't pull the old $200 = £200 trick.
Glad to see they've done away with the delicate linking cable, the biggest weakness on the X52 IMO.
 
I pre-ordered mine which should be here the first week of April. Having spoken with one of the Saitek folks who helped developed the X-55, this person owns a HOTAS Warthog which was used for comparison testing. Few would argue against the Warthog being a very good stick but it is priced a bit above what most are willing to spend and that's a target that Saitek engineers worked very hard to bridge with the X-55. The honest assessment I got was that there are benefits and tradeoffs in both HOTAS systems. The X-55's throttle and expandable systems seem to have a clear advantage over the Warthog throttle but the Warthog's stick is solid and hard to beat in terms of feel and accuracy wise. The X-55 at first glance seems less sturdy than the Warthog's but the Hall Sensors on the X-55 are of the same quality as the Warthog's stick. The tech I spoke with told me the feel if the X-55 is very comparable to the Warthog's and of course fully adjustable on weight/pressure(which is an advantage). Also of note, there may be future plug & play stick head replacements for the X-55 to tailor the setup for user needs. I'm looking forward to getting mine as my 8 year old X52 is at the end of it's service life but still hanging in there. It's been a good one!
 
Considering I still have my X-45 and it's developing some problems this X-55 may be just what I need. I've been planning to get the TM Warthog, but it's price has been putting me off. This one could do the trick. I'll wait until it's out and read the reviews, but I have feeling this is my next stick.
 
If they do the $200 = £200 then TBH its not bridging the gap! You can pick up the Warthog new for under £300 and TBH the quality of the Hog is vastly better than the Saitek's.
 
If they do the $200 = £200 then TBH its not bridging the gap! You can pick up the Warthog new for under £300 and TBH the quality of the Hog is vastly better than the Saitek's.
Click to expand...

It is $200 US, not 200 Euro. Personally testing the Warthog and the X65, I felt both were of equally quality in general with some advantages going to both. The biggest issue with the X65 that most can't get along with is the non-moving stick. The Warthog's stick feels much better & more natural than the X65. I have owned numerous Thrustmaster products since the 1990's and they crapped out prematurely on me many times whereas my X45 & X52 have given flawless service for years. Granted, the Warthog is way above anything TM has ever done(and superior to the X54/52) but it too has had it's issues with the circuitry in the throttle unit going out due to some MB incompatibilities and the throttle circuitry has been known to be static discharge sensitive. I know 3 users of the Warthog who had the above issues but to be clear, Thrustmaster immediately took care of the issues at no charge. So in general, my luck with the HOTAS type Saitek's have been sterling and that is half the reason I went with the X-55 and price being the other half of the equation. At half the cost and parallel quality, it's hard to go wrong. Of course being one of the market Guinea pigs, if in the end the X-55 turns out to be crap, you'll hear it here and my announcement of my Warthog purchase! lol
 
StormILM said:
It is $200 US, not 200 Euro.
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what he means is that most US company's say the price is $200, then when they sell it over here in the uk they say the price is the same at £200, when in fact, to be the same, it should be £122.
 
When my X52 joystick stopped working after its warranty ended, Saitek refused to repair it. I said I'd be happy to pay for a repair, but they said the only options were repair/replacement under warranty, or buy a new one.

That kind of policy means I'll never buy a $200-ish device from them again. Thought you should be aware before investing that much in one of their controllers.

So I went for a Logitech G940 instead. Logitech will repair their products (for a fee) after the warranty expires.
 
DennyA said:
When my X52 joystick stopped working after its warranty ended, Saitek refused to repair it. I said I'd be happy to pay for a repair, but they said the only options were repair/replacement under warranty, or buy a new one.

That kind of policy means I'll never buy a $200-ish device from them again. Thought you should be aware before investing that much in one of their controllers.

So I went for a Logitech G940 instead. Logitech will repair their products (for a fee) after the warranty expires.
Click to expand...

Since none of my Saitek's ever failed, I haven't had to deal with that but there were two instances of standard X52's of my friends crapping out outside of warranty(1 stick unit and 1 throttle unit) where they replaced them due to the units failing after very limited use & no abuse. So I'm not sure where they(Saitek) stand now but I have had past rotten customer service from Thrustmaster which they seemed to have amended their service considerably since then. These devices are high use tools and thus will wear. One thing I have discovered is that my use of autopilot systems over long flights has reduced my wear and replacement needs. I am sure if I pushed any unit hard enough it would wear out pretty quickly.
 
Wasn't wear in this case, though. The circuit board in my joystick failed after a couple of years; all the mechanical parts were fine. The throttle still worked, the joystick just stopped communicating. And despite numerous emails, they just said they had no paid repair program. Really frustrating.
 
Stay away from Thrustmaster Warthog.

I had an issue last year. The Throttle would no longer boot up. Known issue. I wanted replacement and my dealer said that it is no longer produced and that he has no replacement on stock. As it was outside warranty I got either the option to repair it at my costs, the quote was 250 CHF for it, that i can stay with the stick without the throttle or that I get some money back. I decided to get the money. I got 350 CHF back from the 490 CHF I paid initially. QUite a penalty.

Now I have the X65F. Not very happy with it. Disconnects frequently form FSX while flying. Throttle refuses to work :(

Hoepfully this will get better with the X55

Cheers
Martin
 
MartinM said:
Stay away from Thrustmaster Warthog.

I had an issue last year. The Throttle would no longer boot up. Known issue. I wanted replacement and my dealer said that it is no longer produced and that he has no replacement on stock. As it was outside warranty I got either the option to repair it at my costs, the quote was 250 CHF for it, that i can stay with the stick without the throttle or that I get some money back. I decided to get the money. I got 350 CHF back from the 490 CHF I paid initially. QUite a penalty.

Now I have the X65F. Not very happy with it. Disconnects frequently form FSX while flying. Throttle refuses to work :(

Hoepfully this will get better with the X55

Cheers
Martin
Click to expand...

If i had the money to buy a TW,i would do it immediately.
I had so much trouble with the Saitek throttles,wouldn`t buy them again.
But these are only personal experiences and you cannot say Saitek is good and Thrustmaster is bad.
When the first reviews of the X-55 are out and good----why not to buy and save money?
My 2cents.
Mike
 
In the posts here, everyone brings up a valid point I touched on before, these devices have given good service to some and trouble to others. There's always a risk of component failure on almost anything. The printed circuit boards and chips in these devices(regardless of manufacturer) have had issues and for different reasons. It is a fact that Saitek and Thrustmaster have had to switch vendors for firmware more than once due to some firmware parts vendors going out of business or those vendors making architecture changes in the circuits and switches which often becomes a QC nightmare. The other valid point is the shifting in service policies which many have different experiences with and personally, I think these manufacturers are getting worse with service, not better. The mentality is that these gadgets are expendable after a short period of time. I went through that with Planetronics on headset issues for communications, PC, and my old Planetronics aviation headsets(all of which crapped out with minimal use). They would simply send me a new one and told me to toss the old one???!!! I gave up on them years ago. Makes me wonder if it would be viable to open a small business that offers a repair service for these pieces of hardware? I have had work done on old out of warranty aviation headsets locally and very old guitar gear at a company which specialized in fixing my gadgets(at a reasonable price). Worth looking into!
 
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