Hey guys, this is pretty cool. This is the kind of thing that I don't often
have the opportunity to take a look at. This is the T500 RS from Thrustmaster.
And the difference between the RS and the nonRS is that the nonRS is the one
that I would personally be interested in because it's compatible with PC as well,
but this is the PS3 only one. Other than that, they're pretty much the same idea.
So, we're gonna start by getting it opened up because this is going to be a
bit of an ordeal to open because it's big and it's heavy. In fact, that's even
a selling point of the device in the first place. It's one of the things that
Thrustmaster puts right on the front of the box. It's heavy, which it better be
for how much it costs, I guess. So, if you're looking at in terms of like
dollars per pound, then um you know, you
could go to xc.com and you could find out what the actual exchange rate is. Or
you could just um I'm just kidding. That's a little that's a little uh you
know, exchange rate humor, which I think is I think is an underdeveloped uh an
underdeveloped field of in the in the humor science humorous sciences. Uh
basically, I'm I'm just stalling, guys. I'm just stalling. I'm trying to get the
box open and figure out what we've got to deal with here. And I wanted to talk
about how Thrustmaster does call out
specifically the weight of their pedal set right on the front. 15.4 lb for the
100% metal pedal set. It also has two
positions, GT and Rally or F1. So, you
can actually switch it around to mount it either this way or this way. And it
looks like this is the one that comes out of the box. So, let's actually, you
know, I'm going to get it deacified and then we'll be back in a second. So, why
would you pay more for a racing wheel? The simple answer is build quality. So,
yes, all metal, extremely rugged construction, great feedback on the
pedals. It actually feels like pressing on a brake as opposed to just being a
piece of plastic that doesn't feel like pressing on a brake. These are fully
removable, which is really cool. So you can actually customize the whole unit
quite a bit according to your particular preferences. So there's your uh uh so
gas brake and clutch all have different tensions so that they feel legitimately
different. Now switching between the two different modes is actually really
simple. All you have to do is
flip it like this. Use the included Allen key to move the diamond plate down
to the bottom and then you are in the other mode. And then I guess you can uh
I guess you just have to switch around through the software the functionality.
And then you can actually switch the pedals over like that. That's really
cool. So, okay, the bottom can also be fully taken apart and rearranged
according to how you want. See, they've even got wing nuts on there as opposed
to, you know, building it with rivets or hex screws or, you know, stuff they
don't want you to take apart because they don't want you to see how it's built. Tends to be riveted together. Um,
not the case. So, you got nice big rubber non-slip grippy pads, six of them
on this one, and four of them here. So, you shouldn't have any problems with it
moving around while you're trying to use it. And the pedals connect to the top
via um what is that? RC uh or RJ RJ 11.
Is that what it's called? Whatever. The phone jack one. Okay. So, let's put that
down for now. Man, it's heavy. And now we get to the meat and potatoes of this
particular unit, which is the actual wheel itself. So, it has a little base
station standing guy here, which goes on like that. We're not actually going to
install it for the time being. You got all the hardware pieces that you may or
may not need. You've also got the huge power brick. Why is there a huge power
brick with this wheel? And the reason is quite simple. There is a 3,000 RPM motor
inside here that gives you a variety of
different things. It gives you the responsiveness and the torque necessary
for much better force feedback than you're going to find on a less expensive
racing wheel. It also gives you that responsiveness. So, when the when the
motor spinning faster, you get a quicker response depending on what it's trying
to do than it would if the motor was spinning slower. So, you get that. You
also get an extremely well-built racing wheel
here. So, you've got 10 buttons overall, I believe, on the outside. These are 18
cm shifters, so that pretty much no matter where you are in your steering,
you can actually shift them. They're also affixed to the base, which has a
couple of advantages. One is that it's not going to move the wheel around when you're trying to when you're trying to
press on them, so you're not going to accidentally shift a little bit. Number two is it gives you the flexibility to
upgrade your wheel. So you can actually completely remove the wheel and uh
replace it with something when an upgrade is available in the future. That's something that they have built in
as functionality with this unit. Um all
right, let's talk about the wheel a little bit more. So it's got a very
grippy feeling outside, but there's a little bit of slide as well. Basically,
it feels like a steering wheel, which is the complaint that I have about some of
the uh some of the steering wheels that I've encountered in the past that just
don't really feel like a steering wheel. It's big like a steering wheel as
opposed to again being small and not really feeling like a real steering
wheel. In terms of buttons, this is the PS3 exclusive one. So, it's got, you
know, PlayStation buttons, R2, L2,
D-pad, U, and then the triangle, square,
damage, hoo-has, and then there's also your additional ones down here. And you
can switch between modes down here as well. Uh, give me a sec, guys. So, more
about the wheel itself. It can actually do three full turns. So 1,080 degrees
rotation, which means you are not limited to, you know, driving your car
like Mario Kart style. No, you can actually
turn the wheel when you're trying to turn the car, which is very cool as
well. Now, they talk quite quite a bit about the uh the powerful quick
responding force feedback, but what's equally important if you're going to
have powerful force feedback is having a way to stop it. So, it has a rigid
motorized stopper. No matter what angle of rotation you've you've selected, it
will be able to respond the way that the
game intends and the way that the car would have intended, assuming the game
is an accurate representation of the car, which not all of them are, but some
of them are pretty close, I'm given to understand. Um,
so, right, okay, fluid and smooth action, silent system claims to be not
very loud, although I don't own a PS3, so I actually have no way of verifying
that. Right. The size of the wheel is 12 in. So, if you guys don't want to see an
iPhone comparison, then I'll just tell you in in real real measurements. That's
30 cm or 12 in. And sorry, there were 12
12 buttons, not 10. That was my mistake before. Oh, right. The piece in the
middle. So, this is actually brushed aluminum and uh looks really sharp. So,
you got the rubberized outside and then the brushed aluminum inside and the
shiny again inner piece here. It looks very, very sharp, although I think you
guys can clearly see that for yourselves. Now, in terms of mounting
mechanisms, you got your rubber grippyiness here. You got a way to mount
it to the bottom of a of something here. You've got a variety of different
mounting options. So, yeah, it's big. Yeah, it takes up space in your house,
but if you are a racing enthusiast, then it is probably a compromise that you are
willing to make. So, I think that pretty much wraps it up. It does have internal
memory, so you can upgrade the firmware, which is something that I've forgotten. Oh, right. No, last thing. 65,536
like data points or polling points or or or positions around the wheel. So, what
that means is okay, basically here's the extreme examples. If you're using a
D-pad to play a racing game, you know how you kind of in order to get like a
like a a a sorry, a a light turn, you
have to kind of like tap it once in a while because the only two positions you
have are like and like this, which is not realistic. This has 65,000
plus 65,536 positions all the way around the wheel,
which means if you make a slight adjustment,
your car will genuinely make a slight adjustment. So that granularity of
control is again one of the things that sets apart a more, you know, legit
racing wheel from something that is, well, not as legit and not as uh well,
not as expensive, I guess. But if you really want to play racing games and,
you know, be comfortable and have, you know, more accurate driving experience, then there you go. This seems pretty
pretty awesome, actually. I kind of want to try it. I wish I had a PS3. I wish I had the PC version, though, is actually
what I wish I had. But there you go. So that is my unboxing of the T500. We're
going to pretend it's not the RS. I'm going to call it the T500. Don't forget
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