Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - Saitek Joystick: ST290 Pro (PC)

List Price: г19.99
Our Price: г10.50
Your Save: £ 0.00 ( % )
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: Saitek

Average Customer Rating:

Manufacturer Maximum Age: 18
Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Saitek
EAN: 0021165102972
Is Autographed: 0
Is Fragile: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Saitek
Manufacturer: Saitek
Model: ST290
Number Of Items: 1
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Saitek
Release Date: 2003-08-15
Studio: Saitek

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Amazing stick for the price.
Comment: Well I decided to wait a month before reviewing this joystick. Its my first "real" joystick, the first was some cheap unbranded thing that died soon after being taken out of the box.

I was a bit skeptical when I first saw the price, but as I am a student, I cannot afford top of the range sticks like the X52 or CH products. This one appeared to fit the bill. It had everything I needed; enough buttons, throttle control, and a twist handle for rudder (no space and no money for pedals, which is one of the reasons I decided not to get a CH stick even if I somehow found the money).
First impressions: On the pictures it looks great, nice contrasting colours, cool LED on the top, looks comfortable to hold. When taking it out of the box, it had the contrasting colours and it looked comfortable to hold. Close up, something that the pictures don't really show, is that it looks very much like a toy. Huge (and I cannot emphasize this enough) seam lines, and you can see Saitek does not bother with filing down the bits that stick out along the edges of the seam line (albeit there aren't too many of those bits so that can be excused to an extent). Also, the box shows the LED glowing. Well, either thats just false advertising, or they forgot to put an LED in mine, because when I got was just a blue piece of plastic with regular silver plastic underneath. But I don't mind about that, I think I prefer not having an LED, it would probably reflect off my screen and annoy me or just be a distraction. As some people have complained, the ergonomics are somewhat lacking, although I don't find it too bad, my hands are average size, maybe a bit bigger, but not big by any means. The stick itself is fine to hold, the palm rest is good for support, though the adjustments are a bit big, so one may be too low for your liking, and the next one up too high. The buttons on the far right of the stick (left if you're left handed) do prove awkward to press with your thumb, though you get used to it after a while, and it would be best to assign them to something you don't need to press that often in the heat of battle. I have mine assigned to airbrake and something which I dont remember.

The base is another area which isn't as good as it could have been. Sure the push throttle is great fun, its not stupidly easy to push, it has resistance which I find to be a nice feature, and allows for good precision when adjusting throttle. However, it has a bit of inaccuracy at the extremes. Sometimes throttle won't go past 99% or lower than 1%, and if that happens, you have to lower/raise it a bit, then push it up/down again. Anyway, the base. Too light. The size of it compensates a bit of course, but it has no manner of weighting whatsoever. It's just a slab of plastic with some rubber(?)pads on the underside (which for some reason saitek decided to make nice and shiney, so instead of gripping on painted surfaces they slide. Why can't saitek just use rubber like that found on notebooks for the studs?). I havn't had too much trouble with the stick sliding/tipping though, even during dogfights (IL2). So thats not much of a problem, not enough to warrent removing 2 stars.

One last small problem is that the spring does tend to lose its strength after not too much use. At first the stick was nice and resistant, now it seems to glide. But this doesn't really matter much to me, in fact it allows me to make more precise movements. As long as it doesnt become weak to the point that the stick moves when I sneeze on it then it should be fine.

So overall, this is a really nice stick, I would definitely buy it again (unless it decides to break in less than a year, but its too early to tell). But if you really do yank your stick around, or if you have small hands (or a small thumb), I would suggest looking for another option.

Customer Rating:

Summary: You get what you pay for.
Comment: This stick is accurate but I find it very uncomfortable compared to my old Logitech Wingman 3D, which felt like it had been moulded to fit my hand perfectly. Whoever designed this obviously knew nothing about ergonomics. My hands are about average size and I still have to stretch to reach the top buttons, and the throttle is in a really awkward position directly behind the stick.

With this stick you get what you pay for, but there are better sticks around for the same price.

Avoid!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great Product
Comment: I bought this joystick to play various games including Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam. I have experienced no problems with using this joystick in these games. For those games where I needed to program the stick, I found the drivers and software easily on the Saitek website (unlike the other user). I have used many other sticks and this one proved to be the most user friendly. Great stick, great value!

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comment: This joystick is brilliant!!!!!!!!! You just plug in and go. It is a shame there is no cd with it but it is very easy to download the stuff you need to do the control settings on games from the saitek website. This is a very good joystick and i'm very pleased with mine.

Customer Rating:

Summary: No CD included, No programming software available!
Comment: If I could actually use this big, plastic, waste of desk space I might actually enjoy it. Let me start at the beginning.

I purchased this joystick in the hopes of using it for Battlefield 1942. Like most PC Gamers I'm used to programming the buttons on my controllers (Button1 = W KEY) and so on and was prepared for an afternoon of fun. When it arrived I was surprised to notice that there was no CD included with the Joystick. The manual pointed out that everything I needed would be on Saitek.com and that their programming/mapping software for the joystick known as SST was up there for download.

Well the manual was wrong. The software was in fact not up on the website for download. I tried to call the support number but they had no weekend hours (this was on a Saturday). So here I am stuck with a brand new controller that doesn't work, and no way to get the software I need.

I posted messages on their offical support forums to no avail (everyone kept pointing me to the SST Manual which IS available for download but assumes you already have the mysterious SST software!).

This controller is going back, and Saitek will never get another buy from me.

More Reviews

Editorial Reviews:

Technical DataInput Device / TypeJoystickTechnical DataInput Device / Form FactorExternalTechnical DataInput Device / Connectivity TechnologyWiredTechnical DataInput Device / Buttons Qty5Technical DataSystem Requirements / OS RequiredMicrosoft Windows 98/METechnical DataHeader / Product LineSaitek ST290Technical DataHeader / CompatibilityPCTechnical DataHeader / ManufacturerSaitekTechnical DataHeader / Packaged Quantity1

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