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[Sponsored] Zowie FK1 Competitive Gaming Mouse review - by Ino

442K views 2K replies 334 participants last post by  cdcd 
#1 ·
REVIEW OF ZOWIE FK1

I will be reviewing the new iteration of Zowies FK line of mice.

http://imgur.com/m4RTNV3

Boxing

The box is like all Zowie boxes so far, which are very nice. You can easily open them and slide out the mouse and also store them back quickly (if you are a tidy collector like me).

What's included:
- Zowie FK1
- Pair of extra mousefeet
- Sticker

Box:

http://imgur.com/VMlsUUG

http://imgur.com/52bywVm

http://imgur.com/WIpmaQu

Weight & Shape

The shape is very similar to the previous FK, only slightly larger in certain areas.
Here is a comparison with the older FK (source Zowie)





The size is now more similar to the Steelseries Sensei, with the FK1 being even slightly longer.

Weight: 90 g
Height: 37 mm
Width: 67 mm
Estimated width at grip position: 62 mm
Length: 128 mm
Number of buttons: 5 (plus dpi toggle on the bottom)

Here are some comparisons again with the older FK

http://imgur.com/yjGXlRi

http://imgur.com/fu0Nwo3

http://imgur.com/zPowXSr

Comparison pic, left to right: Logitech G100s, Zowie AM-FG, Zowie FK1, Zowie FK, Zowie EC1 eVo CL
RUPJsJo.jpg

Now some pictures how I hold the mouse (I'd describe it as a hybrid of claw-palm)

http://imgur.com/7ctNVGK

http://imgur.com/VB1D9fg

For comparison: My hand is around 19.5 cm from the tip of my middle finger to the base.

To me this is almost the perfect shape for an ambidextrous mouse. The wider base makes my contact point with the lower palm more relaxed, the middle area is exactly that much wider that my pinky can grip it in a relaxed manner, but still firmly. It also is (iirc) the lightest 3310 mouse so far, so that's a bonus too. If the mouse had some more height to it it would even be great for a full palm grip for up to medium sized hands. I can palm it as it is right now, it's just a bit uncomfortable for my pinky. This might also be because I'm just not used to a full palm grip.

Of course shape is completely individual preference, so everyone has to try for himself in the end. The perfect shape for me might be horrible for others. So please keep the pictures of my grip in mind for comparison.

Sensor / Performance

Previously Zowie used the A3090 sensor with mixed results, mainly because their Kingsis lens that lowered the LOD also reduced the perfect control speed. Also the polling rate was kind of unstable and somehow the tracking was better at 500 Hz compared to 1000 Hz on the lower steps. This never resulted in serious malfunctions for me (only in certain games with very fast movements, like rocket jumping in TF2), it's just something that I was curious about with the implementation of the 3310 by Zowie. So has this been fixed? More about that later.
First to the 3310 in general: it's the same sensor that is used in many new optical mice, like the Steelseries Rival, Mionix Avior or the Kone Pure Military. The sensor features native steps every 50 cpi and LOD customisation out of the box.
However Zowie sticks to their mantra of "no software", so the FK1 can only be set to 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 cpi (with the button on the bottom of the mouse). This is no malus for me, but people looking for a lot of customisation have to look elsewhere. The customisable LOD of the 3310 also allowed Zowie to drop the Kingsis lens and go for the standard lens while keeping a low LOD.
So how does it perform?

Brilliantly!

The perfect control speed is well past 5 m/s for every cpi step and both 500 and 1000 Hz. The sensor implementation also looks cleaner than it did with the A3090 in the older FK.
I will not judge any "feeling" of the cursor here as there is a lot of myth around it that most people won't ever bother to care for. Those who do will have to try the mouse for themselves anyway. All I can say is that it feels very raw to me. See the jitter screens below.
ALL TESTS ARE PERFORMED ON THE STEELSERIES Qck+.
LOD was standard.
The real dpi for each setting can be seen in the mouse tester print. To my surprise (considering Zowies track record of being off from the set CPI steps with the A3090 implementation) they were all very accurate. 400 CPI really is 400 CPI on my unit.

400 cpi, 1000 Hz
http://imgur.com/8DW46NU

800 cpi, 1000 Hz
http://imgur.com/IcCypkc

1600 cpi, 1000 Hz
http://imgur.com/jgswrSf

3200 cpi, 1000 Hz
http://imgur.com/GbBA6Jt

400 cpi, 500 Hz
http://imgur.com/RcaGlkM

800 cpi, 500 Hz
http://imgur.com/hWwPxvc

1600 cpi, 500 Hz
http://imgur.com/ckRl0en

3200 cpi, 500 Hz
http://imgur.com/DvYR9Wu

CPI steps
7to0hEa.png

A thing to note about polling rate: It is stable now, on both 500 and 1000 Hz.

There seems to be only very little jitter, which is a very good sign imo, because mice with no jitter at all use to have some kind of path correction. This is probably also what causes the mouse to feel more raw than a Roccat Savu for example.

Acceleration Test

There seems to be only very little accel, even less than on the Steelseries Rival or Mionix NAOS 7000. Good job there Zowie.

Lift Off Distance

Like it was expected, the LOD is very low. I love it, and everyone who liked the previous Zowies will feel right at home too. It is a bit higher than with my older IR-LED FK'14, but still very low. It still tracks at one CD but not at two. The old FK didn't even track at one CD height.

There is a novelty with the FK1 too. As many on this forum already know the 3310 allows for LOD to be customised. But normally you would need Software to adjust it to your liking. As Zowies philosophy is to not have software but change everything on the mouse directly this seems to be impossible on Zowies. But apparently it's not.

There are methods to adjust LOD on the FK1 similar to how you change the polling rate on it.

The standard LOD out of the box is adjusted for cloth pads to be around 1.5 - 1.8 mm. However this would mean a higher LOD on a plastic pad (2.2 - 2.4 mm). To enable "plastic mouse pad mode" you have to hold Button 4 and Button 2 (back button on the side and right mouse button) while plugging the FK1 in. This causes the LOD to be around 1.5 - 1.8 mm on a plastic mouse pad (and around 1 mm on a cloth mouse pad)

To switch back to "cloth mouse pad mode" you have to plug it in while holding Button 4 and Button 1 (back button on the side and left mouse button).

Now there is also the so called "original mode". This sets the LOD to be on a standard level and therefore should optimize the mouse compatibility for players with special material mousepads. It will have higher LOD than all other settings. So this is useful for those players who prefer a higher LOD (looking at you Dontspamme). You get the "original mode" by holding Button 4, 1 and 2 at the same time while plugging the FK1 in.

After setting the LOD once you don't have to set it again every time you plug in the mouse, similar to the polling rate. I think it's very nice that Zowie implemented a way to adjust LOD with the FK1 without software. You might not be able to finetune, but I think "low" and "high" LOD should be fine for most players anyway.

My experience with the modes:

Cloth mode on Qck+: 1 CD
Plastic mode on Qck+: did not track at 1 CD hight
Original mode: 2 CD

Only with original mode would the FK track on white paper.

Buttons / Switches / Scroll Wheel

The FK1 uses Huano switches like all Zowies, which makes the clicks a bit harder to press. In the FK1 the main buttons are blue Huanos while all other buttons are red Huanos. Someone on this forum pointed out that the blue Huanos are supposed to be the highest quality ones. I didn't find any official info on that though. The scroll wheel is now also a 24 notch scroll wheel (first FK and older Zowies had 16). The haptic of the scroll wheel is fine and light. The FK1 is now actually suitable for desktop use, scrolling was quite annoying with the older scroll wheel.

o7yz0B3.jpg
Picture of PCB (Source pcwaishe.cn)

Build Quality

All in all very good. The cord is rubber like all Zowies, the best cables in my opinion. It is flexible and this time it also is a bit thinner than the older cables. The coating is similar to the previous FK and EC eVo CL, but it feels a bit more grainy. Probably because of the coating issues with the previous FK and CL series.
The only minor annoyance is that the lens rattles a bit. I did not notice this while playtesting however, only when lifting the mouse and shaking it.

Conclusion

This is definitely my new mouse. I was already satisfied with my older FK, it only failed me at very fast movement speeds in some games. Now that this is done for and the shape is also a bit bigger it's just what I always wanted. Even the fluctuating polling rate was fixed. Zowie did a lot of things right with the FK1.
 
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#9 ·
Nice review!
Do you use the plastic pad mode on your qck? Does it track as good as the cloth mode?
And could you tell me why the old fks scrollwheel wasnt good for desktop usage. Just because of the 16 steps instead of 24?

Yea and what hiccup asked would be interesting too.^^
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiccup View Post

do you notice the rattling of the lens while moving your mouse on the mousepad and not having game sound on?
Quote:
Originally Posted by turnschuh View Post

Nice review!
Do you use the plastic pad mode on your qck? Does it track as good as the cloth mode?
And could you tell me why the old fks scrollwheel wasnt good for desktop usage. Just because of the 16 steps instead of 24?

Yea and what hiccup asked would be interesting too.^^
I don't hear the rattleing while moving on the Qck at all. Only when in mid-air.

I tried the plastic pad mode on the Qck+ and it worked just fine, seems to be close to how the LOD was on the FK'14.
And yeah, the old FK scroll wheel with 16 notches made scrolling webpages tiresome. It wasn't that bad, but I never felt the need for a precise wheel as I don't use the wheel in game anyway.
 
#12 ·
Cheers for the post man. This is pretty much what I hoped the FK would be when I bought it, as I'm a long time user of the Xai and then the WMO 1.1 and performed very well with those mice compared to other mice I've used since. At least by own standards aimwise. Shame I'm a bit skint atm and can't buy one of these!
 
#17 ·
Great review as always. I have the same grip as you but smaller hands so I'm also in the group waiting for an FK2 unfortunately. I've wanted an FK for a while but I can't use the weird DPI steps on the 3090 versions.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ino. View Post

I don't hear the rattleing while moving on the Qck at all. Only when in mid-air.

I tried the plastic pad mode on the Qck+ and it worked just fine, seems to be close to how the LOD was on the FK'14.
And yeah, the old FK scroll wheel with 16 notches made scrolling webpages tiresome. It wasn't that bad, but I never felt the need for a precise wheel as I don't use the wheel in game anyway.
sounds nice then. thank you.
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atavax View Post

typically despite all zowies using huanos, some feel stiffer then others because of the mouse shape and leverage effecting how stiff they feel. Do these feel identical to the fk?
A bit harded than my FK'14, but maybe because it's brand new.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiTechPixel View Post

Wowzers. Outstanding mouse. Will you be keeping it on 500Hz or 1000Hz? Also, you never did mention how to change the polling rate.
I'll keep it on 400 cpi, 1000 Hz for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HiTechPixel View Post

Also what is the standard LOD? The lowest one possible? Or will I have to change it to get to the lowest one possible?
Standard LOD is cloth pad mode, meaning it is around 1.5 - 1.8 mm on black cloth. The lowest LOD is the plastic pad mode which seems to be around 1 mm on black cloth. Original mode has the highest LOD, don't know exact values of course but it is higher than two CDs (>2.4 mm) and lower than 3.
 
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