New Saitek Hotas announced, X55 Rhino

[Gman]

http://www.saitek.com/

Very little is known about it, the intro video from Saitek just shows a few fleeting glances of the control stick, and not much of the throttle.  By the looks of the spring on the stick, it will be similar to the X52 type setup most likely in terms of that, but it looks like it has some buttons in a more traditional "fighter" stick type of layout.  It'll be interesting to see the way they go with this one, as the X65 was a breed apart from their regular line up of Hotas systems IMO.  Price will be a big, big part of how well this is received I'll bet.  It would be nice if at least one manufacturer made a sub 200$ Hotas that was focused on air combat simulations, and not space type stuff.  Sort of like a poor man's Warthog I'm thinking, something along those lines.

[Gman]

First pics are up.  This is rumored to be priced right around the X52 Pro price point, sub 200$.  If that's true, this thing is going to sell like hotcakes IMO.  They took a page or two from the Warthog, which I have as well as the full CH setup as well.  I have used the X52, and owned an x36 and x45, but didn't like the x65 for WW2 sims, as the motionless control doesn't lend itself well to fast hard maneuvering IMO.  This new x55 looks like it'll be more like the x52 etc in terms of stick movement, but with more conventional "fighter" type placement of the buttons and switches.  I can't wait to try one.







This picture is from a test bench at Saitek/MadCatz.  The new throttle is on the far right.  Looks pretty big and beefy, look at the x65 throttle on the far left, it looks like its footprint is about twice as large -good stuff!  Again, I'm looking forward to giving this new Hotas a whirl, I think it's a great move, and if it comes in at 200ish like the x52, or even less than 300$ or so, it'll put a stick with Warthog capability albeit with cheaper materials in the hands of a lot of guys who can't afford 500$, but can swing a couple hundred or stretch to 300$.  I've read on various hardware boards it may be available for xmas.  There is also a rumor on a couple of the hardware boards that this stick will have force feedback, based on the cooling holes.  The cooling ports are only on the throttle from what I can see, not the stick, which doesn't make much sense to me in terms of "cooling for force feedback", since the stick is the FF part, not the throttle - if it does have it, pleasant surprise, but I don't care really either way in that department.  The last FF stick I had was WAY back in 1999 when CH made one that was like the Fighterstick with a huge base, and it was really just a big PITA for the most part, more gimmick than function, at least IMO.

[zack1234]

Thanks for pics

It looks very nice

So its not me we a silly amount of sticks

[Ack-Ack]

The last FF stick I had was WAY back in 1999 when CH made one that was like the Fighterstick with a huge base, and it was really just a big PITA for the most part, more gimmick than function, at least IMO.

That was the CH Force FX stick (FF version of the CH Combat Stick).  It was the first commercial FF stick and quite frankly, the best one in terms of FF effects as it used the far superior IForce 1x API (compared to the rubbery effects of Microsoft's Force Factory API).  The CH Force FX was also virtually indestructible, though it tended to get hot at the base due to the non-industry standard power supply it used.  IMO, CH really screwed the pooch when pretty much surrendered the FF market to Microsoft and didn't upgrade the CH Force FX to the IForce 2x API but at the time CH had a CEO that had no clue what he was doing and was more interested in trying to change CH from a PC centric hardware manufacturer to console (anyone remember the CH PS controller?).

When I worked at CH, we were just developing the Force FX and a lot of our bulk orders were from motion sim-pit companies that would use the guts of the Force FX to power the motion sim.  at the '98 WB Con, the motion sim-pit that was on demo had the motion powered by the motors from a CH Force FX.

ack-ack

[pipz]

http://www.saitek.com/x55/

[SirNuke]

hall sensors + adjustable spring ? 

[Gman]

Got an email from Saitek today for pre-order.  The x55 is only 219.00 Canadian, shipping early April this year.  For that price I'm going to try one out, it's a pretty big footprint, but it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up to the TM Warthog being less than 1/2 the price.

http://store.madcatz.com/Saitek-Pro-Flight-X-55-Rhino-H-O-T-A-S-System-for-PC.html?whence=

[Wiley]

I'll be waiting for reviews, but based on looks and price point, that looks like a winner for me.

Wiley.

[edog1977]

The way the stick attaches to the base looks pretty flimsy to me. A split collar and a locking ring with a couple of coarse threads doesn't exactly scream heavy duty. If the connection does become loose it looks like all the buttons could stop working since there are no wires, just metal contacts.

The fact that they are advertising that it comes with three springs to adjust the tension seems more like a gimmick than a feature.

I guess only time will tell if this is an improvement over their existing products in terms of durability. With the name Rhino and the fact that it costs ~$200.00 I hope it's more durable then the piece of crap X52 I owned.