The red dot market has really come a long way in recent years…
Gone are the days when you’d have to spend nearly a thousand bucks just to get a reliable optic, and that’s a great thing for us consumers…
Now two of the most popular red dot sights on the market right now are:
- The Trijicon MRO (See Price On Optics Planet – Over 240 Customer Reviews)
- The Sig Romeo 5 (See Price On Amazon – Over 1,1775 Customer Reviews)
And in this Trijicon MRO Vs Sig Romeo 5 comparison, we’re going to examine how these two sights stack up against each other in the following categories…
- Durability And Toughness
- Lens Clarity And Reticle
- Battery Life And Brightness Settings
- Size Comparison
- Extra Accessories Included With The Optic
- Price Comparison
In the end, I’ll tell you which of these two great sights I prefer, and you should have all the information you need to decide which optic will work best for you…
Lets jump into the comparison!
Durability And Toughness…
Trijicon MRO
The Trijicon MRO is a very durable optic. Trijicon (the company) is actually known for making extremely tough optics…
In fact, the Trijicon ACOG has been used in the U.S. Military for quite some time now, and the same quality and attention to detail goes into the MRO…
Now MRO stands for Miniature Rifle Optic, and it’s basically Trijicon’s version of a micro red dot sight…
The sight housing on the MRO is made from forged 7075-T6 Aluminum, and it has a hard anodized finish to help protect the optic from the elements…
In addition to that, the windage and elevation turrets are recessed into the sight housing, which means they can never be spun or snapped off accidentally…
The MRO is also fogproof and waterproof in up to 100 feet (30 meters) of water. So it will easily be able to handle rainy, snowy, or wet conditions.
And it can handle recoil from high-powered rifles, shotguns, and pistol caliber carbines without any issues as well.
All in all, I’m very impressed with the durability and reliability of the Trijicon MRO.
Sig Romeo 5
The Sig Romeo 5 is also a very durable optic. To start off with, the sight housing is made from Aircraft-Grade Aluminum, and it also has an anodized finish to help protect the optic from the elements…
The windage and elevation turrets do protrude slightly on the Romeo 5, but they sit pretty low and are protected fairly well by the sight housing (I think it’s unlikely they’ll ever get accidentally snapped off)…
In addition to that, the Romeo 5 is fog proof and waterproof in up to 1 meter of water. So it can easily handle rainy, snowy, or wet conditions…
And it’s also shockproof, so it won’t have any problems with recoil on shotguns, high-powered rifles or pistol caliber carbines…
I’ve seen some Romeo 5’s take some major abuse (including being frozen into a block of ice), and they still keep working. So their durability is also pretty impressive.
Durability And Toughness Conclusions…
I think both of these sights are very durable and reliable. That being said, I like that the windage and elevation turrets are completely recessed into the sight housing on the MRO…
I also like that it’s rated to be submerged in up to 100 feet of water, which means you can literally take it SCUBA diving with you if you wanted to…
It’s a tough one… But even though I’m very pleased with the durability of the Sig Romeo 5, the Trijicon MRO is just a little bit tougher. So the MRO gets the slight win in this category.
Winner: Trijicon MRO
Lens Clarity And Reticle…
Trijicon MRO
The lens clarity on the Trijicon MRO is pretty good. You do get a distinctive blue tint when looking through the sight, which is less than ideal…
Trijicon says the blueish coating increases lens durability and gives you greater contrast when looking through the optic…
There is a little bit of truth to that, but I would, personally, prefer it to be more clear. That being said, it’s easy to ignore, and you still get a crisp and clear sight picture when looking through the sight.
On a brighter note, the MRO has a large 25mm objective lens. This is a unique feature on a micro red dot sight, and I love it because it gives you a HUGE field of view…
You’re able to see more of your target AND what’s around it, and that’s always a beneficial thing when you’re shooting a rifle.
Now the reticle on the MRO is a simple 2 MOA (minute of angle) dot. I think a 2 MOA dot is a great reticle for a red dot sight…
I like it because your eye can quickly and easily pick up the dot when you need to make fast shots at targets up close…
But at the same time, the dot is small enough to give you a fair amount of precision when shooting at small targets in the distance.
Overall, I’m glad that Trijicon chose to go with a 2 MOA dot rather than something larger like a 4 or 6 MOA dot because they’re simply not as precise.
Sig Romeo 5
The lens clarity on the Sig Romeo 5 is very good. The lens is extremely clear, and you don’t see any of the greenish or bluish tint that you sometimes find on other red dot sights…
The 20mm objective lens is smaller than the MRO’s objective lens, so it doesn’t have quite as large of a field of view…
…but you can still see a lot through the sight (and you get a very clear sight picture), so it doesn’t really have a negative impact on your shooting.
The reticle on the Romeo 5 is also a simple 2 MOA dot. Like I mentioned earlier, I really like the 2 MOA dot reticle on a red dot sight because it’s simple, fast, and precise.
Lens Clarity And Reticle Conclusions…
So in this category, we have a few important differences between these sights. First of all, the MRO has a blue tint when looking through the optic, whereas the Romeo 5 is very clear (which I prefer).
But on the other hand, the 25mm objective lens is a unique feature on the MRO and gives you an extended field of view over the 20mm objective lens of the Romeo 5 (which is what most micro red dot sights have)…
They both have positive and negative features that kind of balance out in this category, and since they both have the same 2 MOA dot reticle, I think the right thing to do here is call it a draw.
Winner: DRAW
Battery Life and Brightness Settings…
Trijicon MRO
The Trijicon MRO uses 1 CR2032 battery which is able to power the sight for 5 continuous years (on daylight brightness setting 3)…
This is fantastic battery life, and long battery life like this is exactly what I’m looking for on a red dot optic.
I’ve had red dot batteries die on me in the middle of trips to the range before, and it gets pretty annoying…
But more importantly, you don’t want your red dot to stop working if you even need to use it in an emergency situation…
And when you have ultra long battery life like this, as long as you swap out your battery once a year, you’ll really never have to worry about it.
Now in terms of brightness settings, with the MRO you get 5 daylight settings, 2 night vision settings, and 1 extra bright setting…
The daylight brightness settings get very bright, and you’ll probably never have to use the extra bright setting even on a sunny day…
Also, even though most people will never use the 2 night vision settings, some people with NV equipment will take advantage of them, and I like that Trijicon includes them at no additional cost.
Sig Romeo 5
The Sig Romeo 5 also uses 1 CR2032 battery which powers the sight for 50,000 hours (5 years)…
Again, I love ultra long battery life like this on red dot sights because you don’t want your optic’s battery dying on you at the wrong time…
In addition to that long battery life, Sig includes some they call the MOTAC (Motion Activated Illumination) system…
Basically, this means that your Romeo 5 will automatically turn off after 120 seconds of non use, and automatically turn on as soon as the sight senses any motion at all (like when you pick up your gun)…
This saves your battery life (which is already very long), and at the same time it keeps your sight ready to go as soon as you grab your gun.
I think it’s a really cool feature, and I’m glad that Sig includes it on this budget-minded red dot.
Now with the Romeo 5 you get 8 daylight brightness settings and 2 night vision settings. Again, the daylight brightness settings get very bright and you shouldn’t have any problems with your reticle washing out even on a sunny day…
And just as with the MRO, I like that Sig includes the NV brightness settings without charging you extra money to get them (like some other optics companies do).
Battery Life and Brightness Settings Conclusions…
So in this category both sights have great battery life, which is super important to me. In this day and age, I won’t even consider a red dot unless it has thousands of hours of battery life…
But in addition to that, they both have great brightness settings and included night vision settings.
The one thing that really sets them apart is the MOTAC system included on the Romeo 5. The sight automatically turns off and automatically turns on when it senses motion…
This saves you battery life and keeps your sight ready to go at the same time. So because of the MOTAC system, the Sig Romeo 5 gets the slight win in this category.
Winner: Sig Romeo 5
Size Comparison…
Trijicon MRO
Like I mentioned earlier, the MRO is Trijicon’s version of a micro red dot sight. It only weighs 4.1 ounces, which is pretty lightweight…
And that’s an important feature for me because I’m always trying to keep the weight down on my rifles…
In addition to that, the MRO has a 25mm objective lens. This is a great thing for your field of view, but it does make the sight a little less compact than many of its competitors…
And last, the MRO is 2.6 inches long and 2 inches high… So again, it’s a pretty compact red dot sight.
Sig Romeo 5
The Sig Romeo 5 is more of a traditional micro red dot sight than the Trijicon MRO. It weighs 5.1 ounces, which is a little heavier than the MRO but not by much…
The objective lens on the Romeo5 is only 20mm, which is more in line with other micro red dot sights, and it’s 1.52 inches high and 2.47 inches long…
All in all, I think the Romeo 5 is also a very compact sight.
Size Comparison Conclusions…
Both of these optics are micro red dot sights, but they do have a few differences in this category…
The Trijicon MRO is slightly more lightweight, which is impressive because it is slightly larger than the Romeo 5 in it’s dimensions…
That being said, The MRO is only around an ounce lighter, and the Romeo 5 is shorter in terms of length and height…
So overall, the Romeo 5 is a slightly more compact sight, and I’m going to give it the win in this category.
Winner: Sig Romeo 5
Extra Accessories Included With The Optic…
Trijicon MRO
The Trijicon MRO can be purchased with a low mount, a lower ⅓ co witness mount, an absolute cowitness mount, or with no mount…
The overall price of the sight will go up if you choose to get an included mount, which is a little bit of a disappointment for me…
But if you choose to get the MRO with one of the factory mounts (rather than with no mount), the good news is that they are high quality…
In addition to that, because the MRO is such a popular sight, there are a ton of aftermarket companies that make QD (Quick Detach) mounts, lightweight mounts, and any other type of mount you can think of.
So finding the right mount for you shouldn’t be much of a problem, but it will cost you extra money.
Sig Romeo 5
The Sig Romeo 5 comes with some pretty cool accessories. First of all, you get a bikini lens cover, which will give your sight a little bit of extra protection…
But you also get 2 mounts included in the box, a high mount and a low mount. The high mount is perfect for use on an AR-15, and sets you up for an absolute co witness with back up iron sights…
And the low mount makes the Romeo 5 a great option for an AK, a shotgun, or any other firearm that favors a low mounted optic…
All in all, I love that the Romeo 5 comes with a low AND a high mount because it means you won’t have to spend extra money and you can start using your sight as soon as you get it.
Extra Accessories Conclusions…
The Trijicon MRO doesn’t really come with any accessories, unless you pay more money to get an included factory mount…
On the other hand, the Romeo 5 comes with a lens cover that gives you optic a little bit of extra protection…
And with a low and high mount, which allows you to start using your optic without spending extra money (no matter what type of firearm you have).
So for me, the clear winner in this category is the Sig Romeo 5.
Winner: Sig Romeo 5
Price Comparison…
Unfortunately I won’t be able to give exact numbers in this category because the prices of these sights are changing all the time…
That being said, in general, you’ll find the Sig Romeo 5 for around 300 bucks less than the Trijicon MRO…
That’s a pretty significant chunk of change, so the clear winner in this category is the Sig Romeo5.
Winner: Sig Romeo 5
Trijicon MRO Vs Sig Romeo 5 – Final Thoughts…
So to sum it all up, in the Durability And Toughness category, I gave the win to the Trijicon MRO because it is slightly more durable than the Sig Romeo 5…
In the Lens Clarity And Reticle Category, I called it a draw because both sights have some positives and negatives, and they both have the same reticle…
In the Battery Life And Brightness category, the Romeo 5 took the lead because of the auto off/auto on (MOTAC) feature…
In the Size Comparison, I also gave the win to the Romeo 5 because it is slightly more compact sight…
In the Extra Accessories category, once again the Romeo 5 came out on top because it comes with a low mount, a high mount, and a bikini cover…
And last, in the Price Comparison, the Romeo 5 was, again, the winner being around 300 bucks less expensive than the MRO…
So which of these sights do I prefer? I prefer the Sig Romeo 5…
I prefer the Sig Romeo 5 because it comes with a low AND a high mount, so you can start using it without spending any extra money…
It also has great battery life and the MOTAC system, which will save your battery life while at the same time keeping your sight ready to go…
In addition to that, the Romeo 5 is a very durable optic, and it has a crystal clear lens… And last, it’s around 300 bucks less expensive than the MRO, but it still maintains a very high quality level.
Now if you want a little bit more durability and you don’t mind spending more money to get it, then feel free to go with the Trijicon MRO because it’s still a great sight…
Either way, I hope I was able to show you the major similarities and differences between these two awesome red dot sights!
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