Improvements on the X45 and more...
So, other than an improved grip, rubberised coating and other aesthetics, what has the X52 got to offer over the X45?
Well, there’s plenty new on here to entice you from the blue wonder to the black and silver wonder. Other than the aforementioned two stage trigger (which is superbly handy for tickling a target with machine guns on the first stage then bringing in the cannons as well on the second stage), you’ve now got a mouse wheel and button mounted on the front of the throttle grip. On the top of the throttle is a slider button that moves roughly an inch and is ideal for view zooming in IL2.
That silly ‘Launch’ cover has now been spring loaded, so it doesn’t flop down all the time as it did on the X45, which prompted myself and many others to pull the damn thing off with a pair of pliers. In the base of the stick are 6 ‘toggle’ buttons and the mode switch which used to be mounted on the throttle has been moved up to the top of the stick instead, complete with chunky rubber mouldings for easy flicking with the thumb.
Both the stick and throttle are solidly made with plenty of metalwork on display to show how well built they are. Even though they feel more robust and have a fair bit of weight in them, Saitek have included rubber suction cups to fit to the base of each unit for the particularly vigorous joystick wagglers out there. The detents for the rotary wheels have been made more obvious, as has the detent for 10% and 110% thrust on the throttle. The stick now incorporates a ‘zero contact’ deadzone in the centre, which has totally eliminated the drift that X45s used to develop after a good deal of use. This is particularly good news as this was incurable on the X45 and it was very frustrating to have to trim your aircraft in flight just to compensate for a wonky stick.
Back over on the throttle, a useful addition is the ‘clutch’ button. The idea behind this is simple. You’ve programmed in all your keypresses and then, because you’re flying ‘Ultra-Realistic X-Fighter Future Jet Sim 2007’, you forget which button it is that you programmed to the ‘switch fuel to inboard tanks’ key and you can’t even remember which finger dislocating key combination it should be anyway. Never fear, just hit the clutch button. Now any button you press on the stick won’t actually be transmitted to the game you’re playing, but the key corresponding to each button you press will show up in the MFD on the throttle, along with the function it does (if you entered that during programming the stick). Brilliant, eh?