Meet the Thrustmaster T248 steering wheel
The Thrustmaster T248 hybrid steering wheel has been officially unveiled. Here is a quick need to know ahead of our full review.
Thrustmaster has unveiled its latest steering wheel and the follow-up to the T150. The T248, available on PC, PS4 and PS5, combines belt and gear internals as part of its hybrid system.
Nope, nothing to do with a Toyota Prius. What the hybrid system means is that you reduce the drawbacks of a belt-only design such as slip and gear-only woes such as a more granular feel during wheel rotation. The T150 also used a hybrid design.
Magnetic shifters
.Thrustmaster claims the T248 is 70 per cent more powerful than the T150, but it is unclear if that means torque or something else. At least I can tell you that you get a five-character display for whatever a game outputs, including speed, number of laps or your best time.
Also unique to the Thrustmaster T248 are magnetic shifters, which do their thing in 60 milliseconds, and three levels of force feedback (FFB). The first outputs exactly what is provded by a racing game, while the second is for drift control and the third offers enhanced detail.
.There are also 23 buttons if you exclude the magnetic paddle shifters to assign to whatever function you want and a new pedal set Thrustmaster calls the T3PM. These differ from the T3PA as they have an adjustable spring with four different settings.
The T3PM pedals should work far better than the outgoing T3PA
.The T3PM also make use of hall effect sensors instead of potentiometers, meaning that pressing the pedals should feel more life-like as opposed to on or off like the T3PA. Yes, that means something more akin to the lovely T-LCM.
Prices start from £300, US$399 or €350. For that money you get the steering wheel, base and three-pedal T3PM set, making it a rival to the Logitech G923. You can buy the T248 now in Europe, North America and the Middle East. The rest of the world will follow in 'late 2021'.
What about an Xbox=friendly version? Nothing has been officially announced, but knowing the Thrustmaster roadmap is busy in 2021 I doubt we will have to wait long for an announcement.
Expect a full review on A Tribe Called Cars and DriveTribe once I can get my hands on the T248. Until then, feel free to check out the channel.
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Comments (5)
I thought it was an aftermarket steering wheel for real cars
Oh, it's a video game controller. I was confused for a second.
So you're saying that the Thrustmaster is a kind of adult toy?
Hmmmmmmm.
Clarkson’s favorite screen name.
so what?