Thrustmaster T248 Review

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Fast Facts

The Starting Line

The Thrustmaster T248 was released late 2021 as a next step upgrade to the extremely popular Thrustmaster T150 Pro Wheel. For those passionate about the immersive experience of racing wheels when it comes to gaming, it’s a truly premium experience that can make the most arcade of racers into a true simulation of race day driving.

My experiences with racing wheels have been mixed and go all the way back to the days of Logitech wheels and early Gran Turismo. I’ve always had a passion to feel the feedback of the terrain, the punishment of spinning the corkscrew at Laguna Seca and the punishing fulfilment of navigating a manual transmission on the race track.

The tough spot for delivering a quality racing wheel and pedal set, is delivering substantial build quality versus meeting a price point that can appeal to a mass market. The wheel needs to feel like a real steering wheel, wrapped leather, dense in weight and with a high level of resistance and free weighted movement.

I’m pleased to share the T248 delivers in almost all aspects here. The wheel itself is leather wrapped, cushioned and with amazing steer grip. It also has a metal faceplate which adds to the premium aesthetic. In hand it feels like a transformative redesign and you can tell a lot of time has gone into the design here. Close your eyes and it feels like the real deal.

The T248 also has a new race dashboard LCD display, a feature typically reserved for the very high end of racing wheel options. This display offers up to 20 sequences of information to the user. Such as force feedback selection types to telemetry options such as RPM, lap times etc. A cool feature, with the slightest of niggles from me. When connected to a PS5 it lists the device as a PS4. No big deal I guess.

How Does It Feel?

When it comes to the driving experience, there are two really stand out points of reference. Dynamic Force Feedback is a clever feature that allows you to adapt the driving experience to the type of racer you are playing. Force Feedback 1 is 100% proportionate to the games demands. Force Feedback 2 offers better skid control and Force Feedback 3 is boosted to offer concise feedback for everything from track effects to curbs and rubble.

The Games

Next up for my review I tested the T248 with Dirt 5, which was superbly suited to Force Feedback 2. It provided a skid support I’ve yet to experience in any other racing game. I then also tested this for my F1 22 review, this time electing for the Force Feedback 3 setting. It was mind blowing feeling the rumble of differing terrain and the forces exerting on the cars form on track. The T248 is so adaptive to the racer you select and this is a big win for the investment you are making on this setup.

The second feature that adds to the feel is the next gen hybrid drive system provided in the T248. It’s up to 70% more powerful that the T150 and boy can you feel it. All of the sensations are intuitive, and it’s incredibly intense. To the point I had to dial down the intensity by 50% when my 11 year old son was playing, to avoid the wheel ripping his arms off racing Silverstone.

Magnets Make Everything Better

The T248 is packed with technology. It has Magnetic Paddle Shifters which offer a 30ms response time that makes every shift silky smooth. It never misses a beat. These shifters incorporate Thrustmaster’s H.E.A.R.T technology, which stands for Halleffect Accurate Technology. It’s very cool technology which uses specific magnetic sensors which are around 256 times more accurate than typically used in the industry. Also the pedals themselves incorporate magnetic technology with 4 pressure modes and precision to 1/1000th of a second.

The only drawback in the design are the pedals have a metal footplate and are very weighty, yet the base is flimsy plastic. This means that being a little top heavy, the pedals are prone to sliding unless they are mounted. Most are unlikely to do this, so a little extra grip on the feet would have really helped.

The Home Straight

The Thrustmaster T248 does a remarkable job of packing advanced technology, premium build and designs into a mid tier price point. With an RRP of £299 it may be a little expensive for some racing gamers out there. Yet when you weigh up the features and designs of Thrustmaster’s most premium offerings such as the T-GT II which comes in at a whopping £699, I can’t help but see the T248 comparatively as a really well priced option. It’s built to last, designed to thrill and will bring an unrivalled level of immersion to your racing experiences for years to come.

Rapid Reviews Rating

4.5 out of 5

4.5

Thanks for reading our Rapid Review of the Thrustmaster T248 Wheel & Pedal Set. You can find out more about Thrustmaster and its range of products here https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-gb/products/t248/ To read more of our tech reviews, click here.