Our Verdict
Pros
- Upgraded touchscreen.
- Completely customisable designs.
- Crisp 1280 x 720p display resolution.
- Improved quality with aluminium casing.
- Rev lights and flag lights improve the functionality a lot.
- Compatible with third-party wheels.
Cons
- Price has increased by $50.
- No SimHub compatibility.
MOZA Racing has spent a few years creating a pretty large and competitive ecosystem of sim racing products. This has allowed them some breathing room to go through its hardware lineup, and refresh some of its older products.
We recently saw this happen to the fantastic CRP2 pedals and the FSR2 steering wheel. Now we have the CM2 Digital Dash, which offers a new look to MOZA’s entry-level dashboard.
I’ve been sent this dashboard for review, so lets jump into what this digital display offers, how much it costs, and whether its worth buying.
What is the MOZA CM2 Dash?
With its wheel bases being divided into two distinct categories, the smaller mid-range wheels, and the larger, more powerful R16 and R21 wheel bases, MOZA also has two different dashboards. These two digital dash’s reflect the two sets of wheel bases by using different mounting points and coming in at two different prices.
The CM dash was MOZA’s entry-level dashboard, and it’s compatible with the smaller direct drive wheel bases from the R3 through to the R12. This new CM2 Dash carries on this trend, essentially offering improvements to various aspects of the CM dash. These improvements do come at a price, though.
CM2 Dash Price
That price is $50 more expensive than the original CM dash, with a price tag of $199 compared to $149. This price increase is justified with new features, a new design and an improved screen.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| MOZA CM2 Dash | UK: £199 EU: €199 US: $199 |
Comparing the CM2 to other sim racing dashboard
Comparing the price of the MOZA CM2 Dash to other brands, and it comes out on top pretty much across the board. Brands such as Ascher Racing and GRID Engineering offer dashboards, however these all cost $300 or over, a full $100 more than the CM2 Dash.
The benefit of those other dashboards is that they offer Sim Hub support and are widely compatible with other sim racing hardware, whereas the original MOZA CM Dash was exclusively compatible with MOZA products. This has changed with the CM2 Dash, which now includes a direct-to-PC USB connection, bringing it in line with its competitors.
What is new compared to the CM Dash?
Let’s jump in and look at the CM2 dashboard and compare it to the older and cheaper dashboard. The first thing you’ll notice when looking at both dash’s side-by-side is the new design.
Updated design and new RGB lighting
This CM2 Dash introduces rev lights across the top and six flag lights positioned to either side of the display.
This follows the trend from the FSR2 wheel that I recently reviewed, which also has flag lights added to the wheel design. The addition of these side flag lights has resulted in the dash becoming wider and ever so slightly taller as well.
Despite being larger in every direction, including the depth, the new CM2 Dash actually looks a bit more sleek and widescreen.
More premium design
The wider aspect of the dash, and the more premium metal case compared to the plastic used on the CM Dash, allows the CM2 to feel much more premium. It is $50 more expensive, so seeing this improved quality is good.
Improved display
One key area where MOZA has improved is in the screen itself, which is pretty key to a good sim racing dash. The display has been upgraded to a capacitive touchscreen, much like on steering wheels such as the Vision GS and MOZA FSR2.
This touchscreen allows you to switch the display with a quick gesture rather than heading into the Pit House software to change the display each time. MOZA has also added the ability to create custom dash layouts and designs which is quickly becoming a staple of all new MOZA products with screens.
This functionality was first introduced on the Vision GS wheel, and has since featured on the FSR2 as well as now on the CM2 Dash. Its pretty cool technology as it lets you essentially create an unlimited number of designs, replicating real-world race cars with all elements working in game.
MOZA use a customisation tool within Pit House to enable the custom dash layouts, and it isn’t too dissimilar from a rudimentry version of Photoshop in its use. You can assign functionality to different elements such as gears, speed, rev dials, lap times and more, and everything just works in game which is really neat.
It is also worth noting that the display is now full 720p, compared to the older dash, which outputs at 800×480, and that just makes everything a little crisper. This is a pretty big improvement as many other displays from the brands I mentioned earlier use a lower resolution, giving MOZA Racing the edge with the CM2.
Compatibility of the CM2 Dash
The way this dash gets mounted is the same as the original. There is a bracket at the rear which can be height-adjusted. When mounted using the pre-drilled holes to a MOZA base, this gives the dash a floating appearance and lets it drop just below the top of the wheel base. This makes the dash feel a little more integrated compared to displays which sit on top of wheel bases.
As I mentioned earlier, the data port does allow for direct compatibility with a PC, and this means as long as you can mount the dash to your sim rig or wheel base, it can be used with any third-party wheel. You will still need the Pit House software to run the CM2 as it isn’t Sim Hub compatible.
Is the MOZA CM2 Dash worth buying?
And that brings me to the question of whether this dash is worth buying. And truly, having raced with this display for a few weeks, I’d categorically say yes. The CM2 offers a big improvement over the original dash in all areas.
It has a better display resolution with an integrated touchscreen. You have complete customisation over how the dash looks by using the integrated editor, and if you aren’t much of a designer, you can also download community designs.
The integrated RGB lights bring this dash in line with what other brands are offering, and once again, these can be fully customised to perform however you need. And finally, MOZA has increased the quality by using an aluminium alloy casing.
There really isn’t too much to not like about this dashboard. Yes, the price has increased by $50, which isn’t ideal, albeit justified by the improvements. And there isn’t any Sim Hub integration that we see with most dashboards, but this doesn’t really hold this dash back.
Frequently asked questions
You can use the MOZA CM2 Dash with any third-party wheel base as it features a direct to PC connection.
Adding a dashboard to your sim racing setup can allow you to see much more information while on track. They are especially useful if you are using a steering wheel without a screen, and they can offer increased immersion as well.
Unfortunatly the MOZA CM2 Dash uses its own Pit House software and not Sim Hub.
Technical Specifications
Review written by Felix König
