Zowie EC2 eVo Gaming Mouse

With the EC2, Zowie enters the second round in the race to win gamers’ favor. The mouse is ergonomically designed for right-handed gamers and has received a few technical upgrades from its Danish producers. According to Zowie, the EC2 deliberately eschews software modification options. This test will determine whether these changes make the mouse a viable option for gamers, despite its lack of programmability.  

Design and Controls

The mouse comes in several different models, but these only differ from one another in how they look. The distinctive minimalism in the mouse’s design is reflected in its plain, though not unattractive, design. In general, the mouse fits well in the hand, and its comfortable weight makes it easy to use. There’s no way to adjust the mouse’s weight, however, which is a big minus for lots of people, especially FPS players and other veteran gamers. Modification and personalization have become the industry norm for computer mice in recent years, but Zowie has decided to forego these options. At $59.99 (MSRP), this is somewhat hard to understand, since there are several models from other companies on the market that offer weight options at a considerably lower price.

Another feature important to gamers is an adjustable DPI (dots per inch) rate. The Zowie EC2 eVo does allow you adjust DPI on the fly, but for some unknown reason, they’ve made it really complicated. If you want to switch between high or low DPI while playing, you won’t find a button for this on the surface of the mouse. You can only adjust DPI by pressing a button on the bottom of the mouse. There are three available DPI rates – 450, 1150, and 2300 – offering the right setting for just about any gamer, but in terms of user-friendliness, there’s a lot to be desired here. The DPI rate you have currently selected is indicated by the color of the mouse wheel. Whether pink (for 1150 DPI) is the right color for the target group in question remains to be seen. Anyone who’s ever had to jump out of a tank in the middle of a heated skirmish in Battlefield 4 in order to get in a good shot with the sniper rifle will know just how annoying it is that you have to turn the mouse over to adjust the DPI rate. In the heat of combat, you just don’t usually have the time to carefully lift up the mouse, turn it over, press the button once or twice, set the mouse down, and *then* take aim at your enemy.

The mouse buttons – four in all – are well-placed and easy to use. The two-way mouse wheel is clearly notched and has just the right amount of resistance for changing weapons or performing similar functions.

Technical Details 

The biggest improvement the EC2 offers is definitely in its sensors. Zowie has equipped this mouse with the ADNS 3090, one of the best sensors currently available on the market. The mouse’s tracking functions are extremely well calibrated, and during my test the cursor always went where I wanted it to go. And thanks to the latest sensor technology, the mouse works on just about any surface, and only when I tried to use it on glass or transparent plastic did it start to have any trouble with accuracy. The mouse also boasts a very low lift-off distance of 1.5 mm, meaning little to no cursor movement when repositioning your mouse. At least in this category, this gives the EC2 a strong lead over other popular gaming mice.