Providing excellent performance and built like a tank, ROCCAT’s TYON is a force to reckoned with…
Product on Review: TYON Gaming Mouse
Manufacturer: ROCCAT
Street Price: £85 GBP / $89 USD
Founded in 2007, based in Hamburg Germany, ROCCAT’s focus on providing PC gamers with the best of the best is evident from their uniquely designed and high-class performing product range. Designing everything from mice and keyboards to headsets and software, with a large concentration being placed in competitive gaming. ROCCAT delivers the exact same products to their consumers as they do to their very own eSports team.
Today we will be taking a look at the ROCCAT TYON. A professional gaming mouse tailoring to the needs of First-Person-Shooters and vehicle warfare.
Overview by ROCCAT
Gaming has changed. The modern battlefield is an especially hostile place, with threats from the air, sea and land. How do you react to these extra dimensions of gameplay? Enter the ROCCAT™ Tyon, the all action multi-button gaming mouse that’s the result of countless hours of design from the industry’s greatest minds, specifically tailored for modern, multi-vehicle warfare.
Technical Specifications
Pro-Aim Laser Sensor R3 with up to 8200dpi
1000Hz polling rate
1ms response time
12000fps
10.8megapixel
30G acceleration
3,8m/s (150ips)
16-bit data channel
1-5mm Lift off distance
Tracking & Distance Control Unit
72MHz Turbo Core V2 32-bit Arm based MCU
576kB onboard memory
Zero angle snapping/prediction
1.8m braided USB cable
1000Hz polling rate
1ms response time
12000fps
10.8megapixel
30G acceleration
3,8m/s (150ips)
16-bit data channel
1-5mm Lift off distance
Tracking & Distance Control Unit
72MHz Turbo Core V2 32-bit Arm based MCU
576kB onboard memory
Zero angle snapping/prediction
1.8m braided USB cable
Closer Look
The ROCCAT TYON comes packaged in a fairly uniquely designed box. As evident by its size and feature showcase, the product that awaits inside is clearly no ordinary mouse. Similar to the packaging of most gaming mice on the market, a Velcro-patched flap reveals a clear plastic window, allowing potential buyers to gain a feel for it’s size and weight. Described as the ALL ACTION MULTI-BUTTON GAMING MOUSE and PIONEERED FOR THE MODERN BATTLEFIELDS, ROCCAT’s clearly gearing this mouse to those who participate in First-Person-Shooters, primarily within games that make use of vehicular-warfare.
Highlighting the key performance features of it’s multi-button design, the ROCCAT TYON believes itself to be an actual tank. And considering the aesthetics of it’s design it’s hard to disagree. Armed with the essentials of nothing more than a quick start guide and a sticker sheet, additional software that takes full-advantage of the mouse is required to be installed upon downloading from the manufacturer’s website.
Basing the aesthetics of the TYON to that of a military tank, the bulky and fairly weight nature of the mouse holds an appearance that’s certainly an eye-catcher. With each button positioned in reach of the user’s finger layout, despite the number of buttons that the TYON entails, getting used to their positioning is a simple and rather quick one indeed. Two buttons each bordering the right and left clicks, an additional three in-reach of the user’s thumb with ROCCAT’s X-Celerator paddle located just above, and lastly a fin switch, which sits between the user’s knuckles allowing quick adjustment for custom-configured functions.
Boasting 16.8 million multi-colour illumination, the ROCCAT TYON packs two separate LEDs, with one located under the scroll wheel and the other highlighting the base of the mouse. As the model on-hand comes in a black and grey configuration, with an alternative variation available in black and white, the lighting controls do well in providing the user with a strong suite of colours. Much appreciated although it’s fair to say it should be considered a norm at this point, is the braided USB cable. Providing enough length as well as enough flex for efficient cable routing, I do wish ROCCAT had made the cable thicker, just to emphasize the brutal and bulky nature of the mouse itself.
Using the TYON in actual gaming and becoming familiar with its handling, it feels good in saying that the mouse is very comfortable. Finding a mouse that’s both suitable for it’s purpose and finding the comfortability to match it, can be a chore at times, especially when the mouse is already pleasing within its visual department. In regards to the build quality of the product, the ROCCAT TYON is every bit worthy of the vehicle it seeks to emulate. Everything feels solid.
Software & Performance
As stated previously, the visual qualities of the TYON share resemblance to a tank, as of such, the shape and curvature of the TYON feels both functional and pleasing to use. Every button that the TYON features as well as their location on its body, delivers a truly remarkable feeling steering an actual vehicle. And while that sounds quite absurd and understandably so, it’s not until you’re actually using the mouse the way it’s intended, do you actually grasp the concept for the TYON’s use-case.
Games such as Battlefield 4 for example, remapping the game’s vehicle keybindings from the keyboard to the mouse, is where the TYON is clearly at it’s best. As of such, the software application is highly recommended. Named the TYON Driver, there’s a strong sense of irony going on between the mouse bearing similarity to that of a tank and the user being the driver, as well as the required software drivers that the TYON is reliant upon. If the military theme wasn’t strong enough, switching between the DPI settings results in the TYON responding vocally. Intimidating? Hardcore? Let’s just say we’re thankful there’s no Camo-skinned UI.
Hardware features consisting of the TYON include 14 programmable buttons, an 8200 DPI laser sensor, a 32-BIT processor with 576KB of memory, and a dedicated shift button which allows on-the-fly change for macro profiles. Serving as it’s most prominent feature, the dedicated shift button holds its primary feature within the types of games the mouse is designed for.
Software & Performance (Continued)
Setting up a custom configuration for gameplay mechanics that allows you to switch their use-case by holding down the shift button seem to work well in theory. And although the TYON Driver comes preloaded with custom configurations for games such as Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Left4Dead, Crysis, and Modern Warfare 2, we do wish the software made better use of it’s update system as modern games where nowhere to be found.
Something quite unique about the game presets, if not fairly odd, is the confusing and contradictory nature for the use-case of the mouse. While it’s clearly geared towards shooters and vehicle-based games, as evident by it’s packaging and marketing. The presets available for games of other genres such as RPG, MOBAs, and Real-Time-Strategy, appear to take more advantage of the TYON’s additional buttons. More so than the FPS crowd that ROCCAT is going after.
Outside of gaming purposes, preset macros extend to Windows functionality, media features, and browser actions. As the user can reconfigure any of the buttons for their desired use, making use of the dedicated shift key allows extended functionality amongst a wide range of programs and actions. Within the TYON Driver, LED functions such as brightness, colour change, and lighting patterns can also be adjusted. Along with Custom DPI and a button-click statistics application, which in all fairness provides nothing of worthwhile interest to the user, the software itself is fairly in-depth. Simple to use mind you, but enough in-depth features to please the audience.
Conclusion
Given the amount of flexibility the TYON offers in regards to macro configuration and lighting control, there’s enough on-hand that’s great in practise, none of which feels tacked-on or useless. The only few gripes we found with the ROCCAT TYON was the additional features within the TYON Driver. Audio responses to volume and DPI settings? Button statistics which unlock achievement trophies to be shared across social networks? While the former appears to be nothing more than a gimmick and the latter provides nothing of value, the implementation of such will likely be ignored by the user.
Where the mouse seeks in catering to an audience of First-Person-Shooters, had ROCCAT marketed the mouse to RTS and MOBA gamers as well, then we sense the TYON would gain larger recognition. And because of this, we feel a large portion of gamers will unknowingly be alienated, with ROCCAT missing out on the potential of bringing in more consumers for the product.
Regardless of these few minor hiccups, the ROCCAT TYON provides superb performance in both gaming scenarios and general usage. Where we found the mouse to be of most value in delivering something that’s of worthwhile to it’s intended audience, lies within it’s button placement. Where most gaming mice will often have the user fiddling back and forth between macro-profiles and remembering which button does what, as well as it’s given location. ROCCAT’s TYON has been given substantial effort to it’s design. The ROCCAT TYON is available now, cruising on to the battlefield at £85/$89.
A great number of additional buttons and presets to take full advantage, the ROCCAT TYON packs a ton of ammunition with the build quality to withstand any damage.
Pros
+Attractive lighting
+Superb comfortability
+Attractive in design
Cons
-Gimmicky voice responses
-Impractical social media functions
+Attractive lighting
+Superb comfortability
+Attractive in design
Cons
-Gimmicky voice responses
-Impractical social media functions
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