An Honest Review on the PXN V9 Racing Wheel
The PXN V9 is a beginner's racing wheel that comes in at around $200. Coming in with a wheel, a set of pedals with the clutch included, and even a 6-speed manual shifter, it might seem like a pretty good deal. But is it really? And is it worth the $200 I paid for it? Let's find out.
Before we get started, I should mention that I paid for this wheel myself, and this review isn’t sponsored nor endorsed in any way. I am simply commenting on my experience. Anyways, let's get started.
Positives
Starting with the positives, the PXN V9 has some notable features. I’ll start with the wheel itself, move on to the pedals, and then the H-pattern shifter. The wheel itself is ergonomically designed and is of decent size. At 11-inches in diameter, it is about the same as the Thrustmaster T150 and Logitech G29. It has a maximum wheel rotation of 900 degrees which can be accessed by moving the switch at the bottom of the wheelbase. It also has a minimum rotation of 270 degrees which can also be selected by moving the switch. With your hands on the wheel, everything feels as you would expect. All the buttons are at close reach, and the wheel rim has a decent grip to it which will prevent the wheel from slipping in-game. The wheel rim also comes with paddle shifters which is of course a good thing. Looking at the wheelbase, I personally like how it looks as it has somewhat of a modern look to it. Moreover, the included pedals and H-pattern shifter all plug into the back making it straightforward to connect everything. The final, and in my opinion the most substantial feature that I like about the wheel is its vibration. In-game, when losing grip, going on curbs, braking hard, or anything like that, the wheel vibrates accordingly to simulate the feel of the road. It instantly reminded me of Logitech's TrueForce in the G923 as it too vibrates in a similar manner. While these vibrations don’t necessarily make you faster or give you much of an advantage in-game, they certainly add to the immersion. Before we move on, I should also mention that the V9 is compatible with Xbox, Playstation, PC, and even the Nintendo Switch making it the only wheel I’ve ever owned with such compatibility.
Now let's move on to the pedals where there are three main things I like about them. The first is that they include a clutch pedal - granted, this is kind of expected since the V9 comes with an H-pattern shifter, but compared to other wheels at around this price, the third pedal is definitely a bonus. The second thing I like about them is their overall design. They look very sleek with their unique, geometric build. The pedal plate also retracts out like this, but I believe that it's mainly made like that for packaging purposes. The third thing I like about them is their brushed metal pedal plates which also add to the overall look of them and feel nice on your feet. After using the Thrustmaster T150’s plastic pedals, this is nice to have. Overall, the three pedals had a decent travel to them which is also worth the mention.
Wrapping up the things I like about the V9, let’s talk about the shifter. First things first, I believe this is one of the few wheel and pedal sets at around the $200 price which comes included with an H-pattern shifter so that is already a massive bonus. The shifter itself looks, and honestly feels a lot like the Logitech one for reference. It is a six-speed, meaning you can shift up to 6th gear, and similar to the Logitech one, can be put into reverse by pushing down the gear knob and putting it into the 6th gear slot. From my experience, this h-pattern shifter worked well, and although I did miss-shift a few times, it did a good job overall. Ultimately it's nothing crazy, but it gives you the manual experience which is what it's meant to do in the first place.
Negatives
Now let's move on to what I did not like about the PXN V9. And remember, these are only my personal opinions and experience. Let's start off by talking about the wheel. First off, it's constructed almost entirely out of plastic, and for the $200 I paid, I was expecting a little more. For reference, at around the $200 range, the Logitech G29 features a leather-wrapped wheel and the Thrustmaster T150 features brushed metal paddle shifters… not to mention force feedback but I’ll get to that soon. Within the wheel, the buttons and D-pad left more to be desired. Pressing them down they have a very, “kid toy” feel to them as they have little travel and not much of a satisfying click to them. The same can be said about the paddle shifters which are seemingly made from a single sheet of plastic and have a loud click to them. Another thing I did not like was the angle at which this wheel sits when placed on a flat surface. When using it on my desk, it was tilted at a very upward angle which kind of made me feel like I was driving a bus. Moreover, I also did not like the clamping mechanism included in this wheel. The V9 comes with these two plastic clamps that attach to the bottom of the wheel and are tightened to hold the wheel in place. And while the clamping mechanism did work in the sense that the wheel stayed firmly in place, the plastic clamps are very visible and take away from the sleek profile of this wheel. Moreover, I found my knees constantly bumping into them since they reach so far down, but I will admit that that might have to do more with the way I have to clamp them down because of my desk. No hard mounting on the wheel, pedals, or shifter is available which is expected considering it's a beginner's wheel which most users won’t be using with a dedicated cockpit or wheelstand, but it would have been nice to have the option nonetheless. While the vibrations given off from this wheel are a positive, it did become quite loud whenever I took my hands off the wheel since the vibrations dispersed onto my desk instead. Take a listen to the vibrations set at high when my hands were on the wheel versus when I let go in the video below. Granted, you’ll have your hands on the wheel 99% of the time, but it's something I noticed nonetheless.
These two final things I will mention are arguably the most significant drawbacks of this wheel in my opinion. The first is the lack of force feedback. This wheel does not feature any type of force feedback making it incredibly hard to maintain control and drive on the limits in non-simcade games. Not featuring force feedback is common in tons of wheels such as the Thrustmaster T80 and many more. However, those types of wheels usually don’t retail for $200. While you could make the argument that the PXN V9 vibrates and comes with an h-pattern shifter making it superior to most non-force feedback wheels, at $200, it's competing against the Thrustmaster T150 and Logitech G29 and G920 which do offer feedback. And between an H-pattern shifter with a wheel that vibrates, versus a wheel with force feedback, well… the choice is very easy (for me at least). My second biggest problem with this wheel was figuring out how to actually make it work in-game. Unlike other non-force feedback wheels that you simply plug in and are ready to play, the PXN V9 required many steps which became confusing and frustrating to me after spending more than 30 minutes and still not having the wheel properly working in-game. Again, this is only speaking off my experience and it could be a lot smoother for you, but I had to download and install the V9 drivers, play around with the controller properties settings on windows 10, download the PXN app and connect this wheel to my phone, go into the game settings and manually bind every button on the wheel, the pedals, and the shifter, and after troubleshooting and looking at online forums and videos, I finally managed to make it work on Forza Horizon after a few headaches. Now I recognize that this wheel is compatible with PC, Xbox, Playstation, and even the Switch which is a good thing, but I wonder if this wide range of compatibility is what makes it so difficult to set up. Regardless, compared to other wheels such as the Thrustmaster T80 which you simply plug-in and everything is good to go, the PXN V9’s setup process was difficult for me.
Regarding the pedals, two main things could be improved. The first, and most important, is the feel of them. When pushing them down, all three pedals, yes, even the brake, require the exact same force to push down. As you would imagine, this dramatically takes away from the feel and realism of them and also makes it hard to adjust and become consistent with. The second thing I would include is some carpet spikes at the bottom. Although they didn’t move around from my experience, simply because there's not much force required to push the pedals down, adding a few carpet spikes to further maintain it in place when using them on a carpeted floor could be very beneficial.
Moving on to the shifter, honestly, I was happy with it for the most part and can’t think of too many negatives. The only thing I’m not much of a fan of is the rubber boot as it just simply doesn’t look too nice but that's just my personal preference.
Final Thoughts
To wrap up my thoughts on the PXN V9 here’s what I think. This is a very solid, non-force feedback wheel. Compared to other wheels with no force feedback, the PXN V9 not only vibrates to increase immersion but also comes with an included H-pattern shifter and a three-pedal pedal set. However, at the price that I paid, which again was $200, it's competing with the likes of the Thrustmaster T150 and TMX and Logitech G29 and G920, which not only do have force feedback but are also of better overall quality and are simply just - better overall. So in my opinion, if you're in the market for a gaming wheel and are willing to spend around $200, the PXN V9 falls short of other offerings at this price. If it were more competitively priced similar to other non-force feedback wheels, I would find it a lot easier to recommend though. So if you find it on sale at around the $100 range, I would say it's a pretty good bang for your buck, but it's hard to justify at the current $200 price point I paid for it.
