I go hands-on with Mantis’ new TitanX pistol laser trainer to see just how well the dry-fire system can sharpen skills.
In Greek mythology, titans were the deities who ruled before the Olympian gods that we all know such as Zeus, Hades and Thor. The titans were the children of the primordial deities of the earth and sky. However, these days most people think of the word “titan” as it’s defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “One that is gigantic in size or power; one that stands out for greatness of achievement.”
Given its moniker, then, Mantis is setting lofty expectations for its new smart laser training pistol, the TitanX. To understand this more deeply, we first need to discuss the value of dry-fire training.
Dry Fire For The Win
You won’t find an instructor, top shooter or institution that doesn’t stress the importance of dry fire—practicing with an unloaded firearm—in learning and improving shooting skills.
Without the concussion and bluster of live fire, dry-fire practice helps you develop everything about your shooting, from fundamentals to advanced skills—at home. Ideally, you’d combine dry and live fire in a comprehensive training plan that feeds on each other in a virtuous loop.
To develop marksmanship fundamentals, practice your stance, grip, sight picture, trigger control (pressing the trigger without disturbing your sights) and follow through.
Work on manipulations like your drawstroke, reloads, and other gun handling. Be smoother and more efficient to gain speed. Keep doing repetitions until it becomes subconscious.
Refine your presentation of your gun so you can draw and present your gun right on target. Do the same with transitions between targets without overshooting them.
Concentrate on visual processing—what you see and how you process it. Develop your ability to shoot with both eyes open, lead with your eyes on transitions and dial in what you need to see to get hits on different types of targets.
Practice moving in and out of shooting positions, shooting on the move and working around barricades. There’s lots more that you can work on as well, incorporating a shot timer, one-handed shooting, support side shooting and so on.
However, using an unloaded firearm for dry fire presents some challenges. Notably, you’ll need to manually rack the slide on a semi-auto gun between each shot, unless you have a double-action gun. This makes it difficult to practice multi-shot strings, not to mention disrupting the flow of practice and consuming extra time.
Additionally, there’s no confirmation of your point of impact. You’ll need to call your shots, noting your exact sight picture when you broke your shot—so you can recognize if your aim was true and if you jerked your sights off target. This is an important skill to master, and dry fire will help. But you won’t have verification if you were right when using an unloaded gun.
Most importantly, you must be very disciplined about firearms safety.
Mantis TitanX
Mantis is known for its line of training and diagnostic products and software that help shooters improve their shooting skills.
Their MantisX system uses sensors to record telemetry of your gun’s movements; the app interprets the data to provide a detailed analysis of the mechanics of your technique. You can use it with dry or live fire and track your progress, focusing on wherever elements you prefer. The small MantisX unit attaches to an accessory rail or magazine.
Mantis also ventured into the world of lasers with the Blackbeard system, which installs in your rifle and emits a laser pulse with each trigger press, then automatically resets the trigger. The BlackBeardX system adds MantisX functionality to the mix.
The new TitanX takes the next step. It’s a stand-alone smart laser training pistol, available as a replica of a Glock 19, 17, or 45 with plans to develop other models. It incorporates MantisX technology to analyze your mechanics, a laser to indicate your point of impact, and a resetting trigger that feels similar to the real thing, complete with a trigger safety dingus.
It’s inert, made of plastic, and completely safe. The overall shape matches the corresponding Glock model; our test unit is a Glock 19 doppelganger, and it fit in all the Glock holsters we had on hand. The TitanX solves the issues associated with using an unloaded gun for dry fire.
The slide is optic-ready, with a cutout that takes RMR or RMSc footprint sights. Thankfully, there are metal threaded inserts for the screws. The iron sights are molded into the slide, so you can’t install your own. On top is a power switch, and on the side is a USB-C port. Near the muzzle are windage and elevation adjustments for the laser.
You can attach a weapon-mounted light to the light rail, but note it has an actual Picatinny rail like a Gen 5 Glock versus the “universal” rail on older Glocks.
The dummy magazine is weighted, though you can also insert a real mag in the TitanX. Conversely, you can use the dummy mag in an actual Glock as well; it won’t lock the slide back so you can use it for dry-fire practice with your gun.
With all-plastic construction, the TitanX is lighter than an actual Glock. This keeps costs down but feels a little less realistic. Without a magazine, it weighs 7.9 ounces, versus 21 ounces for a Glock 19. The weighted mag weighs 9.3 ounces, compared to 9.7 ounces for a fully loaded 15-rounder. In total, that’s 17.2 versus 30.7 ounces. However, with the addition of a C&H Precision COMP red-dot sight and a SureFire XC3 weapon light, our TitanX weighs 21.5 ounces, on par with an unloaded Glock 19. We noticed it might be possible to add more weight in the grip plug area. You could also go with a heavier light or even use a frame weight.
The trigger mimics the feel of a real trigger, though it’s not exactly the same. It has take-up, pushing through to the break, and a distinct reset. Our unit broke at just under 4 pounds.
Weapons Free
If you use the TitanX by itself, it functions like a laser training pistol, emitting a short laser burst with each trigger press. But pair it with your smartphone, and you’ll have access to all the wonders of the MantisX app and system.
The MantisX app has various configurations and drills for your training needs. Set the shot timer, par times, shot counts and automatically repeat drills. It can specify and detect starting positions, such as low ready, high ready and holstered. You can select a magazine capacity in some drills, requiring a reload before proceeding.
The sensor tracks movement, showing if you jerked the trigger, moved off target and how you transitioned between targets. It can analyze your drawstroke and movement.
Configure your own drills or run specified drills such as the El Presidente, bill drills, reload drills, and so on. The app also includes full courses focused on marksmanship, tactical, and concealed carry skills.
There’s a wealth of data presented in interesting ways, including timing, movement traces, and scoring. One of the most valuable aspects of the system is “gamifying” the process so that not only is it challenging and fun (thus making you more likely to practice regularly), but you can also track your progress over time.
We used reduced-size targets from the Ben Stoeger Pro Shop to train realistically in more confined spaces. For example, placing a 1/3 scale target at 10 feet in your bedroom is like engaging a full-size target at 10 yards.
One problem with laser trainers and iron sights is the tendency to watch for splash instead of calling your shots with your sight picture. The beauty of using a red-dot sight is that once you zero the laser with your sight, the splash basically disappears from view, especially if you turn up the brightness on your sight.
You can also use the TitanX with any laser-based training products or apps. Mantis offers their Laser Academy Training system, which consists of a set of special targets designed to work with an app. The app accesses your smart-phone camera to automatically detect targets, run specified drills and detect the laser splash to mark your impacts.
Between MantisX and the Laser Academy, you can put together a great training regimen and effectively bridge the connection between dry-fire gear and live-fire practice to level up your skills. You can safely leave your dry-fire setup and ready to go at home, so you can easily do regular and frequent practice sessions.
At an MSRP of $199, the TitanX is also affordable compared to other options, with the added bonus of the MantisX sensor technology. Mantis fulfilled its promise with the TitanX—two dry thumbs up.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the January 2026 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.
More On Shooting Skills
- Video: Target Transition Training With The Dot Drill
- The Shot Timer And Defensive Handgun Training
- Gun Digest’s 10 Best Shooting Drills And Firearms Training Posts
- MantisX: Simple And Effective Training
- Video: Is A Full-Sized Pistol The Best Training Option?
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