Is the Thrustmaster TH8A Shifter Still Worth it? (REVIEW)

this is the thrustmaster th8ah pattern shifter and apart from it being one of the most heavily requested products on this channel it's also one of the few that i've most wanted to get my hands on for well over a year unfortunately at its near 200 price point i could never convince myself to purchase it so when thrustmaster reached out and offered to send me one i gladly accepted it's now been a few weeks since i've had the shifter attached to my rig and after using it for dozens of hours it's finally time to give the people what they've been requesting over and over again today i'll be taking the thrustmaster th8a h pattern shifter through my review process telling y'all what i like what i don't like and whether i think it's worth its near 200 price tag the th8a has been available way back since 2016 making it over five years old and to this day still the only h pattern shifter created by thrustmaster oddly enough it's almost like all three major sim racing manufacturers developed one h pattern shifter and never bothered to update them or release any new models despite that the th8a is still worth taking a look at today this shifter can be used on playstation xbox and pc but if you're on console and considering purchasing it make sure to confirm that it will work with your specific wheel it also comes with a cable to connect the th8a directly to a compatible thrustmaster wheelbase or a usb cable to connect it to a usb port from a design and build quality perspective the th8a was better than i was expecting it's built almost entirely for metal with minimal use of plastic used on the base of the shifter it's a gated manual meaning that you can see the individual slots for the gears on like something like the logitech shifter which has the leather boot [Music] a huge aspect of this wheel which is often overlooked is its internal mechanism the th8aa uses hall effect sensors to register your inputs into the game whilst removing the need for switches or potentiometers in essence hall effect sensors remove the amount of moving parts within the shifter which pretty much means that there are less things that can potentially break and thus the t8a will pretty much last you forever not literally but you get the point those of you paying close attention may have also noticed these little grooves at the end of the gates although subtle they are incredibly good at naturally guiding you onto the next or previous gear and help to limit mischiefs talking about mischief they're rare now i'll admit this has mostly to do with individual skill more than anything else but for me at least i found myself casually flowing through the gears without having to pay much attention to how precise i was being this contrasts massively with my experience with the logitech shifter where miss shifting is a common occurrence for me in terms of the shifting feel itself it's okay the th8a offers decent resistance and snaps into place nicely but it's not anything that i would consider incredible it does the job and feels fairly solid but it's not anything you're gonna be bragging about per se that being said it does feel a lot more realistic than any other h pattern shifter i've ever owned something that did seriously impress me however is the metal shift knob which not only looks very premium in my opinion but feels just as nice to hold on to as its full metal construction feels cool to the touch and comfortably sits on my hand one of the most notable features of the th888 is that it can also be used as a sequential shifter that's right thrustmaster also includes this simple to install plate which immediately transforms it into a sequential shifter upon upper downshifting it immediately snaps back and gives you a completely different experience the sequential mode doesn't really feel very satisfying or notable when shifting up or down it's pretty much only there to do the job but not so much there for the immersion regardless it's a useful feature that i'm sure many end up using [Music] this review of course can't be complete without mentioning the th8 immense adjustability which i'll fly through right now you can slightly adjust the resistance when shifting gears to require more or less force not drastically i'll admit but a noticeable amount nonetheless you can also adjust the position of the shift plate up to 360 degrees in order to perfectly suit whichever angle you happen to have mounted the shifter on moreover with the included clamp which i've attached to hard mounted onto my cockpit you can rotate that up to 360 degrees in order to attach it at whatever angle you might want this is particularly useful if you don't have a typical seating arrangement but still want a shifter finally using the included clamp you can attach the th888 onto tables or shelves from 1 to 55 millimeters in thickness [Music] to wrap up my thoughts i've had a great time with the th8a it's both a functional and good looking piece of gear which has made my sim racing experience a lot more enjoyable at around 200 the th8a is not a cheap piece of gear but realistically speaking i can understand its price tag the shifter feels solid and rigid and with its hall effect sensor will also last you years before causing you any problems moreover it provides immense adjustability and versatility to meet your sim racing needs i wish it had a little bit more resistance when shifting gears but other than that i think the th8aa is well worth your money as always thank you all for watching stay safe and have a fantastic rest of your day [Music] oh lord

Channel: OC Racing

Views: 197,907

Keywords: sim racing, thrustmaster, th8a, shifter, h-pattern, logitech shifter, logitech, sim racing shifter, budget, cheap, sequential, handbrake, fanatec, g29, g920, g923, t150, tmx

Id: v-0ic59abBA

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021