Saitek J64 P3000 Wireless Pad

Rating:
Summary: battery problems, poor performance
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Gamepad
Review: Good feel to it and very light. Rubber handles are a nice touch. Highly recommended gamepad. 1 small quibble, the CD with the drivers on it came warped so I downloaded them from the saitek website, it the only thing that kept the P3000 from earning 5 stars from me.

Rating:
Summary: Saitek J64 P3000 Wireless Pad
Review: I have had the pad for 3 months and am disappointed with not only the pad but also the lack of customer service that Saitek provides. The indicator light, on the base always shows that it is charging, the pads battery strength is either all, or the pad goes dead. The strength indicator is fake or does not work. Also the pad looses communication with the base at, what seems to be the worst possible time. Even when I have the base with in a clear 4 inches of the unit they loose communication on a regular basis. I contacted customer support at Saitek over a month ago and never received ANY reply to my email. I do not recommend buying this and furthermore recommend Logitec products. I have one of their force feedback joysticks and am happy with it.

Rating:
Summary: P3000 Wireless - Good deal for the money!
Review: I purchased the P3000 from Saitek last weekend and have enjoyed using it. It was real easy to hook it up and I am enjoying the gaming freedom of playing without an additional wire hanging around.

It has a good feel to it with grips on the handles and a sturdy sense for the buttons (six of them) and joysticks (2 analog with that also act as buttons).

Saitek also includes software that lets you program in various commands for the buttons which is an added bonus.

This is the second Saitek product I own - the Cyborg Evo is also a great product.

Rating:
Summary: P3000 Wireless - Good deal for the money!
Review: I purchased the P3000 from Saitek last weekend and have enjoyed using it. It was real easy to hook it up and I am enjoying the gaming freedom of playing without an additional wire hanging around.

It has a good feel to it with grips on the handles and a sturdy sense for the buttons (six of them) and joysticks (2 analog with that also act as buttons).

Saitek also includes software that lets you program in various commands for the buttons which is an added bonus.

This is the second Saitek product I own - the Cyborg Evo is also a great product.

Rating:
Summary: dont buy this
Review: The Good
The controller has ample buttons which make it so you wont need your keyboard or mouse. The controller itself is constructed well, and has a great feel to it.

Problems:
1. Wireless - although it says 30 feet, i have found that it needs to be within 3 feet of me for the best results. If its more than 5 feet away, forget it. I had to buy a USB extension cable just to use it, which canceled out the need for it to be wireless. Nothing on it says what gigahertz it is, so i am guessing its not even 2.4GHZ.

2. Although the base is only 2 feet away, in the middle of a game it just starts trailing off in one direction. This is solved by using the keyboard, escaping out, and reloading the joystick software. Its very frustrating when your playing a game like Far Cry and it hasn't saved.

Issues
1. Batteries - this is probably luck of the draw, but i was shipped with one defective battery which should have been caught in quality control.

2. Not all games automatically work with joysticks, so you will need to program it. The Saitek 3000 controller comes with really good programing software to do it. But be prepared to spend up to an hour of programing before using a game, and continually fine tuning it as you play. I dont mind, i just wish they had more scripts on their website for download. I think they have about 12 games only.

Update:
I tried buying the Saitek P2500 which was the same gamepad but not wireless. My game profiles i made on the P3000 didnt carry over. Worse, the P2500 stopped working within the first 6 hours, and I had to exchange it, and that one had problems with the SHIFT button. Finally i returned that also.

Conclusion:
I just bought the Logitech Wingman Wireless Rumblepad, its by far a better gamepad. Its 2.4GHZ, so it has distance. The software to program custom scripts is miles ahead of the Saitek SST software. When you load the profile, it automatically loads the game which it corresponds with.

Please, if your looking for a game pad, get the Logitech. Save your self the 3 weeks on pain I had to go through.