Performance
Setup & Installation
Hooking up the keyboard was as simple as connection the USB cable to my computer, while I know that much is obviously, there really wasn’t anything else to do. There is no software, there are no macros to configure, no profiles to muck around with, the keyboard is designed to do everything it can from first use, any settings that can be changed can be done from the keyboard its self.
The first thing I noticed when hooking up the keyboard is the LED lighting between the F9-F12 keys and the Zowie logo, while all the other little lights stay red, the Zowie logo its self can be changed to red or blue.
Performance
Diving right into testing a had a few games of Battlefield 4 (BETA), as well as my current personal playlist of trying to complete Portal 2, and some co-op on Torchlight II on an evening. Initial results were impressive, although to be honest I wasn’t expecting anything less. The MX Brown switches are by far my favourite these days and they give a really quick, yet tactile response that works great for gaming. I can’t say I can tell the difference with this keyboard having the fastest response ever, but it is sharp and responsive as you would expect from any high end mechanical keyboard.
The lack of dedicated macros keys is a little frustrating for me personally, but only because I use them extensively for my daily work routine in Photoshop, Wordpress, not to mention in games like Torchlight II.
Typing is a big part of my daily routine also and the MX Brown keys benefit this greatly, the key spacings are a little wider than most keyboard though and this may take you a day or two to adjust to, but it is certainly something I find benefits gaming as mis-striking keys becomes less common.
Looks like a decent offering although I haven’t checked one out yet. Although I’m a big user of mech keyboards and I do like mech keys, I tend to find them noisy & overrated & their smaller key size make for more typo’s. I must say this is my opinion only. I have no problems using good (cheaper & more featured) membrane keyboard for gaming & typing at all.