Well, you saw the title, so you already have some idea of how this review is going to pan out. Mantis sent me the TitanX to try out and review, and I don’t really like it. I’ll outline what I like and dislike about it here, and share my experiences with it. I’ve had it for a little over two months, and have about 22,000 trigger presses on it. I’ve got a bit to say about the TitanX, but before I do, I need to get something out of the way.
TRANSPARENCY DISCLAIMER
I base all of my online works, (both written and video), on honesty and transparency. As such, I disclose when the manufacturer of a product sends me something to test. Mantis sent me the TitanX to test, and as far as I can tell, they are not requesting it back. Also, Mantis has not attempted to financially compensate me for this review. However, I do not accept freebies from companies, nor do I take money from them. When a company sends me something to test and tells me to keep it, I’m either going to give it away, or I’m going to pass it on to another reviewer.
For TitanX I’m showing here, I’ll be giving it away to a new shooter that I know in my local area. For reasons that will become apparent shortly, I think that he’ll get a lot more use out of it than I possibly will.
Now that I’ve covered my transparency in the reviewing process, let’s outline what the TitanX is.
WHAT IS THE MANTIS TITANX?
The TitanX is a new-ish product from Mantis. It is a dry fire dummy pistol, modeled after the 9mm double stack Glocks. It comes in three varieties, with a Glock 17, Glock 19, and Glock 45 sized TitanX on offer. I’ve got the G17 version in for testing.
On the TitanX, the trigger can be pulled repeatedly, without the need to rack the slide or cock the pistol. On each trigger press, a laser beam will shoot out the end of the dummy gun, as long as it is charged.
Charging is done via a provided USB-C cable. The pistol is also equipped with the MantisX dryfire tech, which is combined with their cell phone app to use. With the laser on the gun, we can also use it for Mantis’s Laser Academy.
The construction of the TitanX is pretty much wholly plastic. The frame and slide are two separate parts, but the slide does not reciprocate. The plastic feels, well, not great. I’ll touch on that more in a bit. We’ve also got two weighted dummy mags, which again, have some questionable feel to them.
The TitanX can mount an optic, which is how I used it for the majority of my testing. RMR and RMSc footprint optics will fit on here, and I used my older RM07 for most of my time with the gun. I did also toss an Osight SE on the Titan too. Bafflingly, they do not include screws for mounting. I had some that worked in my parts bin, but I’m really shocked that Mantis didn’t include any.
The TitanX ships in a good quality nylon case, with two weighted magazines, a small Allen key for centering the laser, and a USB-C cable for charging the gun. MSRP runs $199 for all of the versions of the TitanX.
Before I can talk about how a lot of the higher tech elements of the TitanX, I’ve gotta address the elephant in the room.
BUILD QUALITY
The TitanX has mediocre build quality. I think that most of the cost of it goes into the laser and MantisX gyroscope, rather than the actual gun itself. This is a bad place for it to start, as the gun is the thing that we are directly interfacing with.
The Frame
The frame on the TitanX is really quite poor quality. The texturing on the sides is basically slick, and the front and back aren’t much better. The corners provide some texture, but the center parts of the front and backstops are wider textured and pretty smooth. However, the texturing comes to a strange peak on the back, and it doesn’t feel all that great in hand. We’ve also got pretty obvious seam lines on the frame, which make this feel even cheaper. The frame also doesn’t have a hole on the back like a Glock, so there’s no way to get a magwell on the TitanX.
Mantis gives you two weighted dummy mags with the TitanX. These are fine, albeit that mine have some rattle to them. Mine both come in at 9.4 ounces, which is actually a hair heavier than a loaded 17 round mag.
The Trigger
Now, the trigger. It is awful. I know a lot of folks out there will try to say that I’m a trigger snob, and that I just don’t like Glock triggers. Well, I’ve got 7 Glocks right now, most with fairly minor work done to improve the triggers. I’ve also got one that I’ve kept totally stock.
The big issue here is that the TitanX does not feel like a Glock trigger. Rather than having a rolling break, we’ve got a very rubber-bandy takeup, and a very creepy wall. Both of them feel bad, and it does not feel like a real gun’s trigger. The pull weight is about 5lbs, so the weight really isn’t the problem here. What is the problem is the feel of the trigger. The feel is closer to a button, rather than a Glock’s trigger.
I hate to sound like a broken record, but if your dry fire trainer doesn’t actually feel like a real gun, the value here is dubious, at least to me.
Now, I don’t know if there is a way to improve the trigger. I’m at like 22,000 trigger presses on the TitanX, and time hasn’t made it better. Hopefully Mantis can address that in the future.
The Slide
Moving to the slide, well, it isn’t a slide. I’ll talk more about that in the practical use section, but not having it reciprocate does impact the overall use. However, when it comes to build quality, it’s still cheap.
The iron sights on the pistol are a permanent thing, and they are not good. Why not have a dovetail for the rear, and a way to swap the front?
Additionally, the optic cut not coming with screws just screams cheap. Since the slide isn’t moving, and there aren’t G-forces going into the screws or optic, why can’t they include some screws? Different optics do require different angles for the countersink on the screw, but that really does not matter on a dummy dry fire gun. Any screw would cut it, so why not include some?
Talking design of the slide portion, the ejection port is too proud. As someone who does a high-port hold for my trigger finger, it is extra apparent. It should be more recessed, but it is not. Forward of the ejection port are the holes for centering the laser. These are turned via an Allen Key, but don’t expect any clicks. I’ll touch more on the laser later on, but it’s kind of hard to get a good reference for your optic on here.
The Weight
To round out the build quality, we’ve gotta discuss the weight. The TitanX does not weigh nearly as much as an actual Glock, even with the dummy weighted magazines.
On my scale, the TitanX with the weight dummy mag weighs less than an unloaded Glock 17. If I toss 17 snapcaps in a Glock mag, that gets even further apart, with the Glock now weighing over 10 ounces more than the TitanX.
- TitanX without weighted dummy magazine: 10.8 ounces (306 grams)
- Glock 17 without weighted 17 round magazine: 22.4 ounces (365 grams)
- TitanX with weighted dummy magazine: 20.2 ounces (573 grams)
- Glock 17 with weighted 17 round magazine: 31.5 ounces (893 grams)
The TitanX is too light, and that does really impact how dry fire feels with it.
It’s pretty obvious that I don’t like the gun itself. However, that’s only one part of the package. How is the MantisX technology, and how useful is the Mantis Laser Academy?
MANTISX AND THE LASER ACADEMY
Linking the TitanX to the MantisX app is pretty easy. You’ll have to make an account via the app, but once you do that, linking the gun to your phone is pretty simple. We’ve got a button on top for syncing the gun to the app, and it’s pretty fast. With the MantisX app, we can also use the Laser Academy targets, but I’ll touch on that in a little bit.
The MantisX technology is basically a gyroscope that senses movement once we start pulling the trigger. Using the app, we get the “score” of how undisturbed the gun is as we pull the trigger. Mantis has a lot of drills listed in the app, with various ones to try and test specific things in dry fire.
Moving to the Laser Academy, this can be done in conjunction with the MantisX, or on its own. Basically, we set up our phone, and have it scan a Mantis target. These can be bought, or printed out. The phone scans the target, and basically registers any time that the laser from our gun hits the target. Much like the MantisX dry fire games, we can use this in various drills. These range from simple ones, like a 1 reload 1, or more complex ones. One of the goofier ones involves taping your gun to your back, like John McClain in Die Hard.
I’ve found the Laser Academy to be pretty nifty, albeit that the TitanX has some minor issues with it. It’s not an app problem, but a hardware issue.
The laser in the TitanX is very coarse for the adjustments. It’s also very sensitive to distance. If you center the laser for one distance, it’s generally pretty far off as you get closer, or move further. This can be rectified by just tinkering with it, or keeping your dry fire distance the same. However, I found it pretty annoying.
Now, it’s up to you to figure out how useful the app functions can be. I think that for a lot of newer shooters, it can be quite helpful. However, it comes back to the crux of the issue, which is that the TitanX is not a great facsimile for an actual gun.
THE CRUX
The TitanX does not feel like an actual Glock. From the lower weight, to the non-Glock texture, to the non-Glock trigger, it just doesn’t feel like a one-to-one Glock. For me, if the gun doesn’t feel like the gun that it’s trying to emulate, what’s the point?
Another big issue here is that the ability to repeatedly pull the trigger on the TitanX is an artificiality. When I say this, I mean that we are not getting the same feel as shooting a real gun. A massive part of shooting is the recoil, and with the TitanX, we are not getting that. When you shoot a gun, you’ve got recoil that is going to disturb the sights, and act as part of the process to reset the trigger. There are dry fire systems out there that can replicate this, but the TitanX cannot.
On top of the artificial trigger press, the slide is fixed in place. Now, the TitanX doesn’t need the slide to move to work. However, due to it being fixed, that really limits the kind of reload practice you can do with it too. Wanna practice a slide lock reload? Well, you’re not doing it with the TitanX.
The Solution
So what’s my solution? Well, it’s gonna be one that costs you nothing! Just dry fire with your actual gun. Sure, we won’t have the MantisX gyroscope or the laser coming out of the gun, but your dry fire gun will feel right, as you are using your actual gun. The trigger press will be correct, as you have your actual gun. Yeah, you’ll need to rack the slide to reset the trigger, but that trigger press will be the right one.
Additionally, with a lot of dry work, you aren’t actually pulling the trigger. If you just wanted to practice your draw stroke, you don’t need to pull the trigger on every practice rep. If you were trying out moving and keeping the sights steady, you don’t need a trigger press for that. Same deal for practicing target transitions, or a reloading drill.
Now, let’s say that you did want to do the Laser Academy, but didn’t want the TitanX. Mantis sells laser kits to drop into your gun, and they are a lot cheaper than the TitanX. If you did want the gyroscope, the MantisX can still be bolted onto a real gun.
Well, I think it’s time to wrap this review up.
The Verdict
For me, I don’t have any need for the TitanX. For some of the folks who are starting their shooting journey, they may find some value in it. However, if you are at the intermediate level or higher, I don’t see much use in this product.
Between the very mediocre build quality and the issues I see with it for practical dryfire, I would not recommend the Mantis TitanX. I just really do not like it. I am bummed by this, as I really do like the Mantis Blackbeard, and have used mine a lot over the years. If Mantis could do something like that, in which you get to use the main components of your actual handgun rather than a complete dummy gun, I think that could be a much better product. However, for now, we’ve just got the TitanX, which I just don’t like very much.
Video Works
As of late, most of my time has been going into video production. If you’d like to see my video review of the TitanX, check out the link below!
Additional Reading, Patreon Link & Thanks
Below are some of our previous reviews of MantsX products here on PrimerPeak:
- Mantis Blackbeard Review – The Best AR Dryfire Tool? [2021]
- Mantis Blackbeard X Review – A Better Blackbeard? [2022]
- MantisX Review – A Dry Fire Tool So You Suck Less
- Steiner Tor-X with Mantis Review [2024]
If you’d like to support me on Patreon, I’ve got the link for that here. Nearly everything that I do on Primer Peak is paid for out of my own pocket, and my content is not shilled or driven by manufacturers or companies. If you decide to donate, I’d really appreciate it, as it would allow for me to continue to bring you quality work.
Thanks to Elise from Mantis for sending in the TitanX for T&E. She’s been a great contact at the company, and we appreciate her and Mantis for sending in the tester unit.
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