PC, Mac - MPN: 9632830403
Strengths: Good comfort. Twist handle rudder eliminates need for pedals or keyboard to control the rudder. Fast response time.
Weakness: Need to change batteries every once in awhile but not often. Buttons on the base are weirdly positioned.
I purchased this joystick for flying in Battlefield 1942 since my gamepad was not doing so well in that. I got this and was amazed. The twist handle rudder lets me line up my bomb drops with ease. The design looks very nice and is comfortable and is heavy enough not to go sliding around. My only gripe is changing batteries but it's wireless and I expect to change the batteries. Usually batteries come in packs of 2 or 4 but it takes 3 batteries so it makes it uneven so I just have 1 extra battery lieing around. It's not a big deal though.
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TopStrengths: I always enjoy leaving the bounds of cables, and the precision and comfort were a plus
Weakness: This joystick has the uncanny ability of eating up an entire 2.53Ghz PIV processor when it is idle.
The joystick goes into sleep mode to save battery life, which is good, I agree. What they don't tell you, is that when this happens, the receiver seeks a signal, and it cycles your processor up to the maximum (100%). This brings practically all applications to a crawl and in some cases, a grinding halt. This is very annoying, and something that should not have been overlooked in design.
(screenshot of usage available at www.asylumx.net/usage....)
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TopStrengths: The wireless feature is nice if you don't mind buying batteries regularly. Additionally it seems to respond just as well as a hard-wired stick.
Weakness: Precision control (deadzone) is not a feature of the software for the joystick. If your game does not have this feature built in, the stick will float which gets irritating in necessary situations.
Strongly suggest the Microsoft Precision 2 joystick. It has the same level of features as this stick but with additional deadzone features to help stabilize movement. One drawback with Precision 2, the trigger button has a short life for those with firm grips. It is likely you will be calling Microsoft to get a replacement far before the 1 year warranty is up.
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TopStrengths: Great Stick, I was going to buy a Microsoft stick but saw this and could not pass it up. Great connectivity, can't tell its wireless, tons of buttons that are all numbered
Weakness: not much at all, button #2 ( Thumb on the side of the stick ) could be a tad bigger
I don't know what the problem the other guy had mine works fine and i have not seen this problem at all... I read a review at Logitech from PC Gamer and was sold a great buy and would highly recomend
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TopStrengths: Precise, No need for in-game control editing, comfortable, decent weight, rechargable batteries(special edition), lots of buttons, shift function, deadzone control, and ITS THE BEST!!!
Weakness: Reciever should go into sleep mode (keeps on blinking), Profiler program takes up a lot of memory while idle, and some games such as GTA screw things up...
I know it was only like 25$... but since you added some metal why cant u make all the grey plastic parts metal? haha... oh and some more eye candy is good... more buttons on the top part wont hurt either...
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TopStrengths: No cords.
Weakness: Plastic china crap.
Ever since I got the thing it has not worked 100%. The handle twist went bad after 90 days or so and its impossible to calibrate. I took mine apart the other day and it is made of very cheap material. The freedom is nice but not worth the cost.
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Logitech Freedom 2.4 Joystick
Strengths: Very precise and abundant buttons make this a must have joystick
Weakness: Batteries! I wish it had a charging station with a built in nicad battery pack.
I have always been very demanding when it comes to joysticks. My absolute favorite is the wingman interceptor with the 3 hat switchs. But since Logitech refuses to continue support for it I was forced to continue my search. 6 months rolled by and I came upon the Cordless. Very nice feel but only one hat switch. It has 3 rubber covered legs that help prevent it from sliding around. The trigger is one of the toughest I have ever seen (I keep breaking the MS joystick triggers). Other than that it has been a faithful addition to my gaming arsenal (I have one at home and one at work). If it were not for the fact you need to replace the 3 AA batteries every 50 hours of use I would have given it a perfect score. As for the guy with the drift problems...What OS are you using??!! In win2k and XP there is no reason to need dead zone calibration. The stick does not use "pots" so it always centers up when you let go. This could be a problem if you are using a very old program or OS (I'm guessing here).
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