So I got this Zowie FK1 gaming mouse today in the mail and I really want to just go over my thoughts on the mouse itself because I have used it all day. So, I have come up with a conclusion as to what this mouse is and what it isn’t. That’s not to say it’s bad. It is actually an amazing mouse because they really took a lot of inputs from the players, as well as the people that used the original FK, and revised it to a point that it is really hard to criticize the mouse itself without diving into some territories where it’s just subjective to the nature of individual players, such as mouse clicks or the lift-off distance or the scroll wheel. I am just going to go over everything, my thoughts and opinions, and how it feels for me.
So first things first, it is bigger. They mentioned that the size has been increased by 2mm in all directions, and the back is a little bit fatter. This is something that doesn’t sound that big on paper, but when you put your hand on the mouse, it is substantially bigger than the original FK mouse. However, it’s a really good shape and I am really glad they came out with a bigger body because it’s one of those things that people complained about in the original FK; that the size is a little bit small, causing a lot of people to be fingertip gripping it because they have big hands. I have relatively medium sized hands, but the Zowie FK1 fits like a glove for me now even though the original one is just as good. I feel like this one has been refined for medium sized hands, and for proper gripping, too.
The other thing I noticed when I first got the mouse was the material on the outside because it’s actually different now. It’s a little more grainy. It reminds me of the DeathAdder 2013, and in addition, they changed the material on that one. This is probably the closest comparison I can come to in terms of material. It’s like a rough plastic texture. It’s no longer a rubberized surface. I honestly don’t know what kind of surface it is, but it feels really good and I like it. It’s a good change on their end and it’s actually a lot easier to hold, too. I feel like the oil on my hand doesn’t make it hard for me to grab it.
They haven’t changed the other features, like the mouse switches. They remain the same as that of the original FK mouse because a lot of people prefer Omron switches, but I think Zowie made a good decision by sticking with the Huano switches because a lot of FPS gamers really like the heavy click, especially CSGO players; I know I want to one-tab the AK. I just like knowing that it’s a solid click anytime I click it. If you are playing FPS games, spam clicking gets a little fatiguing after a while with Huano switches, so that’s definitely a criticism that should be taken. I honestly think that the FK wasn’t tailored towards those kinds of gamers. It’s strictly for FPS and that’s why they are stuck with the Huano switches. But again, based on personal preference, I really like Huano switches even though a lot of people like Omron switches, so maybe they’ll come up with another version that has Omron. Who knows?
As for the scroll wheel, I noticed that this one is recessed slightly more than the original FK and I think that might just be due to the size increase, but it’s not too noticeable. They switched the scroll from a 16 scroll to a 24 so there’s 24 clicks per rotation. Well, it’s an okay scroll. It’s nothing to write home about. It’s still just a standard scroll, nothing amazing, but it’s definitely better than the original FK’s scroll wheel, so if that’s a concern for some people, I haven’t had any issues with it. It’s okay.
For it’s lift off distance, I noticed on this new sensor, which by the way, this sensor is amazing, (I’ll go with that in a second), is slightly higher with this new sensor. I don’t know if it’s because I am not using the same pad as I used to, but I noticed that on rough surfaces the lift-off distance is slightly lower. While on a smooth surface, it’s slightly higher than what I remember from the original FK. Though it’s not a deal breaker, I think it’s around 2mm, maybe lower than that even on smooth surfaces. But, I know on plastic it’s going to be slightly higher due to the surface. But, for most cloth pads, you should expect about a CD stack in terms of lift off distance tracking.
For me, the big thing about this Zowie FK1 was the sensor change and this was something that I actually brought up to Zowie a few months ago with the original FK. The original FKs 39 or 3090 80NS sensor was the max tracking speed, which was pretty low for ultra-low sense gamers, especially FPS gamers. That was something that was definitely a deal breaker for some people because it would not function after a certain swipe speed and I think that was around 3m/s. For this one, I have not had a single issue with swiping. I’ve tried as fast as I can and it still tracks perfectly.
There’s no malfunction whatsoever on my black pad. So, from my experience, the sensor has been great and it’s exactly what I wanted and I absolutely love it. It’s just one thing that really held me back with the original sensor, but now that they’ve put the 3310 in here, that’s no longer an issue. Ultimately, if you are originally an FK user and you had an issue with the max tracking speed, this is the mouse to get.