I’ll be honest, I didn’t know that there was a need for people who are mainly left-handed to have a mouse that caters to their preferred “handedness”. Left-handed mouse models are almost unheard of, but I discovered that there are a few left-handed editions of certain mouse models, but I have never seen them, and I know a few left-handed people who never complained about it, nor mentioned the desire for one. Now comes the dawning of a new age, where mice will be ambidextrous it seems, thanks to the BenQ ZOWIE FK-series mouse range. We were given the FK1+, which is the larger one of the three different mice.

What does it do?

What features does it offer? Well, besides the obvious (being that it’s an ambidextrous mouse), it’s been designed for use in e-sports, meaning it attempts to cater for comfortability in the various preferred grips that gamers have. I’m a palm grip gamer, and found that my hand felt quite comfortable resting on the sleek design of the mouse. It has two thumb buttons on both sides of the mouse so that both left- and right-handed users can comfortably make use of them, and it is easy to switch between the left- and right-hand functionality by holding certain of the thumb buttons together whilst plugging the mouse into a USB port.

There are no pesky drivers needed to use this mouse (plug and play ftw!), so that reduces frustration. There are 4 DPI settings to choose from, indicated by the light underneath the mouse too, namely 400 dpi (red), 800 dpi (purple), 1600 dpi (blue) and 3200 dpi (green). And finally, you can change the USB response rates from 125Hz, 500Hz, and 1000Hz. And that’s pretty much it.

Extra Tips?

The manual is quite helpful with this, however, the manual does not instruct you on how to change the lift-off distance on the mouse. By default the lift-off distance is pretty low, so I don’t know why you would want to change it to be higher, but you can do it, by doing similar actions as mentioned before when changing the hand-setting. I will tell you here in case you decide on getting the mouse. Holding Mouse 1 + Mouse 4 while plugging in the mouse, will make the lift-off distance slightly higher, and then Mouse 1 + Mouse 2 + Mouse 4 for an even higher lift off distance. For FPS this kinda is a horrible idea, so if you do mess around and do this, to reset it to the lowest setting, hold in only Mouse 2 + Mouse 4 while plugging in the mouse.

[review]

Conclusion

I reiterate my initial uncertainty about the usefulness of an ambidextrous mouse. The concept sounds great, but I found it unnecessary for myself. I could feel the extra “stability” while playing FPS Games, seeing as the lift-off distance was really small, and this is where the mouse really shines, so that was definitely a plus. The look is slender and simple, and if you like that, there’s another point for you, although I wasn’t impressed with it’s overall look. I can see how it would be useful in e-sports, the stability and dexterity it provides is pretty good, but I wasn’t blown away, and I would feel slightly sceptical about the price, but then again, most of the price goes into the brand name. You can get the BenQ ZOWIE FK1+, FK1, and FK2 on loot.co.za for R1,299 each!