Buying a Joystick

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by yubba

I' ll put up my 20 dollar Saitek ST220s against anything, plug in and go, the one almost 10 old years retired it too steelbeast.

hmm?

Old thread, I know, but since it's sort of ressurected...

I swear by Saitek sticks with the big springs generally, I own both an Evo and an X-52; I also had one of their older ones before. They're just rugged, reliable sticks that last a long time. I've had logitechs before, and I was really disappointed with how quickly those sticks went bad. Saitek sticks are neither the smoothest nor the most precise, but they more than make up for it in sheer reliability, and rather good pricing too. To me they feel good too, although the tightness of the springs is an acquired taste - some people absolutely hate Saitek's usual springs, which can definitely be pretty tight, especially on the Evo (in my experience anyway). But I love them, for one.

If you can at all afford it though, get a HOTAS, like an X-52 or X-52 Pro (which are definitely at the affordable end - of course you could go for something fancier too...). It might feel like a steep price, but trust me it's worth it. For 3-4x the price of an Evo, it delivers about 12x the function. So if you do play a fair amount of flight sims, consider the investment.