Page 3 - Subjective Performance Tests
For performance tests, I was limited in terms of customization of the mouse. In daily usage, I prefer to leave the mouse at 1000 DPI, but for the purpose of tests, I will try multiple tests at the four preset DPIs. In my tests, I will run through both gaming and office work. Gaming includes League of Legends, Osu!, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. As for office work, this includes typing work like writing this review, working on Excel spreadsheets, and Adobe Premiere. For all my mouse tests, I will be using a SteelSeries QcK Limited mousepad. Note this is a subjective test, but I tried to make it as objective as I could.
Once I was done setting up both parts of the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing keyboard and mouse, I started using them for my daily tasks. Like I stated previously, although these keys are membrane switches at heart, they do still have a tactical bump to them. This tactile feel makes the mushy bottoming out of the switch less noticeable. This is a nice touch for the keyboard, but it still does not match the feeling of a real mechanical keyboard. The choice to use membrane switches makes sense for a budget product. Considering they are still membrane switches; the switch actuation feels consistent across the keyboard. The typing experience is fine, and the addition of the media keys make accessing files and the web a touch easier. I adored the Documents key when working with Adobe Premiere as it made finding files feel much faster. At the end of the day, these are my personal preferences, so I would consider your personal usage and what part about this keyboard really matters to you.
Moving on to lighting, the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 has its LEDs shining wonderfully through the keys. It is important to note the colors on the keyboard are not customizable nor do they have any animations to them. Hence, while it looks RGB in photos, it is totally not. The keyboard lighting permanently displays a static rainbow. If you are trying to have your setup sync up in color, this keyboard will not help you at all. Fortunately, there is an option to turn off the lighting next to the right Windows key. Something I noticed when turning on and off the backlight was both the lighting key and the Scroll Lock key perform the same task of turning on and off scroll lock and the backlight. I am not sure why the keyboard is like this. I could see this as something that would get mildly irritating for someone who uses programs that use the scroll lock function such as Microsoft Excel. Turning on and off the keyboard backlighting while working does get annoying. In today’s day and age, the ideas “Gaming” and “RGB” have become synonymous in the market. I felt the implementation of the backlighting was very forced and incomplete in order to use the marketing appeal of the word “Gaming”. If the keyboard does not have RGB customizability, it would be more beneficial for the end user to have a single-color backlit keyboard in my opinion.
The ambidextrous shape of the 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 mouse lends itself towards a fingertip or claw grip. Even though I was able to find a comfortable claw grip on other ambidextrous mice, a claw grip on this mouse simply felt wrong. My ring finger was quite uncomfortable unless I used a fingertip grip. Weight wise, the Fire Dancing K8 mouse is well weighted for a smaller mouse. I generally prefer lighter mice, so this may vary depending on user. For the mouse sensitivity, I preferred to stick to the lower DPI settings. Something I noticed was the site claimed the four DPI levels to be 500, 1000, 1500, and 2000 DPI. I believe this is wrong and the true DPI levels are 800, 1200, 1600, and 2400 DPI. In the end, I decided 800 DPI was the most suitable DPI for me on this mouse. Regarding the inputs, the buttons were fairly standard in placement and I had no issues with the functionality of this mouse. The mouse switches were audible and had a lot of tactile feedback, which I found very pleasant.
The whole 1STPLAYER Fire Dancing K8 set is marketed as a gaming and office keyboard, so it makes sense to test it with both games like League of Legends, Osu!, and a FPS shooter like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and office work such as Microsoft Office, Excel, and Adobe Premiere. I started with Osu! to get used to the DPI and the grip. The sensor tracking was average. In Osu!, I tested some harder levels and noticed the sensor would sometimes not track my mouse movement. This was consistent at the higher 1600 and 2400 DPI, as jitter became more apparent. In League of Legends, it was very apparent when I accidentally walked into the enemy team and died in a team fight. When I was playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive, I felt very normal as I am not the best FPS player, but I feel my flick shots were on par or worse with my average play. The button clicks felt and sounded good and is probably the best part about this mouse.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
