Side by Side Comparison of: Kabalo vs Logitech vs Microsoft vs Maximum Games

awesome

great

I expected so little of this control stick due to the very low price (compare to Saitek and CH products). But I needed a stop-gap unit for X-Plane and the upcoming Descent remakes to tide me over until I could justify a more expensive solution. The reviews were good so I figured I'd roll the dice.
What a pleasant surprise! This thing is very solid. Very comfortable. It has 12 buttons, an 8 dir hat, and a twisting 3 axis stick PLUS a built-in throttle. It is fairly hefty and very stable on the desk. It has a tighter feel and shorter throw than the CH Flightstick, which I don't mind. It leaves me wanting for very little. Love it.

Note: For X-Plane and other flight simulators, the throttle should be on the right. Pilots will typically control the aircraft with their left hand on the yoke or stick and right hand on the throttle(s). The HOTAS systems are backward in this regard. This right hand stick configuration is appropriate, however, for heli pilots and space sim fans.

I bought this to use with MS FSX / MS FSX-SE (Microsoft Flight simulator X, box and Steam Edition). My Windows 7 Professional computer recognized it with no additional messing about needed. This is my first joystick (hard to believe after decades in the computer industry, but I've never been a big gamer) and I was impressed with its construction. It is heavy enough to stay put on my desk, and it also works in my lap -- I am using it to fly the J-3 Piper Cub from A2A Simulations and it works wonderfully for that.

Even though I have rudder pedals on my setup, I have the option of using the joystick's twist axis for the rudder if I wish. The throttle paddle on the left rear of the joystick base provides input to the throttle. There are other buttons which get mapped automatically in MS-FSX, including a hat knob on the top that is used to change your viewpoint inside the virtual cockpit.

I read the reviews on at least a dozen joysticks, and for me, this was the best bang for the buck. If I get heavily into FSP's or dog-fighting I didn't spend so much on this one that I would be reluctant to buy another in the top echelon of joysticks -- but those can get into the multi-hundreds of dollars and this will work well enough as I learn. If I upgrade later, I have some grandsons that will happy to take this one :-)

I recently received the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro in the mail, it came a day earlier than expected and was in great condition when it got here.

Now about the joystick itself:
There are indeed 6 large buttons on the left side of the joystick, and the stick itself has 4 buttons placed on the top for your thumb. The stick is very heavy and takes a slight effort to push, so if you are looking for a stick with precision flying, this is the one for you. However you can still push the stick around rather roughly, so for games like Battlefield (if that is what you are planning on playing) then you can still make your sharp turns and crazy barrel rolls, but if you find the need to precisely fly through buildings, you can still do that. So if you want a broken down explanation, here it is...

Pros:
•Precise movements
•Can still be used for rough flying
•Many buttons that can be programmed
•Sticks to the table or platform you have it set on, so it does not pick up off the table when you start flying a little crazier.
•The trigger is indeed rapid fire, for those shooter games that need a few more "bullets-per-second"
•And many more

Cons:
•The side left buttons are a little weird to press, one side goes down while the other doesnt, it may be a personal bother but it might effect other people, but not by much.
•The joystick is a little strange (many other joysticks have this problem too) because the exchange from turning into the rudder is a little fiddly, but I atleast got used to it pretty quick.

In conclusion, well worth the money, I wish I bought two.

This review compares the "Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick" and the "Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick" specifically in the context of Star Citizen: Arena Commander

At this point in the development of Star Citizen I don't recommend buying any kind of stick or HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick). Currently keyboard and mouse are more fully optimized. You can pilot and dogfight more precisely with a mouse than with a stick. They are however working to make sticks and full HOTAS setups a better option. So if at some point in the future you're trying to decide between the Thrustmaster and the Logitech here's my thoughts.

Comparing just the sticks, I prefer the Logitech. First thing that stands out is the base is heavier and wider. I never tipped the Logitech off of any of its feet when I was pulling back hard or anything like that. But I did with the Thrustmaster. Also there are more buttons for your thumb on the Logitech and they are in better positions and they are more satisfyingly clickly. The stick itself is a little smaller in diameter. Which I like. The Thrustmaster fit my hand fine, it was just a different feel. The Logitech takes more force to move the stick which feels good to me right now. However I could see in the middle of a long gaming session I might wish for an easier push.

On to the throttle controls. Obviously the Thrustmaster wins hands-down here. However I found that as I was dogfighting I didn't need the level of control that the Thrustmaster throttle provided. There is a command in the game that will match your speed to your target. Basically like radar enhanced cruise control on new cars. I find that when I target someone it's easiest to trigger that and I can stick to them easily. Beyond that I really only need full throttle and full stop, which I can get with voice command or a quick double tap of W or S. There are a lot of buttons on the throttle which is nice, but there's a lot of buttons on my keyboard too.

Basically if you're not going to get something with toggle switches and double thruster control like the "Mad Catz Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino H.O.T.A.S." or the "Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Joystick" (and there may never be a reason to) then save $15 and go with the Logitech you'll be happy.

The Logitech is a heavy duty unit. Being an old aviator, I can attest that stick pressures and responses to various changes of speed, direction, flap and gear extension feel extremely realistic. Rudder control is built into the stick. Up, down, left, right axes are all programed into the unit when using the controls with my specific application, Google Earth flight simulator. When employed with another sim provider, that unit will of course instruct the user in methods for programming the bottom control buttons. With Google Earth, flaps, gear, and trim are all keyboard functions- search Google Earth/ Flight Simulator/ Keyboard Commands. The small throttle lever works when Google Flight Sim is downloaded, and is extremely responsive--the average Chinese ace can drop toward the landing point with power back and nose up, full flaps on the F-16, then ease the craft into a good Navy landing by coming up slightly on the power. There is also a swell gun toggle switch, but Google doesn't want us blowing anyone away....que lastima!

This joystick, as my first and starter joystick, love it, but over use have noticed some design and build quality issues. To start off with, I know this is very cheap, and the price hasn't changed since I bought it, but I did get what I paid for. Simply said, I wanted to start off with joystick flight in my simulation games, and this did the job amazingly. My problem is though, it's not built to last. After a few months or so my throttle had worn out and lost nearly all simulated resistance that I very much enjoyed, leaving me with the throttle that if even the desk I have it on were to be bumped, it would move, making it so I had to almost constantly hold it still. The rudder control also began to start wearing out and seems to want to constantly shift left when left still, even after pulling it hard to the right, some of the buttons are sticking and some don't register in the games half the time, even though this is one of the most commonly supported joysticks in all games. It's a great stick to start with if you want to see you'll enjoy this kind of flight in your game, but, it's only a starter, and I don't believe it's built to last till your next upgrade.

The joystick is great and does the job for the money, I would be more satisfied with it and would give it 5 stars, if ONLY i didn't receive 2 broken in a row.... both came with a broken left button, 1 of them had a non-working throttle control and both of them wobbled around like crazy, not stable at all and always made my aircraft / spacecraft fly off to the left instead of flying straight, so had to steer constantly. 2nd one I received had a semi busted spring which made clicking sounds when I tried to go up or down with the joystick... had to replace twice and finally 3rd came in working (finally thank god.... took them long enough to send me a proper one eventually) But overall great customer service and system at amazon allows for trouble-less replacement and I highly appreciate that!
Overall, for the price it is definitely best joystick you can get, if you want higher quality, you should order something over $80, but you really won't get much more precision with $80 joystick than you do with this, it is very precise and gives a great feeling over your aircraft / spacecraft or whatever else you might be piloting.

I'm using this for Elite:Dangerous and it works with only minor issues. When I plugged it in and ran the calibration software it was a done deal, ED recognized it right away. I think the stick is a bit stiff, but I suppose that is better than being too loose. I found the throttle to be pointless since I want to change speed during combat so I'm using two buttons on the top of the stick for the throttle. I don't use the buttons on the base either, because they just aren't in a practical position for me. They work, I set them to various tasks, but they are inconvenient. Overall, I'm glad I got this joystick and I'm happy with it. I'm sure the expensive ones do more, but I wasn't about to pay those prices for a game controller.

Great stick for just about any sim-ish flight game you encounter. I got it for my wife for Star Citizen as she did not like mouse flight.

After a little problem with the throttle not zeroing out, we discovered it wasn't the sticks fault and found the solution below:

In Arena Commander go to
1. Options->Keybinding->Joystick/HOTAS: Throttle has to be rebound to "slider1" (just double click to rebind, and move the throttle, it should detect it as slider 1)
2. Options->Controls->Joystick/HOTAS1: Master Sensitivity must not be lower than 0.50 (default seems to be 1.0)

I had one of these for years until I lent it out...and you know what happens then.
Another thing we looked at was hand rest height off the desk on sticks, from what we could tell, this was the most comfortable non-adjustable right handed stick with twist and throttle.

Understand that this is a "value" price point joystick, it has a little-bit of slop in the center but not a big deal. It works fine for flight-sim type games, has plenty of buttons and the POV hat is responsive, throttle built-in to base is a nice touch it saves table space. good choice if you aren't going to spend Hundreds on a HOTAS setup. The Logitech Profiler software (which you can get from their website) allows you to setup response-rates and customize buttons to perform lots of actions, a nice touch you can even map the joystick axis to mouse movement if you really wanted to drive a mouse, etc, so the Logitech software adds alot to the equation.

I was not happy with this stick out of the box as the hat switch was terribly sporadic. I thought it just needed breaking in. During the trial period I kept waiting for operation to improve.

It did not.

Three days after the return date, I decided to disassemble the unit and see what the problem was. The stick is easy to disassemble but be forewarned, it is a real multi-part puzzle to reassemble.

The hat switch consists of four sub-miniature switches in quadrature formation and the hat switch button is simply a loosely mounted post that contacts one or two of the switches at a time (two are required for oblique views). I infused some DEOXIT into each switch and then reassembled at least four or five times before I got it right.

If you ever disassemble this stick be careful of the rudder control. It has a very fragile pin that engages the side of the stick and could not only be easily broken off but has to be positioned exactly in the cast slot for the pin.

Fortunately, the entire switch assembly is on one PC board with two multi-pin connectors. Be sure to release the plug-in locks. I used shaved down toothpick sections to release them. The PC board is easily removed by three screws to facilitate repair. At this point there are many loose parts so take pains to keep them in their original position, especially the side button. If done properly, everything seems to fall into place during reassembly.

After final assembly, the contact cleaner seems to have done the trick and the stick works like a dream and now that I know how it is constructed, it is easier to understand how the hat switch operates. I am inclined to give it four or five stars, but because it needed repair, only three.

Good luck,

It's ok. If you're looking for a cheap stick for elite: dangerous, I honestly found mouse/keyboard to be superior to this. It just doesn't have enough buttons, and the little flipper of a throttle is actually a problem.

I thought a stick was supposed to free you up but this ended up weighing me down. Elite: Dangerous isn't even that hardcore of a sim. I'd only use this for a super arcadey game, nothing more.

You may as well get a cheaper two-button joystick if you absolutely must have a stick for a flight sim, but can't afford one of the insane HOTAS setups. This just doesn't cut it for the more complicated games.

I have mixed feelings about this joystick. Ergonomically it is very good but those with small hands will have some issues with it. It is reasonably responsive, has a sturdy base and is the right size for most surfaces. Now for the downside. The controller came sealed nicely in a box with absolutely zero instructions except a graphic telling you to "plug into a USB port". It has eleven buttons, a toggle switch, a rotary switch and the control stick. I have had enough actual flight time in small aircraft and helicopters to know the basics of flight but I am in no way a pilot. I have learned, through trial and error, what some of the buttons do but still do not have a clue on the others. Also missing is a trim control. With my controller there is no flight idle. If you let go of the stick, you dive. Of course, this can be somewhat controlled with the throttle but not completely. I would given it one more star if it had a tutorial or an instruction manual to inform the user what the switches and buttons were used for.

Can't seem to get it to work with a lot of games.

Can't seem to get the profiles to work on games but that's probably a lack of effort. I'd try harder but there are so few joystick games and a lot of them don't let me bind all the buttons on top of the joystick. I can't seem to get the paddle at the bottom to work with any sort of thrust in games even though it's the only thing that naturally works for thrust.

So I can get the buttons on the platform itself to bind but none of the weapon cycling/missile launching buttons on the top seem to want to bind.

I've tried Freespace 2 (which wasn't very fun to me), evochron mercenaries which i was forced to bind what I could to the platform buttons. Since I can't use the thrust paddle I have to hold a button to increase thrust but when you let go it stops so I'm constantly tapping this button in battles which feels really dumb. Might as well just use a keyboard and mouse.

I got this for flying jets in Battlefield 4. It's been okay, but not perfect. As others have said, you have to completely ditch the default config in the BF4 key mapping and set it up manually. Not a big deal. One thing I found that didn't work was the throttle slider. It's either up full tilt or down and if you don't have it in the middle, it sends the button press for up or down repeatedly when you're out of the jet. I don't know how much it's me, but I have had a hard time with accuracy as larger movements are required to make small corrections, but when they are picked up, they seem to be a bit too much. That said, it does the job better for general maneuvering than I can get with mouse and keyboard, but for throttle and rudder, I still use the keyboard. Not thrilled with the result, but not disappointed so much that I want to return it. I do miss my old Saitek Sidewinder, though.

you have to turn the steering wheel a lot to get the car on the screen to move a little. very hard to control the car. wreaks a lot. the suction cups on the bottom won't hold the controller even on a smooth surface. I have to tape it down so it won't move. the springs on the foot controls are to strong and therefore cause to slide across the floor. won't buy it again.

Disappointing! After wearing out the yaw pot on my old Extreme 3D Pro I was expecting at least the same quality as the one I purchased ten years ago, but alas no. The new one has twice the slop my used was has now. Also it "clunks" when pitching up or down all the way. The buttons don't have the crisp feeling my ten year old one has and the yaw axis has a bit of slop in it too. Wish there was an alternative at a similar price range.

I bought this to use for vintage games played via MAME and Stella, and it sucks for that, so I sent it back. I can see how it'd be a good stick for flight games, because it is built very solidly for the price. But I was surprised that the stick required SO much movement in a direction to make it work. My whole arm was moving left to right to create slight movement on the screen, so I was fatigued after 30 seconds. I needed a stick that was more sensitive and didn't require as much physical movement to make work. The stick is HUGE too, which can be both a pro and a con depending on what you're using it for. Windows 10 recognized it no problem though.

I tried it for a short period of time, and found it to be very difficult to use. The main issue comes from the mechanical feedback that comes from the bottom of the unit. When moving the stick up or down (and not in the most extreme position) the stick responded with clunking sounds and feel. I wasn't even at the mechanical limit of either North or South. This is highly disruptive to any kind of flight/space sim and really breaks game immersion. Unfortunately, when a peripheral is released that doesn't lend itself to a more immersive experience, or make it more enjoyable to play, that's a deal breaker. I contacted technical support at Logitech directly and told them about the issue, and they immediately claimed that I had a defective unit. Fast forward to the present... I returned the replacement after discovering the same problem.

Pros:
Excellent Button placement and feel , especially near thumb
Aesthetically Pleasing
Worked immediately out of the box
Lots of buttons

Cons:
Right handed only
Disruptive mechanical feedback

EDIT: After 5 months of ownership and probably 200 hours of use, one of the y-axis (pushing the stick forward) potentiometers started to fail. I revised my 4/5 to a 2/5 review. NOT recommended. Spend $20 more and get a T.16000M.

This is probably the BEST budget joystick that you can find. It's also one of the only sticks in most stores.

Pros:
- Excellent performance
- Reasonably accurate
- Cheap
- Good grip
- Good button placement

Cons:
- Tight springs
- Requires you to brace it for any sudden movements
- Twist axis doesn't have as much travel

Overall, it's a reasonable stick for the price. I like it, but I'm looking at trying out the T-16000M next. I hear the Hall Effect sensors are better. The buttons on the base are nice if you use both hands, but I find it easier to use my left hand on the keyboard as I have more buttons available. The hat is alright, but I can't use it for strafing as others have done. It might be more useful for targeting.

I bought it specifically for battlefield 4 and it does not work properly. The joystick itself is great but the software is awful and is poorly supported by Logitech thus it does not work correctly with the Battlefield series (one of the most popular PC game series).

To be fair, DICE (the creators of the game) is partly at fault for not supporting joysticks from the major brands properly. However, it is up to Logitech to ensure their software undated to allow for easy use with the major games it will be used with.

I have other Logitech gaming products and the software for those items are modern and work great. The software with this joystick doesn't integrate at all with that existing modern gaming software used by their newer products. Instead it opens up a profiler which is extremely primitive, unintuitive, difficult to work with, and visually appears like it was designed for Windows 95. There is no preset profiles for popular games (which is to be expected from a brand like Logitech). As a busy working adult, it is extremely frustrating to have to spend hours scouring the internet looking for solutions for all the quirks with this joystick simply because it is not supported properly.

TL/DR: The joystick hardware is as to be expected. The software, however, is unacceptably awful resulting in the joystick failing to work properly with Battlefield.

I was really shocked that it is really small. Then when i tried to send it back it was a nightmare. Thanks to Amazon they honored the refund.

returning to seller, quit working after first day of use

it doesnt work cant control streering or open menu

How are you doing today. I received my product Late and Did not want to connect when I plugged the racing wheel into my Xbox . I cleaned cords and usb plug in. Thank you

What is the best way to describe the Kabalo Racing Wheel? Well, poor. There are so many problems with this wheel. First of all it's all plastic, all of it, so it feels cheap. Secondly it's very light, and that is a bad thing, here's why, it uses suction cups on the bottom instead of some sort of clamp, which seems good at first, but because it's so light, whenever you turn the wheel it slides away. Turn left it slides left, turn right it slides right. The suctions barely stick it to the table, the slightest pull and it'll pop right off, so many times I have been in the middle of a race, and my steering stops working, I look down and see that the entire wheel has popped off the table! The pedals are just as bad, if you want to use the pedals you need to hold the base down with your other foot, otherwise when you compress the gas/brake, the whole thing just tips over. Now I could understand if this wheel was $20, $25 bucks, but no, this wheel is $60-$70! This might have been acceptable if this was 2004, why? Because it's got a PS2 plugin. So no, avoid if at all possible.

I didn't like the feel of the plastic or the way it handled. Technology Galaxy does not provide return shipping, so I got stuck for shipping it back. I might have kept it if it were more like $10 but not more.

While initially satisfied with the quality of the product, the joystick has developed an annoying clunking. Ive had the Extreme 3d Pro Joystick for a little over a month. A few days ago, the joystick developed what can only be described as an audible clunk when pressing forward or pulling back on the x axis. The noise is accompanied by resistence that can be felt through the stick while performing maneuvers. I've google the issue and while others have experienced this problem, I haven't found a solution or explanation. Maybe someone might be able to live with this, to me it's extremely noticeable and annoying.

Throttle lever a stiff on this one I rec'd, I loosened up the allen screw which helped a little, but it is still a to tight. Hope it gets better with use UPDATE! I've been using these for 10 years and this is the first one that I'd just toss in to the garbage. First is was just that the throttle was too tight, so I was using my old one most of the time. When I finally started trying to use the new one thinking the throttle control would loosen, then thumb side trigger began sticking on me. When you depress it to shoot 1 rocket it would stay depressed and unload everything. I took it apart and slightly smoothed the edges on the button, still sticking in the on position. I've never had any problems with these 3D Extreme joysticks ever before. I usually wear them out after a year or two. But this last one is a piece of junk. Not sure if I will buy another or not, I will start to look at other brands.

I'm very disappointed in the quality of this joystick. It has a very sloppy action that makes it difficult to use; especially when you're attempting to make small movements. This is the second Logitech joystick that I've purchased. Originally I thought that the first one may have been an exception but the second one confirms that it is a problem with the quality of the units. Unfortunately, there is not way to make adjustments to reduce the amount of sloppiness in the joystick itself.

I originally purchased this product based on the price and past experience with Logitech's products. The cost was significantly less than the other sticks so I thought I was getting a deal. Unfortunately, my satisfaction at purchasing this joystick ended when my computer didn't recognize it without a driver, which did not come with the package. This wasn't the case in the past as Logitech's products used to include one on a CD. I had to go to Logitech's website to download it and even after I did that, the computer still couldn't recognize that the joystick was there. I was on the phone with tech support during this process and there was nothing that they could do to help me. I had to purchase someone else's joystick in the end. Very disappointing but you know what they say: You get what you pay for. Caveat Emptor....