SteelSeries Simraceway SRW-S1 Gaming Steering Wheel

• 15 fully programmable buttons and directional pad for a personalized set-up
• Customizable steering sensitivity coupled with quick rotary dials for driving aids
• Interactive in-game: RPM and Shift Indicator lights that respond to Simraceway online gameplay
• Real-feel: Rubberized racing wheel comfort grips with realistic racing wheel shifters for true to life racing experience
• Quick set-up: plug and play while racing in the online Simraceway platform

I've had a lot of fun playing with this little sucker today.

Frankly, I didn't think I'd like it very much. I requested it before I realized what it was. I thought it was a steering wheel with a steering column you attach to a desk, similar to my Logitech Driving Force steering wheel. It's actually an accelerometer... and you hold the wheel, unattached to anything, and with no feedback, just rotate it. The pedals are large paddles, and the gear shifters are smaller clicky paddles.

I've played Mario Kart with a wiimote, and thought it was a bit of a gimmick, so I expected this to be the same. It's really much better, though.

For one, the accuracy is excellent. Despite the lack of feedback, this is a precise way to steer. I can adjust the sensitivity with a knob, so with a couple of adjustments, I was getting the car to do exactly what I want. The way they designed the 'pedals' (paddles) makes for very accurate braking and throttle, so I can easily feather the throttle for drifting and oversteer control. It really is excellent for what it sets out to do. You can control a car with the same precision you'd expect from a more traditional game steering wheel. No exaggeration.

I also found the controller to be built well. For the price, I would expect the controller to be solid, with proper response from buttons and paddles and knobs. It all feels very well built. The gear shifters produce a satisfying click, the buttons produce a satisfying thump, and the knobs all are great. The USB cable is probably the most sturdy data cable I've ever seen. I could probably use this steering wheel as a grappling hook without breaking it.

When you picture steering around a corner, holding a detached wheel, turning your ABS up (you can select an aid with the center knob, and then adjust with the right knob), doesn't it sound like this will be awkward? It actually is easy UNLESS you need to switch from braking to throttling mid adjustment, as either of the hands doing the adjustment is needed for either braking or throttling. So I learned to adjust during accelerations out of the corners, where I'm very unlikely to need the brakes. The buttons you need while racing all are in the radius of your two thumbs, so you can hit any of those at any time you like, and it's surprising how quickly you get used to them.

I found the LEDs, especially the blue ones (for when your car is over the rev limit) to be on the bright side, but they do look pretty impressive.

Also, I love being able to lounge on a couch while racing. I have an awkward desk mounted setup for my very well made Logitech setup, with pedals, etc, and I won't be using it again because this SRW-S1 is simply a better way to control the car when playing games from the sofa.

Now for a couple of cons:

This lacks any sort of vibration or force feedback, which of course I miss.

Even though the website said it doesn't work on my PS3, I did play around in Gran Turismo 5 vainly hoping I could get it to do more than move around the menus. This doesn't work on a PS3... it's for PC games. I'd be very pleased to see a PS3 version come to the market.

It's also mainly for the Simraceway game. A lot of the buttons and the rev lights do not work in other PC racers (though it works as a steering wheel on every PC racer I tried). So I've been practicing Simraceway (a game I had never heard of) a bit. You can download it for free and try it yourself and see if it's your kind of game. It reminds me a lot of iracing, though doesn't have many users (I assume this is a new community). The physics were great, but the graphics are nothing like Gran Turismo (perhaps because my graphics card is not meant for games). I found Simraceway to be a competent driving simulator, and hopefully the community grows, but it's not for everyone. As this is a new product, I suspect support for it will increase, and I'll update if I find that to be the case.

I also think this kind of wheel would be ideal if they released a wireless version, but the USB cable is pretty long.

Bottom line is that this is a product for a particular use: simulation racing on PCs. It has surpassed my expectations for that use, and the build quality justifies the price tag.

EDIT: I've also added a photo with my Logitech gamepad and a mint for scale, so you can understand the size. It's a little smaller than I thought it would be, just looking at the product photo on Amazon. BTW, I am happy with the size.

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I am a gamer, have been a gamer for almost as long as I can remember. Right now, I currently game most on my PC, but I also own a Wii so the concept of steering and whirling around a detached controller is pretty second nature to me.

This is a niche product for a niche market kind of game that I think will work with some other games, but I haven't had a chance to check those out just yet. I mention this because I found the simraceway game to have a pretty steep learning curve in that there really is no apparent tutorial that I could find. There are testing tracks and ways to practice, but they leave a lot to be desired. It was fun of course. It has been a long time since I tried to sink my teeth into a racing game, and I am probably a hardcore gamer by definition, just not in this area.

Some things to note, this controller came without a disc which means you have to download the game from the website. Not only that, in order to get the game, you have to sign up for an account with them and then you get to download the game. It's a fairly good size download, about 1.15 gigs and it took about 16 minutes to download. I have a pretty good connection, so that was attributed to their server and size. My downloads from Steam and other services seems a bit speeder. Overall, between signing up account, downloading, installing it took about 30 minutes to get started. I also use Win 7 so there were no issues with finding the device and getting going. This isn't a complaint, just a potential issue for someone not prepared to have to get online and spend time there, say someone in our armed forces.

In terms of size, I find this controller to be a bit on the big size for comfort. I am guessing man hands might be right at home, but I found some strain gripping it and can't reach all the upper buttons and the pedals/shifts readily without playing around a bit. Again, even in that position, I found my fingers strained a bit, especially the thumbs. You would have to let go to hit the dials, which is fine of course and slide your hand down to get the camera and back buttons as well as the d-pad and select button. None of this is a deal break of course, just something to keep in mind if you are giving this to a lady friend or thinking it would be good for a young child.

As far as quality is concerned, it's a winner. The feel of the grips is good and not fragile, the pedals have give and are probably the first thing that will go on this controller but they are not flimsy by any means. The dials are firm to turn but not difficult so they stay in place. Heck, even the cord is quality, a cloth-like feel to them less prone to kinks. I am so used to seeing companies cheap on peripherals that this is a real pleasure. It will take me awhile to get used to really taking advantage of all the buttons and options and functionality of this wheel, but that is a good thing. The fact it's not attached to something and is essentially an air wheel should not dissuade you. That part was pretty easy to get used to pretty quickly. I look forward to using this more and just hope I will find a more comfortable position to keep my hands so I can dig into gaming on this.

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First thing you'll need to know is that if you've used other wheels (the kind with a fixed base), this one will take some getting used to. It's not attached to anything but a long, sturdy USB chord and relies on accelerometers for sensing input, like a smartphone or a wiimote. This was a little jarring at first, because the wheel doesn't rotate around a fixed axis so feeling position isn't always the easiest.

However, the after playing with your sensitivity settings and tweaking it, the accelerometers do a hell of a job giving you precise, immediate control. Obviously there's no force feedback or any of that, it would have been nice to have some sort of vibration though, but not crucial. The paddles on the back, which take care of acceleration and braking, are also very precise, though I wish they had a stronger or adjustable spring return, just for a little more positive pressure.

There are loads of buttons on this thing, and they're set up for one specific racing title (Simraceways), which admittedly I didn't play too much of. Most of my driving was in F1 2010/2011 and Dirt 3. Since the buttons are labeled it was pretty easy to translate which ones I wanted to handle which tasks in those games.

Overall, though, the thing looks pretty cool. Honestly it's a tad embarrassing to have a giant force feedback wheel sitting near your desk, they're bulky and get in the way. This little guy can go up on a shelf when not in use and just looks like racing memorabilia which is a nice little bonus. I do wish it came with a rotating stand, though, something it could mount to when you're playing a game to give you that fixed axis that most racing gamers are used to.

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I bought it about a mouth ago, While at first i thought it was a bad purchase. The wheel felt too big and I couldn't use all the buttons while driving. But then after a couple of days i got used to it and now I'm in love.

I have only tried it with Rfactor have yet to download Simraceway. All the buttons get recognized in the Rfactor and are able to be mapped to any function in the game. The shift lights and dials don't get recognized or work at all. There is a driver for the shift lights available but considering I spent almost all of my time looking at the screen instead of the wheel, i would probably turn them off if they even had worked.

My final thoughts are that it was a good investment. Coming of a using an Xbox controller for driving games it gives a whole new feeling and challenge. I really believe it also helps with driving skills in real life. So down right to it its worth it

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Nice wheel. Not too big and not too heavy. It's a little difficult to reach some of the buttons while also using the throttle and brake paddles (I need larger hands, lol). The game that it's for seems to be pretty good, but the wheel has worked with every driving game I've tried it with so far. The steering is responsive and consistent and the throttle and brake levers have a nice long travel for good control. My wheel came with a $10 gift card for use in the Simraceway game. The card said it expired on March 31st, but it still worked on the April 6th. Exactly enough to buy 25 of the most popular cars in the game.