 Recently the Burpit were invited to join VKB's official partner program and as part of that the company sends out hardware for review. Just so we're clear their partner program contains no monetary element whatsoever this means we're free and indeed encouraged by VKB to be completely impartial. For this review we're taking a look at the VKB Gladiator NXT EVO with the right hand version of the premium space combat grip. VKB are a premium level joystick and flight game hardware manufacturer, their Gladiator NXT range of joysticks fall into their entry level premium gear catalog which makes it a much more affordable version of their more pricey counterparts. I want to preface this review by saying plenty of flight and space simmers on the internet will give you a blow by blow very technical breakdown of why they feel this or that stick is better for this or that game. I'm not that guy. As such we want to approach our reviews from the perspective of a more general user. Does the product work as advertised? Is it reliable? Is it overall a good product? And is it worth the money? I've been a flight sim and space sim enthusiast for over 40 years now and during that time I've used just about every flavour of joystick and hotas that is available. The primary motivations for me when making hardware choices these days are functionality followed by sturdiness of construction and reliability but also cost. So what exactly is the VKB Gladiator NXT Evo? As this is their entry level joystick it features some different design choices and construction materials to the top tier equipment but it also shares a lot of the unique design and construction choices that made VKB so appealing to us here at the pit in the first place when we first purchased our own kit a few years ago. When you purchase a stick from VKB you choose a base unit and also a grip. The bit that unsurprisingly sits in your hand that you grip. Different grips are better suited and designed for different theatres of operation depending on what you're predominantly using them for. VKB's current lineup of grips features a World War II grip, the modern jet fighter themed F-14 edition and the space combat grip which is what they've sent to us for I hope fairly obvious reasons. When your stick and base choice is delivered by VKB it comes very well presented and smartly packaged as two distinct pieces the base and the grip and the two must be assembled by the customer before they can be used. This can initially seem quite daunting if you're used to buying regular boxed off the shelf joysticks but VKB actually supplies all the tools you need to assemble your stick it takes just a couple of minutes to put it all together and it's actually this user serviceability aspect to VKB's rather unique model that is actually for us key to their appeal and as I mentioned the ethos also extends to the gladiator series of sticks. Unlike the higher tier VKB kit the gladiator is of an almost entirely plastic construction inside and out however the plastic used is incredibly tough and resilient VKB tell me it's glass fiber reinforced PA if you know your plastics and that means anything to you then I hope that information is useful I don't know anything about plastics whatsoever but I will say that the base in particular feels like I could drive a car over it and it honestly wouldn't notice although obviously it's on you if you decide to test VKB have also advised that whilst the stick base etc are made of the aforementioned plastic the plastic gimbal inside sits on metal ball bearings and they consider it so tough that the wear and tear over time should be largely negligible for the purposes of this review I've been using the stick for the past six weeks so I can't speak to the truly long-term wear and tear but I can tell you that it feels extremely solid significantly more solid than any stick from any other manufacturer that I've used before when it comes to smoothness of operation for me the stick feels easily as smooth as the higher tier VKB equipment that both Rini and I already own but actually in many ways it's a good degree more subtle in its operation the base unit comes with different springs that can be easily changed out by the consumer to give the stick firmer operation if desired and again VKB provide the tools necessary to change the springs there are also adjustment screws on the gimbal inside the base unit that can be easily tightened or loosened to provide resistance against the springs increasing the time to reach the zero position overall the feel of the stick in everyday use is very user configurable you can even choose to run it without the centering springs useful if for example you'd like to make the stick operate as a realistic helicopter cyclic control buttons wise the base has three programmable function buttons a mini throttle a two-way switch and a wheel when it comes to the grip it's fairly well covered in buttons and hats there's a total of six individual buttons or triggers and different mini stick style hats each of the hats also has a push-in function that essentially adds another button as well as the eight directional pushes that they have that's all except the top left thumbstick pushing the stick in on that particular thumbstick switches it between analog and digital modes indicated by a small red led next to the stick I use an identical space combat premium grip on my personal vkb stick as does rene and the operation of those sticks is absolutely identical in every regard and this operation extends to the more unique functions of the grip the main trigger for example has two stage functionality that triggers when initially pressed and then triggers a further function if squeezed tighter there's also a secondary trigger above the main trigger that fires if pressed as you'd expect but if you place your trigger finger underneath it and push it away it triggers yet another function all very handy particularly in a game like elite dangerous that is a wash with potential keybinds I mentioned that this base and grip combination features vkb's signature user service ability earlier in this review which is an important tenet of vkb so I do want to touch on that really quickly vkb kit the gladiator included features a highly componentised design ethos if you've never opened up a joystick from another manufacturer then allow me to offer you some hard fought enlightenment they are invariably a complicated tangle of wires and springs all glued into place and are very much not designed to be operated on by the user typically if a component or feature of one of those sticks fails and if you don't have a covering manufacturer's warranty for whatever reason then you're looking at buying a brand new stick the design ethos from vkb means that their sticks and grips feature a number of singular components that are held in place by screws and then connected as necessary by wired plugs the end result of this is that if any one component fails you simply open up the stick unplug and remove the faulty component get another one from vkb replace it yourself and move on with your life contrary to any other stick I've ever opened up the interiors of vkb kit are clean accessible glue free and importantly user serviceable I could speak from personal experience here as well earlier versions of the space combat grip featured thumbsticks that were fully plastic vkb identified this as a weak point and changed the design to be now fully metal but not before a few of the thumbsticks snapped off with extended use this happened to both mine and rene sticks after about three years of use after contacting vkb they quickly supplied replacement thumbsticks free of charge we opened up the grips dismantled them replaced the faulty units with shiny new metal ones and put them back together again vkb maintains an online library of videos and guides on youtube that can take you through step by step just about any adjustment or maintenance work that you may do on your chosen stick the gladiator included which is hugely valuable it's worth noting here also that although I didn't attempt it for this review vkb does sell what they call an omni throttle kit for the gladiator this angled armature can be fitted between the base and the grip and with the use of an appropriate left or right handed grip whatever works best for you can turn the unit into either a six degrees of freedom thruster unit perfect for fa off manoeuvring or with some small internal adjustments to lock off the appropriate axis a more traditional forward and reverse style throttle unit you can obviously purpose purchase a gladiator for this feature or this extra functionality can give the stick a second life as a throttle if you ever decide to upgrade from it further extending its value for money I did have a couple of minor gripes with the gladiator base I found that my hand very occasionally activated the function buttons on the base on occasions where I wasn't fully holding the stick and resting my hand this isn't a problem if you're holding the stick correctly but honestly I personally sometimes fly lazy I also found that the base unit wasn't as wide as the vkb gunfighter that I'm used to and during more violent maneuvers it sometimes tended to tip left or right off of the desk both of these are likely a symptom of my muscle memory from years of using a vkb gunfighter which features a very different base design but exactly the same grip and the gladiator does include screw points on the base's corners to allow its attachment to a desk mount or indeed a desk if you so desire it also has a very sticky pads under the base which prevent any sliding around in normal operation I found the extra functionality of the switches and wheels etc on the base that are missing from the much more expensive gunfighter unit I'm used to a real bonus and when I go back to my gunfighter I do think I'll miss them to a degree I have to say overall I was extremely impressed with the gladiator to use I found it extremely smooth robust and very precise its construction and serviceability leaves you with the confidence that you'll be able to rely on it for many a long year and if something does fail unlike other joysticks you'll be in a position to do something about it I'm a huge fan of the space combat grip from vkb already and the extra buttons provided by adding the gladiator base to it are a very useful bonus I would have no hesitation recommending it as a my go to entry level premium flight controller as at the time of recording the vkb web store lists the gladiator nxt evo space combat premium edition at 213 euros that's around 185 pound sterling if you're buying from the us store it's currently priced at 165 us dollars if you are planning on picking up a gladiator or any of vkb's gear be sure to use the discount code burp it at the checkout to bag yourself a 5% discount off your purchase you'll find that and a link to all vkb's international outlets linked below I hope you found this review useful if you have any thoughts or questions do let us know in the comments section below this video that's it for now thanks very much for watching if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and maybe take a look at one of our other videos linked on screen right now