Saitek X52 Pro Flight Control System Review

Highway to the danger zone.

I recently picked up Elite Dangerous during the big holiday sale on Steam. Everything started smoothly enough apart from crashing my ship into the docking station several times and getting annihilated by space pirates I was sent to dispose of. Feeling rather unsatisfied with my traditional keyboard and mouse setup I decided to pick up a more proper method of controlling the game, a HOTAS. After meticulous research trying to find one I wasn't going to hate, I settled on the Saitek X52 Pro. This is the first time I've ever used a joystick for any sort of game and I have to say, it totally changes the ways you control the game.

I'm going to note that I did initially feel like I was taking a gamble with Saitek. The X52 Pro came out the same year Saitek was acquired the infamous Mad Catz, renowned for pretty radically designed peripherals with rather shit build quality. Saitek is now owned and warrantied by Logitech but the sticks made under the Mad Catz era still remain. Many people who have used Saitek sticks as of late said they are absolutely ripe with design faults and it made me initially lean towards the Thrustmaster sticks. However many people seemed to have good luck with the X52 sticks and because all the Thrustmaster sticks I considered required rudder pedals for optimal use, I took the plunge and got the X52 Pro, still a little nervous that I would find some of that signature Mad Catz build quality when I got it out of the box.

The stick is like an Atari controller on steroids.

As soon as I pulled the components out of the box those fears were washed away. These things are felt rock solid when I put the HOTAS though the initial feel test and thats very good considering they are mostly plastic. They are also massive! Much bigger than you would expect them to be judging by the stock photos and that's not a bad thing. Let's focus on the stick first. The stick isn't terribly heavy which is definitely noticed when you throw the thing around with some force; it lifts off and shifts a little. This can be remedied by using the included suction cups or hard mounting it with the supplied holes. It's remarkably comfortable and the bottom wrist rest can be adjusted if you have smaller hands. All the switches with the exception of the ones on the base are quite easy to reach as well.

Pew pew.

You get two triggers on the stick, a two stage main trigger and a pinkie trigger. These are both very clicky and rather satisfying to press. As I mentioned earlier the wrist rest adjusts via the knob on the front of the stick and this also moves the pinkie trigger. I personally keep it on the lowest setting since I like having the pinky trigger out of the way but others may differ. As a substitute for rudder pedals, the entire stick twists left and right. Some may not like it because of the potential to accidentally twist the stick and want to use standard rudder pedals instead. Luckily Saitek thought this through and added a small locking switch that prevent the stick from twisting. There is still a slight amount of play in it when it's in use but you probably won't notice it in actual operation.

More buttons than you may know what to do with.

On the top of the stick you get a vast multitude of inputs: four buttons, one of which is tucked away under this snazzy safety cover and two 8-direction hat switches. You also get a mode selector that allows you to switch between up to three different user created button layouts on the fly which is massively convenient. All the buttons feel nice to press and the hat switches do their job. I will say that the upper hat switch feels a little loose but this didn't affect actual use much.

You also get three two-way switches on the base which can be mapped to functions that aren't of dire quick accessibility like landing gear. The stick itself is centered by two vertical springs that compress as the stick is moved. There is a little bit of play when the stick is centered but much of this may have to do with the fact that the stick isn't that difficult to move. Some people may find it too loose but other people, I for example find it just fine. Unfortunately there isn't an option to adjust the spring stiffness although third party plastic spacers do exist to remedy this.

Punch it.

The throttle is just as beefy as the stick and gives you a large amount of room to get a grip on it. All the inputs are easy to reach from a normal hand position. Like the stick you can either hard mount or suction it to a surface if it shifts around too much freestanding. It feels absolutely rock solid especially under heavy use although like the stick, the base is a little light. I can put a good amount pressure on it from the top and it feels like it's part of the desk. The action is very smooth and you can adjust the resistance of the throttle via a knob on the side of the base.

As for inputs you get three function buttons, an 8-direction hat switch, a slider, and two dials that I have no idea what they do. On top of this, the X52 Pro has a handy little built-in mouse that operates via a small joystick and button, there is also a scroll wheel on the back. Like the stick, all the buttons feel nice to press and can be configured by the user. I will note here that the stick does not connect to the computer via it's own USB cable unlike the throttle. Instead the stick is pretty much daisy chained to the throttle via a PS/2 cable which can be a little annoying if you don't like cable clutter. I don't keep these on my desk all the time so I didn't find this to be a problem.

What is this for?

The throttle base also has this display built into it. Maybe it's just me but I have no idea what this is used for apart from showing what mode you have selected plus the time and date. Stopwatch too but at that point I felt they were just throwing shit onto it for no real reason. Elite has no use for the display and judging by the fact the supposedly higher end Rhino sticks don't even have one, it probably was an unnecessary feature to begin with. It makes it even more cool looking than it already does though. That's a plus at least. Apparently there is an SDK for the display but I won't bother messing with it.

So how well does this all tie in together? As I mentioned earlier I'm only using this stick for Elite Dangerous at the moment so all my experiences are coming from this game. I personally found Saitek's default software to be somewhat confusing, it didn't seem to work properly anyways so I just used Elite's default in-game mapping for the X52 Pro. Jumping from keyboard and mouse to the HOTAS was a little tricky at first; a couple close calls at the docking station are one example. However, once you figure out the control scheme and feel comfortable, everything with the X52 Pro just feels so much more precise and intuitive than with keyboard and mouse. Things like docking is now a breeze and whether you are dogfighting or locking the throttle in for long hauls, it fits the bill for any situation. Having paired it with the Oculus Rift, it's just on a whole new level.

I suppose this can be considered a matter of try before you buy which is pretty difficult considering flight sticks tend to be absent from most physical storefronts and there are plenty of shitty return policies too. There may be some features that you won't like that others do but that's okay, everybody is different. From my personal experience though I can say that the X52 Pro is a very solid all around HOTAS. It's a little steep at $200 bucks and I don't know firsthand how much of an upgrade this is over the regular X52 or how much of an upgrade the X55 or X56 Rhinos are but for for someone looking to get a very broad amount of features in a pretty well built, comfortable, and intuitive package the X52 Pro is a great HOTAS controller and I highly recommend it.

The X52 Pro Flight System retails at $199.99

Is it Better Than?

Saitek X52- Depends, according to some people, the differences between the two sticks are pretty minimal. Cosmetics aside, the X52 has most of the same features as the Pro but it has a weaker centering force due to it's single spring setup. Considering it's notably less expensive than the Pro, it's probably worth looking at.

Saitek X55/X56 Rhino- No, as appealing as these high end sticks may seem I've heard they are absolutely ripe with quality issues. Apart from the dual throttle, I don't really know what makes these a higher end stick than the X52, the fact that it might break striaght out of the box asides.