Previously we have reviewed a racing wheel at funkykit. It was pretty cool but lacked pedals and didn’t give a full racing experience. Well, Genius has hopefully come to save the day with their Speed Wheel 6 MT.
Featuring a force feedback wheel with a sequential shifter and a set of pedals this setup offers to give more of a full experience to racing fans.
This wheel setup is actually a PC and PS3 wheel. Unfortunately for the Xbox fans out there they will have to get a different wheel. Although I have heard of this wheel unofficially working on Xbox so there might still be a chance to use it.
This is actually the first product we have a chance to review from Genius. Hopefully it is the start of many great products we have the opportunity to review.
For those who don’t know who Genius are, well … Genius is an international leading company in computer peripherals. Genius’ product portfolio includes computer mice, keyboards, speakers, gaming peripherals, headphones, digital cameras, digital camcorders. Here’s a little blurb taken from their website ...
| Create Infinite Value With a Magic Touch
Our business model, the conglomeration of OBM and OEM is run very effectively, which not only created unprecedented sales revenue growth for five continuous years for KYE but also created tremendous profit to our customers and shareholders. KYE expects to continually grow in the coming future. Competition is everywhere in the IT industry. To cope with this challenge, KYE will keep enhancing its core technology not only in Pointing Devices, Digital Imaging and Gaming products for PC, but also developing more accessories and components for mobile phones. KYE has envisioned this trend, and will “Create Infinite Value with a Magic Touch”. We believe this can be accomplished through the Magic Touch of KYE products, which can bring convenience, efficiency, and entertainment to all of us. We expect this trend will enable us to reach double-digit sales growth in the next ten years. |
The specs and looks of the Genius Speed Wheel 6 MT
Specifications
Taken from the Genius page … http://www.geniusnet.com/wSite/ct?xItem=57377&ctNode=165&mp=1
The new Genius Racing Wheel Speed Wheel 6 MT brings you a whole new racing experience. The large size 11” wheel with an anti-slip finish gives you a nice grip and feel. With dual motors and vibration feedback, you’ll experience close to real life racing. The D-pad, manual transmission and two-handed levers give you precision control during serious racing competition. Furthermore, its sturdy and slip-resistant foot pedals provide timely acceleration and braking. Speed Wheel 6 MT works with both PS3 and PC systems as well as the latest Windows 8 platform and is great for the hard core racer.
| Part NO. | 31620006101 |
|---|---|
| Port | USB |
| OS Support | Microsoft Windows 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2000 / ME / 98 |
| PS3 compatible | YES |
| D-Pad | YES |
| Foot Pedals | YES |
WEEE information
- Body Weight (g): 3200g
- Body Size (LxWxH):
Wheel 370x360x280mm
Padel 290x260x170mm - Package Size (LxWxH): 365x365x305 mm
- Carton Size (LxWxH): 750 X 380 X 325 mm
- PCs/Carton: 2 pcs/carton
- CUFT: 3.26 CUFT
Package Contents
- Wheel
- Pedal
- Two C-Clamps
- Extension Cable
- Driver
- Multi-language user manual
The Box
The box is just your standard affair with basic marketing materials and product information. It was pretty beat up when I got it in the mail even though it was inside of another box. Genius sure could have used a bit stronger box.
The Packaging
Packaging was beaten up pretty good. Genius failed to use any real padding in the package so everything just has a piece of cardboard to hold it in place and no real protection. If Fedex, UPS, or DHL have their way with the box there is a solid chance that something might end up broken in the box. I understand that this thing isn’t a top of the line racing wheel but a bit of packaging could sure help protect it during shipping.
Don’t expect much in the way of extras in the box. The most exciting thing is the driver disk which you HAVE to use since Genius does not host the driver on their website. I would suggest not even reading the manual since it is pretty much a waste of paper.
The Wheel
Plastic is the first word that really comes to mind. Everything on this wheel is plastic. From the wheel itself to the pedals and even the mounting clamps are plastic. Unfortunately I wouldn’t really consider it a solid plastic. This is not some solid plastic with some heft and strength to it. It feels like Genius kept costs down and made everything with rather thin plastic that feels cheaply made. It features shifter paddles on the wheel itself as well as a shifter that allows up and down shifting only. You can press up on the shifter and down. Genius spiced things up and allows you to press the shifter to the side as well. Turning the wheel really does not inspire confidence, I always had this feeling in the back of my mind that I was going to turn the wheel a bit too hard and break it clean off. On the plus side of things there is force-feedback which we will go over a bit more later on in the review.
The Pedals
The pedals included are much like the wheel in the fact that they feel very cheaply made. Movement is fluid enough and they do a fine job, but the pedals themselves could really be much better if they were metal. I have a feeling that long-term use will result in some issues later on down the road. They are extremely light and move around very easy which is not fun in the middle of a race. I put a heavy weight behind the pedals to keep them from sliding around on the floor.
Game Testing
Dirt 3
Dirt 3 was a rather good experience. While there is no real resistance when turning, the force feedback is well timed and does a good job at rumbling. Thanks to the built in ability to tune wheel settings in game, it is pretty easy to tune in the wheel and offer a playable racing experience. This wheel won’t win any awards but it is better than using a keyboard and mouse for a racing game.
Need for Speed: Shift 2
I can honestly say that due to the need for a high turning radius nothing ever felt right at all. I was severely limited with my ability to use this wheel and play NFS:S2. Turning is pretty terrible due to the poor radius. Without some sort of 3rd party tweaking software this game is extremely frustrating to play since it does not offer an ability to further test wheel sensitivity.
I was super excited to review this racing wheel when I first got it. But the more I used the wheel the more let down I became. Out of the box you get a driver and you are left to configure the wheel in every game you play. I would also highly suggest calibrating the wheel using the built-in windows utility since Genius does not offer any sort of calibration software and out of the box it is extremely un-accurate.
One of the biggest cripples of the Genius Speed Wheel 6 MT
Genius advertises this wheel as being a force-feedback model. Technically that is correct since it does rumble and shake a bit but do not expect the wheel to offer resistance when turning or offer any sort of even semi-realistic sensations. The feedback is at times exaggerated and useless since it will for example shake that you are going over a bump but driving over a dirt gravel road offers little to no real feedback that you are not driving on concrete. This could be due to windows seeing the wheel as an Xbox 360 controller and only shaking at times it would shake using a gaming controller.
Genius lists the MSRP at $89.99. At that price I would honestly not waste my time and suggest spending the $20 or so for a MUCH better racing wheel. Shopping around the internet the price is more around $75 which is much better than $89.99 but honestly not something that I would pay for a wheel of this quality. When wheels with worlds better build quality and a 900 degree turning radius can be found for $30-40 more I really can’t recommend buying this wheel at all. If you really want to check out the current price of the Genius Speed Wheel 6 MT
Final words
While this wheel does give you the sensation of actually driving a car in racing games the quality is seriously lacking. It offers the quality and performance of a wheel half of its price. Genius has made a product that is in a bit of a hard place since you can get wheels at half the price with the same sorts of features, or you can purchase a wheel for a bit more that would be worlds better.
SCORE
5.2/10
