Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad and Docking Station
by Saitek
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Our Price: $42.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Saitek P3000 Wireless Gamepad and Docking Station
Customer Review: battery problems, poor performance
Summary: 2 Stars
1 of the 2 rechargable batteries it came with didn't work right out of the box. After over a month, the second battery started having problems; for example, I'd have to keep on re-inserting it into the gamepad or the recharger before it recognized it was in.
I contacted customer support about the problem. They said my batteries were defective and that they would mail me new ones. I never received it, and this was months ago.
There are other problems too. The calibration of the analog sticks gets messed up during gameplay occassionally. Sometimes, the buttons aren't responsive; you press a button and it either doesn't register or registers late. Lastly, the rubber on the analog sticks wear out badly after a year (I don't even use it that much b\c of the battery problems).
The feel of the gamepad alone is good though. The buttons are in comfortable places, and there are enough of them to be able to setup most games. Unfortunately, the performance\quality isn't good.
Customer Review: Saitek P3000 Wireless Game Pad
Summary: 2 Stars
In the box this thing comes with your standard paperwork, a CD with the drivers, the usb "docking station" that charges the batteries and receives the rf signal, the controller and two rechargeable batteries. Out of the box one of these batteries didn't work at all. Plugging it into the charger would not turn on the charging light and plugging it into the controlled would not power it. The other battery seemed to work fine and for a time (about 4 days) this controller did its job very well. After a couple of charges, however, the second battery went the way of the first.
I have called their tech support and they should be sending me new batteries shortly. Assuming that this solves my problem I have no other complaints about this controller. It plays my emulated console games rather well will full analog functionality (when it had power that is). If I hadn't had this battery problem this pad would have got 4 or 5 stars.
Customer Review: Buyer Beware
Summary: 1 Stars
I've gone through three of these, and they all had the same problems. A quick view of these reviews and reviews on CircuitCity's website shows the same problems. What makes it even worse is you'll see threads stating the same issues on Saitek's support forums, with their main support guy vehemently denying that there are problems with this gamepad.
The batteries are cheap. They're often dead out of the box (meaning they can't take a charge). They die with minimal use. If you fully charge them too often, the charger kills the batteries.
The analog sticks have a LARGE dead zone, and suffer from calibration issues. The dead zone seems to have been thrown in to hide the calibration issues, so you'd have to hold the stick all the way in one direction to get any response. However, even with that, each stick seems to pull in a direction by default, due to the calibration issues.
I've heard of problems with their range (earlier models were 900mhz, newer ones are 2.4ghz, I own a 900mhz). To be honest, I got mine responding fine about 25 feet away. So while others may have had issues here, I had none.
The main reason to buy a Saitek over, say, a Logitech had to be the grip. Unlike Logitech, this gamepad doesn't feel like a PS2 controller. Personally, I never liked the Playstation brand controllers, so that was the main selling point for me. However, in terms of functionality, I wish I'd have gone with the Logitech.
If you're looking for a gamepad, please follow my advice. First, decide if you want wired or wireless. If you're hooking up your PC to your televison and playing across the living room, then maybe wireless is for you. However, if you're just playing at your PC, please just get a wired controller. Due to the way the base station has to be plugged in, it's practicly the same anyway.
After that, go to CC or Best Buy and FEEL the controllers. The main advantage of a Saitek over Logictech, for example, is that Saitek's don't feel like PS2 controllers. If you love the PS2 style, get a Logitech. If you can't stant the PS2, consider a Saitek or Thrustmaster.
If you do decide on a wireless controller, do NOT buy this one. It has nothing but flaws.
Customer Review: Shoulda read the reviews
Summary: 1 Stars
I got two of these as a gift and right out of the box I had problems with them.
I've owned 2 P880's (the corded versions of this controller) for over 2 years now and they are great, the included software for Saitek controllers is brilliant as well. The controllers are well designed and fit comfortably in my hands, they're like the perfect balance of Playstation and XBox size. The only downside is that they only have 1 shoulder button instead of 2, but you get used to that.
So why not go wireless?
Well the only reason I wouldn't recommend these is that the batteries are very poorly designed. Saitek has even recocgnized this on their site and will ship you a free pair of batteries. I got mine a couple weeks ago.
However that still wont solve the problem and like most reviewrs I've tried and tried to get these pads to work with little to no avail.
The individual battery packs actually contain 2 batteries inside; one for the wireless connection and one for the controller display.
The problem is that if one baterry is full when the other is not the charger will not continue to charge the drained battery. so while you may get a display on the controller, you wont get a connection to the PC or vis versa.
There is no easy solution to this problem either. The user must find a way to drain the batteries without damaging the battery pack and hope that they stay in sync after that (which is very unlikely).
If you really like Saitek (like me) I'd wait for a newer model of wireless controllers. Till then stick with the cords or go with a different brand.
As of this date Saitek has seemingly started to release newer versions of their game pads so hopefully there's a more functional version out there soon if its not out already.
Be warned that the 2.4GHz version of this pad is prone to the same problems.
Customer Review: Buy Something Else
Summary: 1 Stars
This controller is a piece of junk. One of the two batteries took one charge and then went totally dead. The other battery works fine as long as you charge it right before you play. If the battery sits in or out of the controller for more than an hour, it loses it's charge. This means that even with two batteries, I have to plan ahead to use it, so the battery will have some juice in it.
Saitek claims it works up to thirty feet away from the base. The key phrase is "up to". Mine works from five feet away IF I have line of sight to the base. (Which I don't get since it's RF not IR.) With no line of sight, you need to be right next to the base and might as well have bought a nicer wired pad.
The pad itself is well designed, has plenty of buttons and comes with easy to use software. If the wireless part worked half as well as they claim, it would be a good buy. But it doesn't and it's not.
I have since bought the Logitech Wireless Controller, and although the pad itself is not as comfortable to use, has fewer buttons and doesn't have rechargeable batteries, I'm MUCH happier with it. The Saitek Wireless Pad is a good idea gone horribly, horribly wrong.