[section_title title=”Real World Performance”]Real World Performance
As usual for mice, I will split the real world performance side of things into the three sections which I feel deserve equal and thorough mention.
Ergonomics
Design wise the Tyon is a right handed, ergonomic gaming mouse. That is where the break with tradition ends though, thanks to the many buttons it is adorned with.
Personally I found the shape of the mouse to be very nice, the thumb indentation on the left hand side is nice and big and subtle curves of the right hand side of the mouse support the hand nicely. I found the design finds a nice balance in facilitating both grip types, though using a claw grip on this mouse would render most of the buttons impractical.
The positioning of the thumb buttons is spot on, in particular the thumb button located on the skirt of the mouse. The buttons on either side of M1 and M2 are also fairly well positioned and can be pressed without major compromise to your grip. The paddle and the fin on the other hand do necessitate quite a significant change in grip to be used effectively though which definitely limits their usefulness.
The coating on the top of the mouse is pretty good, striking a good balance between finger mobility and grip but the coating on the sides is pretty naff to be honest and doesn’t really add any grip to the mouse which would be lost from a grip point of view without its solid ergonomics.
From a comfort point of view though the mouse is on the whole a solid option for medium to large handed players of both grip types, but as I said with the caveat that claw users will have problems using the buttons effectively.
Buttons
The buttons are obviously the main talking point of this mouse, so how are they?
From a switches point of view all is well with each button having a good satisfying click to it, with the obvious exception of the paddle. The travel on the M1/2 buttons is a bit long for my tastes though and you definitely can’t rapid fire them without quickly developing strain in your hand.
The paddle, the fin and the four big finger buttons are what we are all here for though, and I found them to be a bit of a mixed bag. The paddle I couldn’t think of a use for, but I can definitely see it being used for flying helicopters in Battlefield as this can be accomplished with the sub optimal grip required to operate the paddle steadily. The fin is a bit less useful in my opinion, it sits right at the ‘V’ of your two fingers and can really only be activated by completely compromising your grip on the mouse so I can’t see it being useful for FPS players but I should expect MMO players could find it handy to execute macros for example.
The four finger buttons proved slightly more useful, I did like the positioning of the right ones as they were easy to press without moving your fingers too much and the front left one was also pretty usable but the rear left one was a bit of a stretch to be reasonably pressed, though considering most people will use the left ones to adjust DPI I don’t think this will be too much of a problem.
The scroll wheel is pretty good, with a good amount of grip and the notches are just right but I would personally prefer a bit more resistance.
So as far as the buttons go I think it will take user creativity to think of the best uses for them due to the need to change your grip to press them properly, they are a great idea but the implementation could use a little work to make them more convenient to press.
Tracking
Tracking is of course down to the sensor more than anything and ROCCAT have sacrificed their clearly painstakingly designed shell at the alter of the Avago 9800. What this means is that we have inherent hardware acceleration that cannot be avoided which hampers the potency of the mouse in FPS games. Quake live is about as good a test as any when it comes to tracking performance and whilst I have no major complaints about the tracking the mouse just lacks the direct feel of an optical sensor, this mouse could have been so much more if ROCCAT had used their Pro Optic R4 sensor instead.
I do have to give ROCCAT one big compliment though and that is for the inclusion of such a good lift off distance control unit, with it set to extra low I was very happy with the lift off performance of the Tyon which is praise indeed as it’s usually my main bugbear with laser sensors.
Ultimately those who like the A9800 will enjoy this mouse as the implementation here is as good as it gets, but for me nothing quite matches the feel of an optical sensor.
