Well my X52 Pro was delivered yesterday, and it is absolutely GREAT! What a positive surprise.
It feels awesome and is beautyfully illuminated.
The most important thing: It looks like almost directly coming from the cockpit of my favorite all-time plane, the F-16 Fighting Falcon (I don´t know who called it “Viper” some day, but looks like the F-16 is nowadays called a Viper. In my time it was a Fighting Falcon… 
).
The second important thing: It is illuminated. Some people call it a “toy” because it has LEDs, but because I always game in a absolute pitch-black environment, I need everything illuminated: Keyboard, Mouse, Controller, Joystick, everything.
The display shows what configuration profile is currently loaded:
What I dislike is the fact that this safety switch that can be opened and closed and covers a fire switch, cannot be bound as a button! This would have been a remarkable immersive button for arming or shutting off the master arm switch:
The most important aspect of a Joystick: How does it feel like?
It feels absolutely awesome. It is very soft with not much resistance just as I like it, because I don´t want to go to a wrist-workout with ultra stiff coils constantly wrestling against my hand, but a soft and smooth joystick with almost no resistance at all.
And the HOTAS X52 Pro does this with absolute perfection! It has a two-spring system with almost no resistance around the center but with a resistance going stronger when making bigger movements. Absolute perfection!
Another important factor: It has a two-stage trigger!
And NOOOOOOOOO I don´t want some 500€ HOTAS with some cheap pistol-trigger shaped plastic one-stage-trigger telling me “well just press another button at the same time or make some combo or whatever immersion-breaking work-around” because missiles and also the Vulcan are fired with a two stage trigger.
And the X52 has even TWO triggers made of quality metal, with the upper one being a two-stage trigger. It cannot get any more perfect!
Firing the Vulcan feels so much better with a two-stage trigger, but I could not test any missile launches because AMRAAMs or Sidewinder need some kind of lock-on and I almost never fly in combat scenarios. These were test flights.
The throttle feels awesome and does not jump or wiggle around like crazy like with my old joystick. What I especially like is the fact that like in an Airbus cockpit the position of the throttle is illuminated, and it lights up red when the afterburner detent kicks in and the afterburner shuts on.
The throttle lever itself has a little bit too much resistance even with the Force screw fully loosen, but it still feels great and never before was I able to control the airspeed so precise and easygoing.
The first negative aspect is the displays background lighting. It flickers when the brightness is reduced, and sometimes it is getting dark when some buttons on the joystick are pressed. But I have read that almost all X52 do this so this is… so hmm… I am not going to send it back because the next X52 would probably be completely the same.
The second negative aspect is that the Joystick is not packed in styrofoam but in some stiff cardboard box material. This can lead to scratches on the plastic surface or even small dents in the thin aluminium adornments placed all over throttle quadrant and joystick when pushing against the hard edges of the cardboard. I got this joystick for 130€ but normally it costs 200-300, and when buying something THIS expensive I want an adequate packaging in styrofoam and not having ultra expensive stuff placed in a material like egg carton.
The third negative aspect are the cables. These are too short. But at least for the USB cable a cheap extension cable can be bought 
Without this annoying flickering problems with the display illumination, or the display illumination even sometimes shutting off or going full bright for no reason during the flight, with proper packaging in soft and protecting styrofoam and with a little bit less resistance on the thrust lever, it would have been a 10/10. So I would give the X-52 HOTAS Professional a 7/10 and I would recommend it because it feels absolutely great when flying.
