Thrustmaster T500 RS Premium Racing Wheel Unboxing & First Look Linus Tech Tips
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,808 words · ~9 min read
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Hey guys, this is pretty cool. This is the kind of thing that I don't often
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have the opportunity to take a look at. This is the T500 RS from Thrustmaster.
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And the difference between the RS and the nonRS is that the nonRS is the one
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that I would personally be interested in because it's compatible with PC as well,
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but this is the PS3 only one. Other than that, they're pretty much the same idea.
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So, we're gonna start by getting it opened up because this is going to be a
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bit of an ordeal to open because it's big and it's heavy. In fact, that's even
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a selling point of the device in the first place. It's one of the things that
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Thrustmaster puts right on the front of the box. It's heavy, which it better be
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for how much it costs, I guess. So, if you're looking at in terms of like
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dollars per pound, then um you know, you
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could go to xc.com and you could find out what the actual exchange rate is. Or
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you could just um I'm just kidding. That's a little that's a little uh you
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know, exchange rate humor, which I think is I think is an underdeveloped uh an
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underdeveloped field of in the in the humor science humorous sciences. Uh
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basically, I'm I'm just stalling, guys. I'm just stalling. I'm trying to get the
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box open and figure out what we've got to deal with here. And I wanted to talk
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about how Thrustmaster does call out
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specifically the weight of their pedal set right on the front. 15.4 lb for the
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100% metal pedal set. It also has two
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positions, GT and Rally or F1. So, you
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can actually switch it around to mount it either this way or this way. And it
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looks like this is the one that comes out of the box. So, let's actually, you
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know, I'm going to get it deacified and then we'll be back in a second. So, why
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would you pay more for a racing wheel? The simple answer is build quality. So,
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yes, all metal, extremely rugged construction, great feedback on the
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pedals. It actually feels like pressing on a brake as opposed to just being a
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piece of plastic that doesn't feel like pressing on a brake. These are fully
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removable, which is really cool. So you can actually customize the whole unit
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quite a bit according to your particular preferences. So there's your uh uh so
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gas brake and clutch all have different tensions so that they feel legitimately
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different. Now switching between the two different modes is actually really
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simple. All you have to do is
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flip it like this. Use the included Allen key to move the diamond plate down
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to the bottom and then you are in the other mode. And then I guess you can uh
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I guess you just have to switch around through the software the functionality.
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And then you can actually switch the pedals over like that. That's really
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cool. So, okay, the bottom can also be fully taken apart and rearranged
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according to how you want. See, they've even got wing nuts on there as opposed
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to, you know, building it with rivets or hex screws or, you know, stuff they
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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,
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not the case. So, you got nice big rubber non-slip grippy pads, six of them
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on this one, and four of them here. So, you shouldn't have any problems with it
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moving around while you're trying to use it. And the pedals connect to the top
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via um what is that? RC uh or RJ RJ 11.
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Is that what it's called? Whatever. The phone jack one. Okay. So, let's put that
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down for now. Man, it's heavy. And now we get to the meat and potatoes of this
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particular unit, which is the actual wheel itself. So, it has a little base
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station standing guy here, which goes on like that. We're not actually going to
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install it for the time being. You got all the hardware pieces that you may or
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may not need. You've also got the huge power brick. Why is there a huge power
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brick with this wheel? And the reason is quite simple. There is a 3,000 RPM motor
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inside here that gives you a variety of
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different things. It gives you the responsiveness and the torque necessary
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for much better force feedback than you're going to find on a less expensive
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racing wheel. It also gives you that responsiveness. So, when the when the
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motor spinning faster, you get a quicker response depending on what it's trying
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to do than it would if the motor was spinning slower. So, you get that. You
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also get an extremely well-built racing wheel
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here. So, you've got 10 buttons overall, I believe, on the outside. These are 18
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cm shifters, so that pretty much no matter where you are in your steering,
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you can actually shift them. They're also affixed to the base, which has a
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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
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press on them, so you're not going to accidentally shift a little bit. Number two is it gives you the flexibility to
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upgrade your wheel. So you can actually completely remove the wheel and uh
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replace it with something when an upgrade is available in the future. That's something that they have built in
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as functionality with this unit. Um all
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right, let's talk about the wheel a little bit more. So it's got a very
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grippy feeling outside, but there's a little bit of slide as well. Basically,
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it feels like a steering wheel, which is the complaint that I have about some of
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the uh some of the steering wheels that I've encountered in the past that just
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don't really feel like a steering wheel. It's big like a steering wheel as
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opposed to again being small and not really feeling like a real steering
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wheel. In terms of buttons, this is the PS3 exclusive one. So, it's got, you
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know, PlayStation buttons, R2, L2,
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D-pad, U, and then the triangle, square,
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damage, hoo-has, and then there's also your additional ones down here. And you
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can switch between modes down here as well. Uh, give me a sec, guys. So, more
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about the wheel itself. It can actually do three full turns. So 1,080 degrees
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rotation, which means you are not limited to, you know, driving your car
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like Mario Kart style. No, you can actually
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turn the wheel when you're trying to turn the car, which is very cool as
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well. Now, they talk quite quite a bit about the uh the powerful quick
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responding force feedback, but what's equally important if you're going to
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have powerful force feedback is having a way to stop it. So, it has a rigid
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motorized stopper. No matter what angle of rotation you've you've selected, it
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will be able to respond the way that the
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game intends and the way that the car would have intended, assuming the game
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is an accurate representation of the car, which not all of them are, but some
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of them are pretty close, I'm given to understand. Um,
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so, right, okay, fluid and smooth action, silent system claims to be not
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very loud, although I don't own a PS3, so I actually have no way of verifying
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that. Right. The size of the wheel is 12 in. So, if you guys don't want to see an
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iPhone comparison, then I'll just tell you in in real real measurements. That's
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30 cm or 12 in. And sorry, there were 12
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12 buttons, not 10. That was my mistake before. Oh, right. The piece in the
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middle. So, this is actually brushed aluminum and uh looks really sharp. So,
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you got the rubberized outside and then the brushed aluminum inside and the
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shiny again inner piece here. It looks very, very sharp, although I think you
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guys can clearly see that for yourselves. Now, in terms of mounting
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mechanisms, you got your rubber grippyiness here. You got a way to mount
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it to the bottom of a of something here. You've got a variety of different
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mounting options. So, yeah, it's big. Yeah, it takes up space in your house,
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but if you are a racing enthusiast, then it is probably a compromise that you are
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willing to make. So, I think that pretty much wraps it up. It does have internal
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memory, so you can upgrade the firmware, which is something that I've forgotten. Oh, right. No, last thing. 65,536
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like data points or polling points or or or positions around the wheel. So, what
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that means is okay, basically here's the extreme examples. If you're using a
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D-pad to play a racing game, you know how you kind of in order to get like a
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like a a a sorry, a a light turn, you
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have to kind of like tap it once in a while because the only two positions you
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have are like and like this, which is not realistic. This has 65,000
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plus 65,536 positions all the way around the wheel,
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which means if you make a slight adjustment,
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your car will genuinely make a slight adjustment. So that granularity of
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control is again one of the things that sets apart a more, you know, legit
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racing wheel from something that is, well, not as legit and not as uh well,
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not as expensive, I guess. But if you really want to play racing games and,
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you know, be comfortable and have, you know, more accurate driving experience, then there you go. This seems pretty
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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
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what I wish I had. But there you go. So that is my unboxing of the T500. We're
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going to pretend it's not the RS. I'm going to call it the T500. Don't forget
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to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer
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