 Hey guys, this is pretty cool. This is the kind of thing that I don't often have the opportunity to take a look at. This is the T500RS from Thrustmaster and the difference between the RS and the non-RS is that the non-RS is the one that I would personally be interested in because it's compatible with PC as well, but this is the PS3 only one. Other than that, they're pretty much the same idea. So we're going to start by getting it opened up because this is going to be a bit of an ordeal to open because it's big and it's heavy. In fact, that's even a selling point of the device in the first place. It's one of the things that Thrustmaster puts right on the front of the box. It's heavy, which it better be for how much it costs, I guess. So if you're looking at it in terms of like dollars per pound, then you could go to xe.com and you could find out what the actual exchange rate is or you could just... I'm just kidding. That's a little exchange rate humor, which I think is an underdeveloped field in the humorous sciences. Basically I'm just stalling, guys. I'm just stalling. I'm trying to get the box open and figure out what we've got to deal with here. I wanted to talk about how Thrustmaster does call out specifically the weight of their pedal set right on the front. 15.4 pounds for the 100% metal pedal set. It also has two positions, GT and Rally or F1. So you can actually switch it around to mount it either this way or this way. It looks like this is the one that comes out of the box. So let's actually... You know what? I'm going to get it de-packified and then we'll be back in a second. So why would you pay more for a racing wheel? The simple answer is build quality. So yes, all metal. Extremely rugged construction. Great feedback on the pedals. It actually feels like pressing on a brake as opposed to just being a piece of plastic that doesn't feel like pressing on a brake. These are fully removable, which is really cool. So you can actually customize the whole unit quite a bit according to your particular preferences. So there's your... so gas, brake and clutch all have different tension so that they feel legitimately different. Now switching between the two different modes is actually really simple. All you have to do is flip it like this, use the included Allen key to move the diamond plate down to the bottom and then you are in the other mode. And then I guess you can... I guess you just have to switch around through the software, the functionality, and then you can actually switch the pedals over like that. That's really cool. So, okay, the bottom can also be fully taken apart and rearranged according to how you want. See, they've even got wing nuts on there as opposed to, you know, building it with rivets or hex screws or, you know, stuff they don't want you to take apart because they don't want you to see how it's built. Tends to be riveted together. Not the case. So you got nice big rubber non-slip grippy pads. Six of them on this one and four of them here so you shouldn't have any problems with it moving around while you're trying to use it. And the pedals connect to the top via... What is that? RC... RJ11? Is that what it's called? Whatever, the phone jack one. Okay. So let's put that down for now. Man, it's heavy. And now we get to the meat and potatoes of this particular unit which is the actual wheel itself. So it has a little base station stand guy here which goes on like that. We're not actually going to install it for the time being. You got all of the hardware pieces that you may or may not need. You've also got the huge power brick. Why is there a huge power brick with this wheel? And the reason is quite simple. There is a 3,000 RPM motor inside here that gives you a variety of different things. It gives you the responsiveness and the torque necessary for much better force feedback than you're going to find on a less expensive racing wheel. It also gives you that responsiveness. So when the motor's spinning faster, you get a quicker response depending on what it's trying to do than it would if the motor was spinning slower. So you get that. You also get an extremely well-built racing wheel here. So you've got 10 buttons overall, I believe, on the outside. These are 18-centimeter shifters so that pretty much no matter where you are in your steering, you can actually shift them. They're also affixed to the base, which has a couple of advantages. One is that it's not going to move the wheel around when you're trying to press on them, so you're not going to accidentally shift a little bit. Number two is it gives you the flexibility to upgrade your wheel. So you can actually completely remove the wheel and replace it with something when an upgrade is available in the future. That's something that they have built in as functionality with this unit. All right, let's talk about the wheel a little bit more. So it's got a very grippy feeling outside, but there's a little bit of slide as well. Basically it feels like a steering wheel, which is the complaint that I have about some of the steering wheels that I've encountered in the past that just don't really feel like a steering wheel. It's big like a steering wheel as opposed to, again, being small and not really feeling like a real steering wheel. In terms of buttons, this is the PS3 exclusive one, so it's got PlayStation buttons, R2, L2, D-pad, and then the triangle, square, damages, who has. And then there's also your additional ones down here, and you can switch between modes down here as well. Give me a sec, guys. So more about the wheel itself. It can actually do three full turns, so 1,080 degrees rotation, which means you are not limited to driving your car like, eh, eh, eh, eh, Mario Kart style. No, you can actually turn the wheel when you're trying to turn the car, which is very cool as well. Now, they talk quite a bit about the powerful quick responding force feedback, but what's equally important if you're gonna have powerful force feedback is having a way to stop it. So it has a rigid motorized stopper. No matter what angle of rotation you've selected, it will be able to respond the way that the game intends and the way that the car would have intended, assuming the game is an accurate representation of the car, which not all of them are, but some of them are pretty close I'm given to understand. So right, okay, fluid and smooth action, silent system, claims to be not very loud, although I don't own a PS3, so I actually have no way of verifying that. Right, the size of the wheel is 12 inches, so if you guys don't wanna see an iPhone comparison, then I'll just tell you in real measurements, it's 30 centimeters or 12 inches. And sorry, there were 12, 12 buttons, not 10. That was my mistake before. Oh right, the piece in the middle. So this is actually brushed aluminum and looks really sharp. So you got the rubberized outside and then the brushed aluminum inside and the shiny, again, inner piece here. It looks very, very sharp, although I think you guys can clearly see that for yourselves. Now in terms of mounting mechanisms, you got your rubber grippiness here, you got a way to mount it to the bottom of something here. You've got a variety of different mounting options, so yeah, it's big, yeah, it takes up space in your house, but if you are a racing enthusiast, then it is probably a compromise that you are willing to make. So I think that pretty much wraps it up. It does have internal memory, so you can upgrade the firmware, which is something that I forgot. Oh right, no, last thing. 65,536 data points or polling points or positions around the wheel. So what that means is, okay, basically here's the extreme examples. If you're using a D-pad to play a racing game, you know how you kind of, in order to get like a light turn, you have to kind of tap it once in a while, because the only two positions you have are like, and like this, which is not realistic. This has 65,000 plus, 65,536 positions all the way around the wheel, which means if you make a slight adjustment, your car will genuinely make a slight adjustment. So that granularity of control is again one of the things that sets apart a more legit racing wheel from something that is, well, not as legit and not as, well, not as expensive, I guess, but if you really want to play racing games and be comfortable and have more accurate driving experience, then there you go. This seems pretty awesome actually. I kind of want to try it. I wish I had a PS3. I wish I had the PC version though is actually what I wish I had, but there you go. So that is my unboxing of the T500. We're going to pretend it's not the RS. I'm going to call it the T500. 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