MOZA ESX review: the Xbox-licensed aluminum round wheel for $139

The MOZA ESX wraps a 280mm round rim and an aluminum alloy face plate around 22 buttons for around $139. That buys a metal-faced, Xbox-licensed wheel at a price where rivals are usually all plastic. The grips are molded ISF polyurethane rather than the suede or leather a step up buys.

Type	Round wheel, entry/mid-range, Xbox-licensed
Rim	280mm, aluminum alloy face plate and rim, ISF polyurethane (PU) grips. No carbon, suede, or leather.
Inputs	22 customizable buttons (two joystick-style funky switches), pair of aluminum magnetic paddle shifters, 10 RGB RPM/shift LEDs. No dual-clutch paddles, no rotary encoders.
Display	None. 10 adjustable RGB RPM/shift LEDs only, no screen
Connectivity	MOZA quick release; powered and run through a MOZA base (no rear USB). Works with R3, R5, R9, R16, R21. Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One and PC. No cross-brand QR.
Price	$139 USD MSRP, and frequently discounted
Best for	Budget Xbox and PC racers on a MOZA base

Who it’s for

A first or second round wheel for someone already on, or buying into, a MOZA wheelbase who wants metal and an Xbox license without paying GT-rim money.

Buy it if:

• You’re on a MOZA base (R3 through R21) and want an aluminum-faced round wheel that scales with the base later.
• You need Xbox support. The ESX is the rim that unlocks Xbox on bases like the Moza R5.
• You want a high input count for the class: 22 buttons with two funky switches, not the four or six on a basic round wheel.

Not the one if you race PC-only and want suede or leather grips, where a GT rim like the Simagic GT Neo or the MOZA GS V2P is the better spend.

Build and feel

Aluminum face and rim. The 280mm rim and the front face plate are aluminum alloy, not the molded plastic that defines this price bracket. The wheel feels dense and cool to the touch, and the metal face gives the button cluster a solid backing that doesn’t flex when you stab a switch mid-corner.

The grips feel cheap. The hand sections are wrapped in ISF polyurethane, MOZA’s sweat-resistant plastic. It is a molded skin over the rim, so it wipes clean and has none of the tack of suede or the give of leather. This is the most common complaint about the ESX, and it’s a fair one.

Magnetic paddles, 22 inputs. A pair of aluminum magnetic shift paddles sit behind the rim with a crisp, clicky throw. The face carries 22 customizable buttons, two of them joystick-style funky switches for menu and brake-bias work, plus a strip of 10 RGB LEDs you map to RPM and shift points in Pit House. There are no analog dual-clutch paddles and no rotary encoder dials, so bite-point launches and on-wheel dials stay on pricier rims.

Watch-outs

• PU plastic grips. The ISF polyurethane covering is the wheel’s weak point. It is a molded plastic skin rather than a napped or porous wrap, so it has none of the tack of the suede and leather rims on a Simagic GT Neo or MOZA GS V2P.
• MOZA-only, no standalone use. The ESX has no rear USB or RJ port. It draws power and signal through a MOZA base over the quick release, so it won’t run on a non-MOZA base or work as a USB controller on its own.
• No dual-clutch, no encoders. No analog clutch paddles for bite-point launches and no rotary dials, so brake-bias and TC trimming fall to the funky switches.
• No screen. Telemetry is 10 RGB LEDs, not a dash. For lap, fuel, and delta readouts you’re reading the in-game display or a separate dash unit.

The other entry wheel at this money, and it is a Fanatec

These two cannot be bought instead of each other. The ESX fits Moza bases over a Moza quick release and the Fanatec CSL Steering Wheel P1 V2 fits Fanatec bases over a QR2 Lite, so nobody is choosing between them without first choosing a base. What puts them on one table is $30.99 and a shape: both are the cheapest complete wheel their maker sells, both are molded over metal or polymer rather than wrapped in suede, and neither has a screen.

Wheel	Price, Fanatec US store, 2 August 2026	Generation	Lifecycle	What Fanatec’s own copy says it is	Buy
Fanatec CSL Steering Wheel P1 V2	$169.99 regular, no sale price shown	V2	Not stated. Fanatec publishes no lifecycle a shopper can read; the listing was one of 24 cards in its US Steering Wheels category on 2 August 2026	”an ideal starter wheel for the CSL DD”. A 300 mm rim, “Rubberised wheel rim with improved ergonomics” over a polymer casing, 12 face buttons, “Metal shifter paddles, snap-dome-activated “click” feeling”, a 4-way directional stick, and an “Integrated RevStripe™” above a three-digit LED rather than a screen. Fanatec rules it out of one platform in words: “Xbox: this product is not compatible with Xbox systems.” And it is capped: “This wheel always limits Wheel Base torque to approximately 8 Nm, regardless of which quick release you use.”	Fanatec

The Xbox answer runs opposite on the two wheels. The ESX is the Moza rim that puts Xbox on a Moza base. The P1 V2 is the one Fanatec wheel of the four CSL models recorded here that Fanatec denies Xbox outright, and its own category list carries “PlayStation Steering Wheels” and “PC Steering Wheels” and no Xbox category. If Xbox is the reason for the purchase, the Fanatec answer at this price is the $229.99 CSL Steering Wheel GT3.

The 8 Nm footnote is the P1 V2’s real ceiling. Fanatec asterisks five of the eleven bases on its compatibility list, the two Podium DDs, the Podium DD1 PS4, the ClubSport DD, and the ClubSport DD+, and the footnote applies “regardless of which quick release you use”. The listing also carries an “8 Nm MAX” badge whose alt text reads exactly that. So the wheel does not scale with a base the way the ESX does across Moza’s range. The QR2 guide sets out Fanatec’s four statements about that cap and which of them is about a given wheel.

Every P1 V2 figure and quotation above was read on 2 August 2026 off its own Fanatec listing and the Steering Wheels category, which served 24 cards and reported “24 results available” that day. The price is the price field in the listing’s own Product JSON-LD, matching the price printed on the page.

Alternatives to consider

• Fanatec CSL Steering Wheel GT3: $229.99 for the Fanatec equivalent of what the ESX does, an entry wheel that carries its maker’s Xbox license, with a 1-inch OLED and two 12-position switches the ESX has no counterpart for. The purchase to compare if the base is not settled yet.
• Logitech G RS Round Wheel: $69.99 for the round rim, and the cheaper way onto a round profile only if you already run the $149.99 RS Wheel Hub on a Logitech base. Starting from nothing, rim plus hub is $219.98 against the ESX’s $139, and the buttons live on the hub rather than the rim.
• Asetek La Prima GT: ~$435 round wheel with a Comfort+ rim and separate button box, for the round shape with premium materials on an Asetek base.
• MOZA GS V2P: $399 GT wheel on the same MOZA quick release, with a forged carbon rim, microfiber leather grips, and more inputs if you want a step up inside the ecosystem.
• Fanatec ClubSport Universal Hub V2: ~$370 if you’d rather bolt your own round rim to a hub on a Fanatec base instead of buying a fixed wheel.

If you don’t already own a MOZA base, price the Moza R5 bundle first, since the ESX only powers up once there’s a MOZA wheelbase behind it.