an area where ROCCAT has massive
expertise and even in this tightly
contests market with hundreds of
options, the products still manage to
carve out a following and dedication.
With the Tyon they have hit the nail
on the head as far as balancing the
maximum number of mouse buttons
one may realistically use. ROCCAT
lists the mouse as housing all of 14
buttons, however while I do accept
that creative accounting of numbers
that all peripheral vendors use.
I define buttons by functionality,
thus a button triggers a left, right
or one that functions as an up or
down instruction counts a single
button as it is physically a single
button that you must deal with. DPI
setting buttons do not count either
because they are confined to that
singular purpose. Thus, the TYON in
practice has 10 buttons. If you add
the SHIFT+ functionality to it, that
grows to an impressive 20 buttons
you may assign to your mouse at any
one time.
Talking about the SHIFT+
functionality. On the TYON it is
finally a dedicated button on
its own and performs no other
function but this. A worthwhile and
much appreciated change from
the previous mice which made sit
rather difficult to use this feature,
not only because it robbed you of
one off two side buttons but was
awkwardly positioned as a result of
having to hold it in while pressing
another button. On the TYON there’s
none of this and you may simply
push it down with your thumb and
use any of the other buttons apart
from the ones on the left side of
the mouse. This isn’t a software or
mouse limit, but simply because it
will be impossible for you depress
the SHIFT button and use the side
buttons at the same time, lest you
have a flexibility that would impress
Chuck Norris. As such, the realistic
number of buttons I found I could
use including in shifted mode is 17.
Still a healthy amount of options and
certainly more buttons than most
people need, at least more than I do.
The SHIFT button the TYON makes
splendid use of the lighting system
as well, because if you press the
button, the lighting changes to
let you know visually that you’re
shifted. You’ll not be able to view
this directly during frantic game
play, but it is obvious in your
peripheral vision, although I suspect
there’ll be no mistaking the feeling
of having pressed it.
Other than the SHIFT key, the
TYON adds a Fin-Switch which is
actuated using your middle knuckle
or at least that is the theory anyway.
A novel feature and one that places
more control on your right hand and
away from the keyboard. However
it has limited appeal to me, simply
because there was no meaningful
way I could reach it using said
middle knuckle. My middle and
index fingers make an arc when
resting on the mouse body that
ascends further back from where
the FIN-Switch starts and comes
down past where the fin ends. In
actuality both of these fingers are
so far from the FIN-Switch that I
would literally have to lift both of
my fingers completely from the
two primary mouse buttons to
use the FIN-Switch. Since that is
not a feasible or realistic situation
while playing games, the feature
is appreciated but sadly of little to
no value to me. Those with smaller
hands may find it indispensable but
that is not the case for me.
The last notable and unique,
perhaps the most innovative feature
of the TYON is the X-CELERATOR
(Only the heaven’s know when
spelling correct ly be appreciated
in the gaming industry?) which is
a single axis analogue paddle just
above the two left side buttons. This
paddle works well for vehicles in
FPS games where the digital onIssue 34 | 2015 The OverClocker 43