Recommended Posts

I have been using this mouse for about 2 weeks now so I thought it was time for a review now that I have gotten use to the sensitivity etc.
 
Features:
  • Ambidextrous mouse developed for claw grip usage
  • Two thumb buttons on both sides to comfortably serve left and right handed users
  • Plug and Play (no drivers needed)
  • Easy to switch between left and right hand functionality
  • 400 / 800 / 1600 / 3200 DPI adjustment
  • Adjustable USB report rate 125 / 500 / 1000 Hz
  • Perfect lift off distance = 1.5 ~ 1.8mm
Packaging:
 
Nothing as fancy as the likes of Roccat or Razer's packaging. Box is very minimal overall.
 
Along with the mouse, we also get a Zowie sticker and extra mouse feet.
 
Installation:
 
Plug and play! That is all.
 
Whilst in some ways this is a good thing, I kind of miss having software/control panel where I can tweak settings i.e. no way to customise what the thumb buttons do, can't fine tune the DPI etc.
 
Aesthetics and Feel:
 
Firstly as you can probably tell, this mouse is ambidextrous i.e. designed for right and left hand users.
 
As you can see, we have have a yellow scroll wheel and yellow Zowie logo, personally I don't like yellow especially with black :p I would have preferred white!
 
In terms of the shape, the mouse is very similar to the old Microsoft Intellimouse so a low arch and no fancy curves, you could say, it is a rather plain looking mouse. 
 
DC4IWQwh.jpg
 
Whilst the mouse doesn't feel as comfortable as ergonomic mice like the Deathadder, there is just something about this mouse that feels "natural" and spot on for "precise" control and grip. 
 
Z1YO8OHh.jpg
 
A comparison of the the Logitech G400, Zowie FK1 and Razer Deathadder (first gen)
 
R6YTXifh.jpg
 
mHe5Gb2h.jpg
 
I have medium sized hands and have a hybrid type of grip i.e. a bit of a palm and claw grip. I don't think this mouse would suit users with very large hands.
 
6VoeE5Uh.jpg
 
VBfzf2sh.jpg
 
On both sides, we have 2 thumb buttons, initially when looking at the mouse, I thought they looked a bit on the small side but having used them, they are perfect as they are. Initially the thumb buttons on the right were a bit annoying as I kept accidentally pressing them but having got used to the shape and adjusted my grip, it is no longer an issue.
 
k3jndFnh.jpg
 
The zowie FK1 right and left mouse buttons use blue huano switches so clicks require a bit more pressure than most other mice and as a result they are a bit louder, some people will hate this, others will love them and it will come down to the type of games you play. Blue huano switches are most suited for FPS so firing only 1 bullet at a time will be easier with this mouse than say a Deathadder i.e. it is a lot easier to fire just 1 bullet with the fastest ROF gun in BF 4 now, the FAMAS!
 
rtgBVdch.jpg
 
As for the thumb buttons, they have a bit of a mushy feel to them, they feel fairly similar to the thumb buttons on the Deathadder.
 
2cT6iz1h.jpg
 
The scroll wheel feels good, it is better than my G400 and Deathadder scroll wheels. It is quite stiff at first but after a bit of usage, it has loosened up. This is a 24 notch scroll wheel, previous Zowie mice had 16. The wheel has a grippy texture and lines/notches engraved in it. The middle click has a positive strong click feel.
 
lWJvMsuh.jpg
 
The FK1 is very light, it weighs in at 90g and feels great once you get used to it. For comparison, the Logitech G400 weighs 132g, the MX518 weighs 106g and the Deathadder 2013 version weighs 104g.
 
Currently I am using an OCUK XXL mouse mat and the Zowie FK1 glides along very smoothly, it feels very similar to the Deathadder mice and a heck of a lot better than the G400!
 
One area that is extremely important to me is the finish, the FK1 has a very similar finish to the Razer DeathAdder 2013 but smoother so pretty much the perfect finish out there as it doesn't build up grub like other plastic finishes especially glossy plastic. Some sweat and grease marks will show but the majority of them will evaporate of. Unfortunately, Zowie had to go and use glossy plastic for the thumb buttons so grub builds up on them, however, since they are relatively small, it isn't as much of an issue like it was with the first Deathadder and its thumb buttons.
 
Mouse Sensor:
 
Onto the most important part now and the main reason I bought this mouse! The Zowie FK1 is using the best optical sensor on the market, the 3310. As far as I know, this is only used in a handful of other mice at the minute and is the first Zowie mouse to use it.
 
With the Zowie FK1, we have 4 DPI presets that we can use, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200dpi. The DPI can be changed via the button on the bottom, each colour represents a DPI level.
 
CsNFpP6h.jpg
 
With my previous mice, I always used at least 1400dpi, however, for some reason with this mouse (probably because the tracking is far better and the FK1 being super light), 800 seems to be the new sweet spot. This is at 2560x1080 res. too
 
There is very little jitter with the FK1 (polling rate is 1000Hz)
 
V4yIajC.png
 
I have played a variety of games and have found the FK1 to be a nice improvement over my previous mice, it just feels like my aim is more accurate  and that I can go from target to target quicker and more precisely.
 
LOD (lift off distance) is VERY low at the default setting, which is for "cloth pads". You can change the LOD to a "plastic pad" setting by:
 
- holding the back button on the side and right mouse button while plugging the mouse in
 
To set the LOD back to "cloth pad" setting:
 
- holding the back button on the side and left mouse button while plugging the mouse in
 
There is also a higher LOD, you can change to this by:
 
- holding the back button on the side and the left and right buttons at the same time while plugging the mouse in
 
Build Quality:
 
Overall, the mouse is super light but feels extremely sturdy, there is no rattling noises, no creaking plastic, no lose bits. I have even dropped it (although it was dropped on to carpet) and it still seems fine. I reckon this mouse should last me quite a while...
 
Most would probably expect a mouse like this to have braided cable instead of plastic especially given the price and whilst braided looks and feels nicer, it isn't as durable as plastic i.e. with my old Deathadder, the braided cable is very frayed now and can get caught on cloth mouse pads easily and as a result possibly put your aim of.
 
Conclusion:
 
To put it simply, this is one of the best mice out there for FPS games, the superb sensor, feel, weight, shape, mouse buttons etc. are just perfect, at least for myself. It feels like I have more control with my aim and when burst firing guns in BF 4.
 
I'm sure that CS gamers would love this mouse too.
 
If you are a MMO/RPG gamer then you will probably want something with lighter mouse clicks, more buttons and software/control panel with the option of programming macros.
 
All in all, for ?50, there really isn't much to complain about.
 
Pros:
  • Best sensor out currently and certainly shows it in FPS gaming
  • Weight + shape & feel
  • Build quality
  • Plastic finish used for the majority of the mouse body
 
Cons:
  • No software so can't change what the thumb buttons do, have custom profiles for different games, fine tune dpi level amongst a bunch of other stuff
  • Glossy finish on the thumb buttons

 

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1226677-zowie-fk1-review/
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • The sweet release of death has never looked more appealing.
    • Meh, just another dongle-haven downgrade compared to my Surface Pro 7+. Whenever I decide to upgrade in the next decade or so, it certainly won't be another microslop Surface with this enshitification trend they've been having after the Surface Pro 7+. Hopefully a future generation of the Framework 12 will be a real upgrade...
    • This could exactly be how our Sun ends but it's not as simple by Sayan Sen Image by Drew Rae via Pexels An international team led by Université de Montréal (University of Montreal) PhD student Érika Le Bourdais has found that the ancient white dwarf star LSPM J0207+3331 is still pulling in planetary debris, even though it has been cooling for about three billion years. White dwarfs are dense, Earth-sized stellar remnants left behind when Sun-like stars exhaust their nuclear fuel and shed their outer layers. The star, located 145 light-years away in the constellation Triangulum, is the oldest and coldest white dwarf known to have a surrounding disk of dust. The star was first spotted in 2019 by a citizen scientist through the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project. Its cool temperature immediately suggested that it was very old, since white dwarfs gradually lose heat over time. Using the W. M. Keck telescopes in Hawaii, astronomers later confirmed that the star shows infrared signals consistent with dust rings formed by asteroids breaking apart under its strong gravity. Such infrared excesses occur when a star emits more infrared light than expected, often because warm dust surrounding it absorbs and re-radiates energy. “This discovery challenges our understanding of planetary system evolution,” said Le Bourdais. “The fact that we still see planetary debris being accreted three billion years after the star became a white dwarf suggests that asteroids, comets, and even planets can remain in orbit around these stars for a very long time.” Spectroscopic analysis—a technique that studies light to identify the chemical elements present in an object—revealed thirteen heavy elements in the star’s atmosphere: sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, titanium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, and strontium. Normally, heavy elements sink quickly in hydrogen-rich white dwarfs, making them hard to detect. “We expected to see only a few elements, but we found dozens!” explained Le Bourdais. The research paper adds more detail. The absence of carbon features suggests the debris came from a carbon-volatile-depleted source. The abundance pattern shows slight deficits of magnesium and silicon compared to iron but otherwise resembles Earth-like material. This points to a differentiated rocky body—one whose materials have separated into distinct layers such as a metallic core and rocky mantle—with a metallic core fraction higher than Earth’s. In other words, the star is accreting the remains of a large rocky object, similar in structure to Earth or the asteroid Vesta. “White dwarfs offer one of the only ways we can directly measure the composition of exoplanets,” said Patrick Dufour, co-author and professor at Université de Montréal. “When planetary debris come too close, they are torn apart by the star’s gravity and end up polluting its atmosphere, leaving a detailed chemical fingerprint of its composition.” The team also detected weak Ca II H & K line core emission, making this only the second known isolated polluted white dwarf to show this feature. These are specific spectral signatures produced by ionised calcium and can indicate unusual physical activity in a star’s upper atmosphere. The finding suggests that extra physical processes may be happening in or above the star’s upper atmosphere. The study stresses the importance of including heavy elements in model atmosphere calculations, since leaving them out can distort the inferred structure and lead to inaccurate stellar parameters. Earlier work suggested the star’s infrared excess came from two dust rings. The new analysis shows that a single silicate dust disk—a ring composed largely of rock-forming minerals rich in silicon and oxygen—can explain the observed signal at 11.6 μm, simplifying the picture of the system’s structure. The question of how debris ended up falling into the star so late remains open. One idea is that giant planets in the system slowly destabilised smaller bodies over billions of years. Another possibility is that a passing star disturbed the orbits of debris. “Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope or archival data found in the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission could help distinguish between a planetary rearrangement and the gravitational effect of a close stellar encounter,” said John Debes, co-author and researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Dufour noted that hydrogen-rich white dwarfs are the most common type, and the coolest among them are the oldest stars in the galaxy. “We didn't have the habit of looking for signs of accretion in them. This unique case motivates us to expand our search to more of these stars.” The findings show that even after billions of years, planetary systems can remain active and complex. Substantial accretion events—the gradual accumulation of surrounding material onto a celestial object—can still occur long after a star’s death, offering a rare window into the composition and fate of distant worlds. Source: University of Montreal, IOPScience This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • Doesn't DDG mainly use Bing?
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      B2Proxy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      jefred earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Apprentice
      JoeyNeo went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • Week One Done
      oliviaexpo earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      485
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      228
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      70
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      58
    5. 5
      neufuse
      56
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!