It’s nearly impossible to find a gaming peripheral these days that doesn’t come adorned with sparkling LEDs, strobing lights flying across its plastic cover. Turning on my PC for work turns my office into Blackpool bloody illuminations through no fault of my own.

With the Zowie EC-CW series, BenQ provides a refreshing alternative to the LED-laden peripheral scene. The three mice, labelled EC1-CW, EC2-CW, and EC3-CW respectively, are plain black, with a lone red squiggle denoting the Zowie logo. I was immediately impressed with the presentation, the recyclable packaging, and the premium feel of opening the mice up. Once connected to my computer, things went from good to great.

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The three EC-CW mice are nearly identical in function and appearance, the only difference between them being their size and weight. I’ve got quite large hands, so I tried the EC3-CW first as it’s the biggest. It felt good, but I wasn’t sure. Was I just used to smaller mice, or was this really too big? Moving to the EC2-CW made my mind up: the middle mouse was perfect. I felt like Goldilocks and the three gaming peripherals.

Not over-engineered, not laden with faux-ergonomic extrusions, the EC-CW is a masterclass in simplicity. The same amount of, if not more, research has gone into making this feel comfortable in the hand, but it’s unassuming and understated. The asymmetrical curved top makes the mouse look good and feel better.

As for performance, you can connect to your PC via a wire (supplied in the box), wirelessly via USB dongle, or through the enhanced receiver (also supplied) which keeps your connection stable and doubles as a charging dock. Sure, the port that connects to a cable juts out a bit and charging on the dock leaves the mouse at a funny angle, but we’ve already established that the EC-CW focuses on function over form.

As a gaming mouse, it excels. You can switch between multiple DPI settings (400/ 800/1600/3200) and three report rates (125/500/1000Hz) on the mouse itself, and you can adjust both the lift-off distance and click response time by plugging the mouse in while holding certain button combinations. It’s a little complex, but clever, and gives you every option you could want when fine-tuning your mouse. My only gripe with the EC-CW rears its head at this point here, though, as the buttons to change the DPI and report rate are on the underside of the mouse. While I understand the simple look Zowie is going for, I sometimes like to switch DPI on the fly when switching between work and gaming, and prefer that button on the top.

Despite all these miniscule changes you can make to the mouse, the EC-CW works well right off the bat if you’re just plugging in and playing. You don’t need to download any bloatware or drivers to get full functionality; it works admirably right out the box.

The Zowie EC-CW is a premium series of mice, priced at £160 a pop. But if you want a comfortable mouse without all the LED frills, that will perform just as well making detailed changes in Photoshop as clicking heads in CS:GO, it’s well worth the money. I’d recommend trying to find some samples before you buy, so you know which size fits your hand and grip the best, but this is comfortably (pun very much intended) the best mouse I’ve ever used, and will be top of my Christmas list come December.

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