XBOX One Steering Wheel Buyers Guide 2020

Published 1/9/2020

The XBOX 360 is nearing its end of life but its price has dropped significantly and it features a good selection of driving games such as the Forza Motorspot series, Forza Horizon series, Assetto Corsa, and Project Cars 2.  If you're into driving games you'll want to be using a steering wheel with force feedback (FFB).

There are many wheels available based on what you'll want to spend so we categorized them into 4 groups based mainly on price (USD) with Entry (up to $350), Consumer ($350-700), Enthusiast ($700-1200), and finally Professional ($1200+).  The great aspect of all the steering wheels listed is their support for the PC once you plan to move off the XBOX One.  However none of the wheel bases listed are compatible with PS4.

You should look for a wheel base with at least 16 bit or 65K steps of resolution (number of zones for recognizing a change) and a pedal with at least 10 bit or 1024 steps of resolution. For example, a wheel base with 8 bit resolution has 256 steps so only if you move 1.4 degrees does it recognize the wheel has moved. Any lower than the recommended resolution and slight wheel adjustments or pedal press/release won’t be recognized.




Entry Level (up to $350)
At this price point, wheel bases feature small motors, older force feedback technology, and low enough steering or pedal resolution that may affect your driving.  Two steering wheels are available at this price range with differing set up.  Thrustmaster offers the TMX in two packages and Logitech with the G920.  If you don't need 3 pedals then the Thrustmaster TMX is the best choice offering a low price with brushed motor, belt/gear force feedback technology but steering wheel is only 12 bit resolution.  If you need the 3 pedals, the Logitech G920 is the lowest price you can get but it uses an much older dual brushed motor, helical gear based force feedback, and only 8 bit resolution for the pedals. If you can find the Thrustmaster TMX Pro with the 3 pedals and TH8A shifter priced only a bit more, it's a better choice and one I'd recommend.  What's really odd is the pricing of the T3PA shifter - it can be more expensive than the steering wheel, pedals, and wheel base packages.

Consumer Level ($350-700)
At the consumer level, all wheel bases utilize a brush less motor, dual belts for stronger, smoother force feedback, 16 bit wheel base resolution, and 10 bit pedal resolution.  At this price point and above, the steering wheels can be swapped with other steering wheels from the same manufacturer.  Thrustmaster offers their TX in several different packages such as the Ferrari 458 Italia edition, Leather edition, or individually as a servo base. The only one I'd recommend is the TX Leather edition as it's not much more then the TX but comes with the 3 pedal T3PA and much better steering wheel than the mostly plastic Italia wheel.

The Thrustmaster TS-XW has a slightly stronger motor, external power brick, better cooling, and more metal but a much higher price than the TX leather edition to make it worth the money.  Where you may run the TX at 100% FFB you will get about the same on the TS-XW at 75% FFB.  At this price point, the T3PA pedals are a real let down being position based brakes.

Enthusiast Level ($700-1200)
Featuring stronger motors and smoother force feedback but also similar brush less motor and dual belts found in the consumer level wheel bases.  The stand out improvement is the factory included load cell in the Fanatec CSL LC pedals which measures your pressure rather than position of the brake pedal to translate to the car and 12 bit or higher resolution pedals.  In this category, Fanatec sells both the Clubsport Lite (CSL) and the Clubsport (CSW).  Materials (CSW featuring more metal), belt design (CSL uses cogged belt while CSW uses multirib belt), build quality, precision, and motor strength mainly separate the two.  I've priced both with the Fanatec CSL P1 for XBox One steering wheel and CSL Elite pedals to keep cost down.  If you prefer another steering wheel from Fanatec then you'll have to add Fanatec's clubsport universal hub for Xbox one for $350.  The quality of the CSL lies between the CSW 1 and CSW 2.  If you can afford it, go for the CSW 2.5.  If you already have a CSL you may instead want to make the bigger jump to direct drive.

Professional Level ($1200+)
Here lies direct drive (DD).  No longer are small motors powering belts/gears to make you feel more than what the motor can really put out.  The motor is directly driving the shaft that connects the steering wheel.  These wheel bases are much stronger and provide levels of precision and subtle-ness that are unmatched.  The strength and materials separate the DD1 from the DD2.  Considering a XBOX One can run for $149 USD and just the wheel base is 14 times that, you are probably going to want to switch over to PC where there's more control over the steering wheel, better flexibility of pedals and shifter you can use, and better force feedback in the titles. I've priced these with Fanatec's clubsport universal hub for XBOX One because at this price point you'll likely choose whatever steering wheel you want rather than save $350.  So if you're really serious about sim racing and just want to buy one and never really have to upgrade, Fanatec's Podium is one of the few DD that support XBOX One.

Conclusion
There are steering wheel sets available at various price points for everyone to get into racing on their XBOX One and when they're ready, they can bring that same steering wheel onto the PC.

Although manufacturers sell you on their ecosystem, unless you jump to the Enthusuast level with Fanatec, you're stuck in the Entry/Consumer level with Thrustmaster and Logitech only has a shifter.  If you can jump right into Fanatec, it'll provide you the ability to interchange pedals, brakes, and steering wheels between their various wheel bases.  But that jump to Fanatec is big considering it's $970 to start compared to the price of a XBOX One.  I'd recommend starting off with the TMX or TX and minimizing accessory purchases then jumping to direct drive when you're ready.