Owner of SD XL and 15-button and Xtouch here for quite some time now. I find that the combination of Stream Deck and Xtouch is ideal, as there are certain things that work best using a physical knob rather than a button (LCD or not).
The 15-button SD was fantastic at its original price (around 100 EUR or less), but now it’s almost 140-150 where I live so there’s little point in getting it when the XL version is at 200 EUR. The functional difference between them is huge, in the sense that the XL gives you so many more options with the 8x4 button layout, while with the 5x3 version you’ll often struggle to arrange your mappings properly. If possible, prioritize buying the 32 version before the 15 button one and use the latter as auxiliary.
Xtouch’s are really a must as they’re super cheap for what they offer but there are 3 caveats:
- They can’t be used out of the box, they require 3rd party software to integrate with MSFS. I think there are free options out there, but personally I prefer Spad.next which works awesomely with the Xtouch.
- If you have more than 1 Xtouch (like I do), they don’t have unique hardware IDs so Windows (and the 3rd party app by extension) cannot distinguish between them if you swap them to different USB ports. Best to connect them at a port, map their functions and leave them at the same port.
- You have to print layout labels for each aircraft mapping and these are relatively cumbersome to cut. I tried it once while also laminating the sheet and it took ages to cut through the 24 holes. I gave up from doing it again, now I simply have a separate printout of the various knob/button functions (which I don’t bother to stick on the Xtouch) or I just remember it off the top of my head after dozens of hours of using each layout.
ps: for some daring souls there’s also the option to use a separate keyboard as a MIDI controlling device for MSFS which can work independently of your main keyboard. It’s ideal for using MCDUs (both for A-Z keyboard but also for side LSKs using small programmable keyboards such as this one).
This is how it’s done.
