Tac Hori (TAC4) Review.

Nov 23, 2015
3 min read

So last week I managed to get my hands on this new toy and needless to say, I was pretty excited. The appearance of this product certainly did not disappoint. It looks good and looked like it could get the job done. The keyboard red led gives it a classy feel and the mouse looked, well acceptable.

Fancy yourself over a mini mechanical keyboard? Well the Tac Hori provided well in this aspect. Although I had my concerns about whether or not I could adapt to the keyboard and perform what I used to do on my DS4 on it, I found my left hand resting perfectly well over the keyboard. Ergonomic? Yes it is.

At first it would take some time to realize that your left hand is required to press some action buttons instead of just pulling maneuvers, since the Triangle, Square, X, and Circle button usually require your right hand to function. I think it must have took me around an hour before i could convert what I was thinking into action via the keyboard. They even have a Snipe button ready on your keyboard so that if you press it, your sensitivity automatically drops, enabling you the sniping pleasure. Simply tap it again and it will return to your preset/default sensitivity settings.

The TAC4 Keyboard, pretty neat and ergonomic. Perfect keyboard for the Playstation 4.

Now moving on to the mouse. Well physically, the mouse felt a little light which kinda annoys me since its weight made it quite unstable in horizontal aiming and tend to overshoot when you go for vertical aiming as well. I have tried adjusting the sensitivity and it did help a little but the mouse's length is too short for comfort if you have big palms like me. After a while you feel tired and sniping becomes a burden. Button layouts however are somewhat okay, except the Square button is positioned at a place you might find somewhat awkward to reach. It can be especially annoying when you do an action which requires you to hold down the Square button. There are also two buttons on the mouse that allow you to adjust your sensitivity on the go, a feature I truly appreciate. Another thing that impressed me with the Tac Hori is, you can easily remap the buttons on the keyboard. It is so convenient, you don't even need any softwares to do it. You can just remap them anytime via the Assign button on the keyboard. And if the existing TAC4 mouse is not up to your expectation, you can try what I did. I have a couple of Razer Death Adder FPS Mouse with me, I tried my luck and plugged one of them in and walaaaa ! It worked and felt better than the original TAC4 mouse. I am lucky the Death Adder's mouse layout is similar to that of the original TAC4 mouse, hence I can just plug and play. However a few buttons will be missing like the Sensitivity control input and the Square button. Can they be remapped? This I am sorry, I have not attempted this yet.

TAC 4 Mouse, weight is too light and length is too short (Even for an Asian like myself). Not a suitable FPS Mouse IMO. Awkward button positions as shown in circle.

In-game performance - Well enough said about the hardware, how does TAC4 actually fare in real gaming situation ? I first tested it on my recently bought StarWars Battlefront. The first hour was a disaster ! Although the mouse aiming felt okay at first, something somehow is missing. I had to tweak the sensitivity more than I could remember before I reached an acceptable config. Users shall take note that input lag exist with the Tac Hori. As minimum as it is, there is a mili second input lag, enough to frustrate any veteran KB/M FPS users. After a while however, they become like Oxygen, you don't even realize you are breathing them. I've also tested it on Destiny and somewhat the device worked better on Destiny than on StarWars Battlefront. Hip firing has never been so fun ! Conclusion ! My rating for TAC4 : 3/5 Pros : Comfortable design on keyboard, absolutely no problem at all. Very user friendly. Performance in-game is fine but needs tweaking on your side. Can remap buttons easily and profiles available. Cons: Mouse settings may require time. Original mouse didn't feel comfortable for players with large palm. Mouse felt too light for stability. Device felt restrictive at first but after a while you can estimate much better. **Hope this review was helpful to you! Thanks for reading and have a good day!**