The Package

The Zowie EC2 comes in a thick cardboard box. You can actually try the feel of the mouse without opening the box.


The bundle is anything but extraordinary. You get the mouse and a sticker! This is of course made up for by the fact that this mouse does not need any drivers in order to perform its best.

Closer Examination

The Zowie EC2 looks just like the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 (IME 3.0) if you look beyond the difference in color. The fact that its shape is almost identical to that of the renowned IME 3.0 is really great. The IME is known as one of the most ergonomic mice ever created so anything that bears a striking resemblance will most likely perform similarly in terms of handling.


From the side you can clearly see that this mouse is created for people who use a palm type grip. Size wise the mouse is same as an IME 3.0 which means it is a little wider than Logitech MX-type mice. The white EC2's surface looks great but in terms of performance the lack of grip on the sides is a slight draw back. The smooth top cover is alright, but the sides should be grippier.


This mouse has two side buttons which are placed alright for a medium sized hand. For people with larger than average hands they will be a bit too far to the back.


The mouse feet dominate the back side of this mouse. They are huge which means that the mouse can be used on all types of surfaces without bottoming out. You can only hope that Zowie will offer replacement feet on their website so that a ruined set of feet will not render the mouse unusable. Fitting generic ones to the bottom of the EC2 will surely impair the gliding performance of the mouse.


Cable wise the Zowie mice are well off. They feature a PU coated cable that is really soft and slides nicely on all types of surfaces. The strain relief on the mouse looks sufficient without sticking out too much. Compared to the cable featured on Microsoft and Logitech mice it is quite a bit softer.


The scroll wheel is not of the highest quality which is shame. It lacks a little tactile feedback and occasionally you get tactile feedback without it registering the “click” See "Update"!. It has come to our attention that the registration issue is only on number with serial numbers with this number sequence in it x10001000. Those mice with serial numbers in x10002000 range should be unaffected, once we manage to secure a sample of the x10002000 stock we will make an update to this review.

Update

We recently got a mouse from the x10002000 serial number range and the mouse does not suffer from the scroll wheel issues that plagued the first sample we accquried.


The sensor used is a 2000 DPI infrared optical sensor which is similar to the one featured on the Abyssus gaming mouse from Razer.