Build Quality

Overall build quality is solid. There is no rattle when shaking the mouse. When applying lateral pressure, no creaking of the shell can be observed, but some flexing below the side buttons is present. Accordingly, when squeezing the sides with moderate force, the side buttons can be activated rather easily. Lastly, when set to 2 ms debounce delay and dropped from significant height, slam clicks do occasionally occur.

Buttons

Main buttons on the NP-01 are excellent. Both pre and post-travel are very low, resulting in a firm and snappy click response, although the click feel is a bit dull. Even though the buttons are separated from the shell, there is only very minor button wiggle. There is a significant gap between the button pieces and main mouse body, however, which is at least visually irritating. Button stiffness is light. Huano switches (pink plunger, 10 M) with an actuation force of 60 g are used for these.


Side buttons are excellent. Both pre and post-travel are low, resulting in a snappy click response. The pressure point is even across the entire buttons as well. Button size and placement is good as actuation is possible rather easily by rolling one's thumb over these. Another pair of Huano switches (3M) is used here.

At the bottom of the mouse are several buttons for adjusting CPI, polling rate, and debounce delay. Their click feel is perfectly fine.

Scroll Wheel

The scroll wheel is poor. Compared to Zowie wheels, the use of a 24-step wheel instead of a 16-step one is no doubt a step-up, but the wheel still leaves a lot to be desired. The only thing this wheel has going for it is its tactility—it's nigh impossible to scroll by accident. On the other hand, noise levels are awfully high, scrolling is supremely stiff, and the overall look and feel simply isn't up to par. An optical encoder is used. The middle (scroll wheel) click requires high force for actuation. A seemingly unbranded mechanical switch is used for this one.

Coating

The NP-01 has a smooth matte coating all over. It doesn't attract fingerprints, dirt, or the likes too much. It's easy to clean, and there are no signs of wear left after doing so. Interestingly, the button pieces have a slightly rougher coating, whereas the rest of the mouse is fairly smooth. All in all, an excellent coating.

Button Sound Test

Disassembly

Disassembling the NP-01 is rather difficult. First, remove the bottom skate. Inevitably, you'll be bound to notice which screw head is used on the screws underneath. They're of the tri-angle type, which I'm in a perpetual state of war with. If I had any say in this, I would globally outlaw tri-angle screw heads. I actually don't have a tri-angle screwdriver and had to improvise with a Torx T5. Anyway, once you've wrangled these beauties out of there, top and bottom shell will be easy to separate. There's another obstacle, however. Both the main and side buttons sit on their own PCBs, resulting in a total of three PCBs which are connected to the main PCB with thin ribbon cables. Usually, these ribbon cables are clipped into the connectors, but in this case, I see no way to properly unclip them. As a result, my disassembly had to stop right then and there.


The design is quite sophisticated in general. The scroll wheel is encased and has a spring vertically mounted atop the wheel click switch in order to improve reset consistency and prevent vertical wheel movement if the mouse is flipped. The individual button switches sitting encased right below the buttons improves button consistency as well. The main PCB is moderately thick and affixed to the bottom with four screws in total. The MCU is a Cypress CY7C64356-48LTXC. For further details as well as the datasheet please refer to this. Production date for the main PCB is August 3, 2020, and this is the revision "F."

As for the soldering and general quality of the PCB, I'm unable to find any noteworthy flaws.