Is the Thrustmaster TH8A Shifter Still Worth it in 2021?
This is the Thrustmaster TH8A H-pattern shifter, and apart from it being one of the most heavily requested products on my YouTube 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 have been requesting over and over again. Today I’ll be taking the Thrustmaster TH8A H-pattern shifter through my review process, telling you 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’ll 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 from metal with minimal use of plastic on the base of the shifter itself. It's a gated manual, meaning you can see the individual slots for the gears unlike something like the Logitech shifter which has a leather boot. A huge aspect of this wheel that is often overlooked is its internal mechanism. The TH8A 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 there are fewer things that can potentially break, and thus, the TH8A will pretty much last you forever. Not literally, but you get the point. The TH8A has little grooves at the end of the shifter gates Although subtle, they are incredibly good at naturally guiding you onto the next or previous gear and help to limit miss-shifts. Talking about miss-shifts, 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 attention to how precise I was being. This contrasts massively with something like the Logitech shifter where for me at least, miss-shifting is a common occurrence.
In terms of the shifting feel itself, it's decent. 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 going to 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 which 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 TH8A 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 installation, it works pretty much as you would expect. Upon up or downshifting, it immediately snaps back and gives you a completely different experience.
Unfortunately, the sequential mode doesn’t feel very satisfying or even notable when shifting up and down. It's pretty much only there to do the job but not so much there for the immersion. Regardless, a useful feature that I’m sure many people ends up using. This review of course can’t be complete without mentioning the TH8A’s 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 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 have detached to hard mount 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 TH8A onto Tables or shelves from 1 to 55 mm in thickness. To wrap up, 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. This 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 that the TH8A is well worth your money.
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