Virpil MT50 - Full Teardown & Score

Processor in VKB joystick is modern Cortex 32-bit chip. It allows to get perfect firmware right now and have very good perspectives. Perfect engineering? Surely.

Not if they can't produce it in enough quantity to even moderately satisfy the demand.

I don't want to advertise negatively. I'm just trying to clarify and understand the product. I was willing to buy, and I hope the VPC team gets better with time.

It works as advertised. Unless you want to disassemble it and put it behind the glass to look at there is no problem.

I have their products for a year now, quite heavily used, they are still fine, nothing is broken etc. Their design could be better, especially the throttle (massive, obnoxious branding and a couple of gimmicky buttons), nothing major tho. and Virpil throttle is order of magnitude better than anything else available on the market (I have a couple of others)

On a side note I wish there was a proper competition out there. Both Virpil and especially VKB can't cope with demand and their sale practices are really bad and they are not up to standards offered even by average retail company (Virpil if you read this, please don't take it personally :) ) . Virpil seems to have a bit better post sale support though. As of now, I'd never buy from either of them if they had a semi-decent competition (eg. Thrustmaster offering proper metal base), but I guess I am adding to the problem ;), because I am buying. Having said that, they all seem to be small shops with no capital/stock ability whatsoever.

Virpil throttle is order of magnitude better than anything else available on the market (I have a couple of others)

What's there that makes it orders of magnitude better that Warthog? I mean the joystick base is much better, not denying that, but throttle?

What's there that makes it orders of magnitude better that Warthog? I mean the joystick base is much better, not denying that, but throttle?

The throttle is not known for bricking itself...

The throttle is not known for bricking itself...

Hopefully not, but really not been out in the market long enough yet either.

I can't stand the DCS input system for the trimmer buttons, you can't do any fine trimming with them as you need to do shortest possible press of any trimming button to get the trimming accurate. I am constantly balancing trimming with half to one degree accuracy and I can get better leveling without trimming then.

 

The TM WH trimmer is even worse as it doesn't have possibility to quickly tap the trim so you get instant feedback that it is done.

 

Where a such flexible hat is nice is when you need to do the confirmation by that larger motion of hat direction for example select the the display or weapon.

I have mine set in TARGET with the press and hold option. You can also set the interval in pulse.

The new Virpil T-50CM and updated grips that they just announced for preorder look very promising. I'd like to see Noobifier's review and rating of those. I only have experience with Suncomm, Saitek, and Thrustmaster. Virpil corrected the deficiency in the thumb hat switch and updated the internals as I don't believe it's Warthog compatible anymore. Their throttle is also actually available rather than a render from over a year ago and they seem to understand proper supply and distribution chains and customer service. I've been using Thrustmaster since they first advertised in Computer Gaming World in the early 90's. I had their first B-8 style grip production run, it was actually crap, jittery and all over the place compared to my CH joystick. But the hat switch was a game changer in the dark times before TrackIR and VR. Nice to see them having real competition again.