Anyone else has those moments when you see something online and think to yourself, "I don't need it, I just want it." This was me about two weeks ago when I happened across a new mouse by Pulsar, the Feinmann [First Edition] F01. This was a magnesium construction mouse with some flagship specs.
I didn't care much about 8K polling but always wanted to check it out for myself, having watched endless videos on it. My HyperSpeed supports 8K, but only if you buy Razer's dongle at additional cost, no thanks Razer, if it's not in the box I won't buy extra stuff that should be at this sort of price.
I had been looking up Pulsar's X-lite series of mice for several months but never got round to purchasing one as the Razer DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed was essentially perfect for my needs still, in fact it still is.
I also had other gaming mice, the Endgame XM2we is my longest serving mouse, along with the LIV Plus, a skeletonised mouse that performs well, but is impacted by long term comfort due to the sharp cutouts in the plastic frame.
I said it in other reviews, if the feel of a mouse isn't right then nothing else matters, not even 8K polling can save it. The HyperSpeed ticked all the boxes, comfort, a fantastic coating, performance even at 1000Hz as well as battery life. So why was I wanting to buy the F01 at its converted £171 (plus customs duty) price?
Honestly, I'd always wanted to try out a magnesium mouse, too, and I was getting a bit annoyed with the bloat in Razer's Synapse software; even the latest v4 was not much better. Why does it need to run background services even when the software is not running?
I also fancied an even lighter mouse; the HyperSpeed is 55g, heavier than the Turtle Beach Burst II Air I reviewed not too long ago, but still extremely light, so the F01's 46g was very appealing.
Now that Pulsar, a brand I was looking to switch to for a while, had a limited-edition mouse made of Magnesium, with an 8K dongle/stand included and software that looked more acceptable than Synapse, what did I have to lose other some currency?
This is the most expensive peripheral I have ever bought and will likely ever buy, in fact, this should be my final gaming mouse purchase for all intents and purposes, at least that is what I have been telling myself. Only time will tell, I suppose.
Pulsar Feinmann F01 [First Edition] | |
---|---|
Shape | Ergonomic right-handed |
Material | Magnesium Alloy |
Sensor | Pulsar XS-1 Flagship, 32,000 DPI, 750 IPS, 50g acceleration, 32-bit ARM CPU, 1K-8K polling |
Main switches | Kailh Optical (80 million clicks) |
Wheel encoder | Pulsar Blue |
Dimensions | 118.6mm / 65.3mm / 41.7mm |
Weight | 46g |
Software | Pulsar Fusion |
Connectivity | Wireless dongle/charging dock, no USB on mouse |
In the box | Superflex paracord cable, SuperGrip tape, dot skates (16ea UHMW-PE 6.6mm), build number card, F01 mouse, 8K dongle/stand |
Price | $215.94 |
Out of the box
Pulsar knows what they're selling you, and I bet a chunk of the asking price went into this packaging because it's an event. I've watched unboxing videos on YouTube where some luxury brands have a fancy box that "presents" the watch to you as you open the lid. The same sort of deal here; take a look at this:
Cool and utterly pointless, right? I still appreciate it, though, and then it went in my cupboard where it will gather dust forever.
Included is a neat little card showing the number, only 5000 F01 mice were made and numbered, labelled as 'First Edition', I have number 1152.
The contents are quite generous, whilst many gaming mice brands now ship grip tape in the box, Pulsar went a little beyond and included a full set of dot skates, which are my favourite type of mouse skates. These are just as slippery as the Ghost Dot Glide skates I have used on other mice.
The PTFE skates are pre-installed, and I kind of wish no skates were installed so I could install the ones of choice without ruining the installed ones during removal.
The cable is super-light and made wrapped in paracord, the dongle is a hefty 185g and has an anti-slip base. The F01 has no USB port, so cannot be charged or used as a wired mouse. I read comments slating this decision, but the charging dock is magnetic and easy to just place on it whenever I walk away from the desk, therefore it is always in a state of decent charge by the time I return.
With the dot skates installed the mouse weighs in just under 46g, Pulsar say give or take 1g, so this aligns nicely with their numbers on paper. This mouse is also only 1g lighter than the Burst II Air (47g), which I was amazed by, and the F01 feels orders of magnitude more premium.
The underside shows the exposed bottom of the mainboard, the left area houses the power switch, and on the right is the DPI toggle which can also be customised to do whatever you want using the software, which is then stored directly to the mouse.
The side buttons have very minor pre-travel, and post-travel is virtually non-existent. I would say this is probably the best side button implementation I have felt out of all the mice I have used over the years, and after opening the shell, up it was clear why:
They are screwed to Magnesium, so naturally, the rigidity of the alloy aids in helping the side buttons also feel solid.
A little gripe to add is that the side buttons are plastic and not Magnesium which is a bummer, with enough time these will wear and go shiner as all side buttons do. They do look like the same finish as the rest of the shell, though.
The rest of the mouse is equally impressive, the battery and wiring are covered by a thin piece of trim which keeps the interior looking neat through the cutouts, the Kailh optical switches and sealed wheel encoder are easy to get to, and everything just looks high-end.
The button presses are about as heavy as they are on the Razer mice, which also use Kail Optical switches. Some don't like how heavy these switches are, but I like it a lot. I play shooter games most often, so having a reassuring click is nice, although I don't find them heavy at all. If they were any lighter, then I would likely click the buttons by accident too often, as I like to rest my fingers on each button rather than hover when gaming.
The wheel is alloy too and feels great, Pulsar's Blue encoder translates the roll and the ridged surface feels grippy without the need for rubber or silicone as often found on other mice.
Features & performance
There are no fancy features with the F01, it doesn't even have a USB port as mentioned. It is just... mouse... But that is OK because what it does well is all it needs to do.
Once I became familiar with the Fusion software, I set the DPI to a fixed 1600 and the polling rate to 2000. I tested of the rates and honestly, I could not tell much difference between any of them. I refer to a video I referenced in the past, published by Optimum Tech. It highlights why you may not want to buy a new mouse just because it has a higher polling rate because after 2K, you enter diminishing returns:
I did observe that CPU usage was higher than desirable at 8K and 4K. At 1K and 2K, my i7 12700KF CPU package utilisation was showing up to 7-11%, which seems normal if I go mad moving the cursor all over the place, but 4K and 8K can reach 14-17% - In games that rely on higher 1% lows for optimum performance, every bit of CPU utilisation matters.
I loaded up the Razer polling rate tester tool and ran it on both 2K and 8K to see the stability. 1K was not necessary any mouse these days will produce flawless 1K polling, and 4K seems a bit of a grey area, why not just use 8K if you're going to use 4K?
2K:
8K:
As you can see, stability is excellent, even at 8K. The spike there is when I lifted the mouse by accident which skipped tracking for a moment, but otherwise the mouse was always registering close to 8000Hz at all times which is what I'd expect to see from a well calibrated/implemented sensor. To get the best out of 4K and beyond, you should also be connecting to a USB 3 port that is attached directly to the back of the motherboard, not via a hub or other extension that can add interference.
Click latency, well we can safely guess that it's going to be excellent anyway, given everything so far, but let's visualise it with a 240fps capture on a 240Hz monitor at 2000Hz polling:
For gaming, I am currently playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, so jumped back in for an evening in the zone:
No problems whatsoever. During long gaming sessions I did not find the cutouts to be uncomfortable at all, and whilst Pulsar say this is recommended for a palm grip, my style is a hybrid claw-palm combo.
The cutouts are also subtly rounded at the edges, so even if your palm does touch them, it's comfortable and not distracting.
After several hours of gaming and then using it for productivity and general browsing, I was able to get the battery down to the 60% range at 2000Hz polling. This is pretty good going and means I can go for a few days of gaming and constant use without a charge, and then just top up as an when since it's so easy to just plonk onto the stand.
Conclusion
There are other Magnesium mice out there that cost less. Do they feel the same as the F01, though? I don't know; most seem to have cutouts on the sides, which is a big no for me as this is the pressure grip area and no matter how the holes are designed, if it's not a solid surface. It feels uncomfortable after a long session because of the nature of what it is for my type of grip, and this is why I don't use the LIV Plus at all now.
The F01 just feels like it is a level above the norm, it might not look it from afar but get a little closer and the subtle hints come out, and then you touch it, and it makes sense. That being said, nothing about £200+ on a mouse can ever make sense when there are so many brands out there kicking out excellent mice that also don't weigh a huge amount.
I think you really must have a heart set on something like this to end up buying it over the cheaper competition. The design is certainly unique, I've seen lots of mice with cutouts and none of them look like this.
The way it feels in my hand is also unique, only the DeathAdder V3 HyperSpeed got close (so far), though the tail of that mouse hangs out a little more than this one which results in the bottom of my palm touching it if I ever feel like relaxing my grip style for some games.
I know people will still downvote this mouse because it has no USB port, the holes are too big, and so on. Some of these are valid, no doubt, as everyone has their use case, but there are other gaming mice that cost almost as much as this if not more. Some of them have more features, web-based software, USB ports, etc. But are they as unique as the F01?
Food for thought.
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