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Review of updated Zowie BenQ Lineup
As many of you already know Zowie recently joined up with BenQ and now releases updated versions of their whole current lineup. In received the new models from rexflo.net and in this review I'm going to take a look at the updates to the mice, namely the ZA11, FK1 and EC1-A.
Major changes include usage of Omron switches for the main buttons and new scroll wheels with 16 notches per revolution as opposed to the previous 24 notches. Is that just a step back to the old wheel design where 16 notches were the standard for Zowie wheels? Lets find out.
On a sidenote I also received the new G-SR in all black with stitched edges and the new G-TF X, but those will be in a separate review, probably after christmas. New G-SR is the bomb though.
Boxing
The new boxing is now all black, contrary to the completely white boxes before. There is also a rough outline of the shape on the box now.
Weight & Shape
Shape is exactly the same, weight seems to be too.
Below are some pictures of the updated models and their respective weights.
Sensor / Performance
All I'm going to say here is that the performance is exactly the same as with the latest previous iteration of Zowie mice with 3310 sensors. So in my opinion it is excellent. PCS well over 5 m/s gives me just what I need for my low sens style. So no in detail MouseTester screens and so on here. If you're looking for them I'd kindly refer you to my ZA11 review.
Buttons/Switches and Scroll Wheel
Now comes the interesting part. Because the Huanos were a long time gripe for many people with the Zowies, supposedly they were "much harder" to spam than Omrons, gave people pain and what not else. For me some Zowie models were indeed harder to spam consistently, mainly the FK series, but others like the EC were always nice and easy to click fast repeatedly. So what is the influence of the switch from Huanos to Omron D2FC-F-7N (20m)? Little to me. At least in terms of click resistance or feeling. However they sound different, the Huanos have a slightly deeper sound while the Omron sound lighter. I think that is in line with people who already soldered Omrons into their Zowies before. Most of the click resistance comes from the shell design, so don't expect much lighter clicks. Here are some pictures of the Omrons in the new EC1-A
as you can see, the wheel click and the sidebuttons are still Huanos, they weren't changed in design, so the forward sidebutton on the EC1-A still has quite a bit of pre-travel.
Did the switch to Omrons influence the click delay in a positive way? Surprisingly it's the opposite, although the new buttons are only marginally slower than the Huanos in the latest ZA11.
As you can see they still can't compete with the implementation of Logitech mice. It's a bit sad, yet for me their latency is in the "okay" range. Will be interesting what @uaokkkkkkkk or @qsxcv will measure with their testing rigs, if they even care for these mice.
Now the wheel seems to be changed in some aspects at least. Of course they reverted back to 16 notches from 24, but at least for the EC1-A wheel something else changed. Yet it looks just the same as the one in my EC1 eVo CL. Below are pictures of the new wheel and a picture of the upper shell that holds the wheel down.
I haven't figured out why yet, but somehow the mouse wheel sits more firmly in the shell than it did in my CL. There was a bug with missed scrolls that could easily be reproduced on the old version by pinching the wheel upwards while scrolling. If you did that the scrolls would not register at all. I can't do that with the new BenQ EC1-A, so at least on my unit there are no missed scrolls due to the design. I tested that quite extensively.
The wheels on the FK1 and ZA11 were good too on my units, rather firm and with no squeaking or rattling. If that is always the case or if mine were just good examples of course still needs to be seen. Considering that I was lucky with most of my Zowies apparently, because I never had a bugged wheel, I'll reserve final judgement, but 3/3 with good wheels is at least a perfect start.
Build Quality and coating
As to build quality I'd say very good once again, they feel sturdy without rattling, edges from the mold or some other flaws. The design flaws in regards to shell deformation are of course still in, but as long as you don't push hard on the joint section of the button piece the buttons are firmly in place. So in my eyes all my units are great and if you had Zowies before you know what to expect.
Customization Software
None as always. Hate it, love it, don't care. Those seem to be the choices.
Is an update worth it? Conclusion
Well is it? If you already own the latest generation of Zowie mice with reduced button latency then in my eyes it is not. Unless you really really want a black wheel and a red logo, but otherwise I see no benefit over previous models. There are no downsides to the new models either, other than the change of notches on the wheel which is more of a preference. It never bothered me for gaming, but for browsing the 16 notch wheel is a bit annoying imo.
So I'd say: if the sheer thought of Huanos was holding you back from trying a Zowie, although the shapes were tempting, you can now go ahead and try them. If you already have a Zowie and are happy with it then there is no need for you to replace it immediately.
As many of you already know Zowie recently joined up with BenQ and now releases updated versions of their whole current lineup. In received the new models from rexflo.net and in this review I'm going to take a look at the updates to the mice, namely the ZA11, FK1 and EC1-A.
Major changes include usage of Omron switches for the main buttons and new scroll wheels with 16 notches per revolution as opposed to the previous 24 notches. Is that just a step back to the old wheel design where 16 notches were the standard for Zowie wheels? Lets find out.
On a sidenote I also received the new G-SR in all black with stitched edges and the new G-TF X, but those will be in a separate review, probably after christmas. New G-SR is the bomb though.
Boxing
The new boxing is now all black, contrary to the completely white boxes before. There is also a rough outline of the shape on the box now.
Weight & Shape
Shape is exactly the same, weight seems to be too.
Below are some pictures of the updated models and their respective weights.
Sensor / Performance
All I'm going to say here is that the performance is exactly the same as with the latest previous iteration of Zowie mice with 3310 sensors. So in my opinion it is excellent. PCS well over 5 m/s gives me just what I need for my low sens style. So no in detail MouseTester screens and so on here. If you're looking for them I'd kindly refer you to my ZA11 review.
Buttons/Switches and Scroll Wheel
Now comes the interesting part. Because the Huanos were a long time gripe for many people with the Zowies, supposedly they were "much harder" to spam than Omrons, gave people pain and what not else. For me some Zowie models were indeed harder to spam consistently, mainly the FK series, but others like the EC were always nice and easy to click fast repeatedly. So what is the influence of the switch from Huanos to Omron D2FC-F-7N (20m)? Little to me. At least in terms of click resistance or feeling. However they sound different, the Huanos have a slightly deeper sound while the Omron sound lighter. I think that is in line with people who already soldered Omrons into their Zowies before. Most of the click resistance comes from the shell design, so don't expect much lighter clicks. Here are some pictures of the Omrons in the new EC1-A
as you can see, the wheel click and the sidebuttons are still Huanos, they weren't changed in design, so the forward sidebutton on the EC1-A still has quite a bit of pre-travel.
Did the switch to Omrons influence the click delay in a positive way? Surprisingly it's the opposite, although the new buttons are only marginally slower than the Huanos in the latest ZA11.
As you can see they still can't compete with the implementation of Logitech mice. It's a bit sad, yet for me their latency is in the "okay" range. Will be interesting what @uaokkkkkkkk or @qsxcv will measure with their testing rigs, if they even care for these mice.
Now the wheel seems to be changed in some aspects at least. Of course they reverted back to 16 notches from 24, but at least for the EC1-A wheel something else changed. Yet it looks just the same as the one in my EC1 eVo CL. Below are pictures of the new wheel and a picture of the upper shell that holds the wheel down.
I haven't figured out why yet, but somehow the mouse wheel sits more firmly in the shell than it did in my CL. There was a bug with missed scrolls that could easily be reproduced on the old version by pinching the wheel upwards while scrolling. If you did that the scrolls would not register at all. I can't do that with the new BenQ EC1-A, so at least on my unit there are no missed scrolls due to the design. I tested that quite extensively.
The wheels on the FK1 and ZA11 were good too on my units, rather firm and with no squeaking or rattling. If that is always the case or if mine were just good examples of course still needs to be seen. Considering that I was lucky with most of my Zowies apparently, because I never had a bugged wheel, I'll reserve final judgement, but 3/3 with good wheels is at least a perfect start.
Build Quality and coating
As to build quality I'd say very good once again, they feel sturdy without rattling, edges from the mold or some other flaws. The design flaws in regards to shell deformation are of course still in, but as long as you don't push hard on the joint section of the button piece the buttons are firmly in place. So in my eyes all my units are great and if you had Zowies before you know what to expect.
Customization Software
None as always. Hate it, love it, don't care. Those seem to be the choices.
Is an update worth it? Conclusion
Well is it? If you already own the latest generation of Zowie mice with reduced button latency then in my eyes it is not. Unless you really really want a black wheel and a red logo, but otherwise I see no benefit over previous models. There are no downsides to the new models either, other than the change of notches on the wheel which is more of a preference. It never bothered me for gaming, but for browsing the 16 notch wheel is a bit annoying imo.
So I'd say: if the sheer thought of Huanos was holding you back from trying a Zowie, although the shapes were tempting, you can now go ahead and try them. If you already have a Zowie and are happy with it then there is no need for you to replace it immediately.
