Fnatic Flick 2 Review

When Fnatic decided to leap into the world of hardware their first attempts were met with mixed reactions, though most people agreed that for a first, cautious step it was a decent attempt. Fnatic spent the following two years improving on their products and designs and have now dropped the second generation of their esports focused peripherals. While they’ve been making a lot of noise about it on their own social media accounts, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of hype on the internet in general.

The lack of hype is kind of confusing, since the Fnatic Flick and Clutch do a lot of things right; Omron switches, 3360 sensor, 1000Hz polling rate, …  On paper they should be a great new addition to the existing lineup of top gaming mice. We all know that ‘in theory’ doesn’t necessarily translate to ‘in practice’ though, so we’re here to find out if it does in this case.

So does the new Fnatic gear deserve more attention from the people of the internet or is it right to pass up on these new mice? We threw a Flick 2 over to our reviewer in order to find out.

At a Glance


Fnatic Flick 2

It does almost everything right while doing very little wrong. It offers a great shape which will suit a wide variety of grip types, satisfying clicks, killer performance, and a super solid build quality.

Pros

  • Good build quality

Cons

  • On the heavier side

Specs

SensorPMW 3360
DPI100-12000, in steps of 100
Polling Rate125 / 250 / 500 / 1000 Hz
Button SwitchesOmron
ConnectionWired
ShapeAmbidextrous
Length13cm
Height4cm
Weight98g
Width7cm

Initial Impressions


The Flick 2 offers a pretty straightforward design. It’s an ambidextrous mouse (though it doesn’t necessarily feel like a ‘classic’ ambi to me) with subtle LED illumination on the scroll wheel, three LEDs towards the left hand side of the mouse (to show what DPI setting it’s currently on) and an illuminated Fnatic logo on the left front side of the mouse.

The lighting itself is nicely implemented and shines evenly throughout the lit up areas. The mouse is finished with a small grey Fnatic logo towards the back and an orange base, which I guess helps it stand out, but I would’ve preferred it to be black or something more neutral. 

The Flick 2 with its 7cm width and 13cm length is a medium to large sized mouse. The mouse weighs in at about 98 grams (around 102 with a bit of cable) so while that doesn’t make it a brick by any means it still could do with a little bit of a diet. I’m not a product engineer or anything close to it but I can’t help but wonder what the exclusion of the (fairly useless) colored LED towards the front could have done for the weight of the mouse.

There’s no need to panic, however; the mouse handles just fine for a low sens player such as myself, and 98 grams isn’t that much. It’s an issue of aesthetics vs performance and they obviously tried to find a middle ground there. It’s not the choice would have made as a competitive gamer, but it’s understandable. 

Packaging


The Flick 2 comes in a pretty nicely designed box. Aside from a picture of the mouse it has the specs on there, a bit of marketing speak and then also a quote from Quacknix, saying that a great mouse has ‘3 things: reliability, comfort and accuracy.’

Inside the box you’ll find the mouse (they might want to rethink the way they package the cable though, since it’s crammed in the box at the base of the mouse) and a little box saying ‘I’m more than a logo, open my secrets.’ Being the daredevil that I am I opened it immediately and came to find that the secrets are a manual and three (admittedly pretty nice) Fnatic stickers. All in all it’s a pleasant unboxing experience, if you care about that sort of stuff at all.

Shape, Coating, and Mouse Feet


The Flick 2 is, as mentioned, an ambidextrous mouse (the Clutch 2 is Fnatic’s ergo mouse in the new lineup) and it has to be said that the shape is super nicely done. It’s a pretty safe shape, with no real crazy humps or any other controversial design decisions, but there are some subtle design cues which make it stand out.

The design starts out pretty flat but then sort of flares out towards the back, also curving outward so you have an ever so slight ‘base’ to rest your fingers on. There’s also a slight outward curve towards the front of the mouse which gives you an easier time picking it up. Obviously shape is a subjective thing, but I can definitely say that the Flick 2 impressed me on this front.

Due to the pretty safe design I’d say this mouse can be used by pretty much all grip types, depending on hand size obviously. I wouldn’t recommend the mouse for people with (really) small hands regardless of grip style due to the way the shell widens at the back though. For reference: my hand is 18.5×10.5 cm.

The mouse is coated with a matte black finish on top and an ever so slightly rubberized material on the sides. The Flick 2 is definitely grippy enough, and the coating seems to handle sweat pretty nicely as well. It starts to show ‘traces of use’ pretty quickly, but I didn’t have an issue with the mouse starting to feel nasty after prolonged use, so the coating is another aspect that they got right.

There’s a DPI button is located on top of the mouse, which does its job of staying out of the way when you don’t need it perfectly. Two side buttons are located very conveniently as well; they’re easy enough to get to, but they stay out of the way during normal gameplay.

The mouse feet of the Flick 2 are a definite eye catcher. You might think you’ve seen large mouse feet before, but the ones Fnatic put on the Flick 2 blow everything else out of the water. These two massive mouse feet provide a very nice and even glide and once you’re used to it (something which doesn’t take long, to be fair) it really is a very pleasant and smooth experience.

Recommended Grip Types


A mouse can have all the bells and whistles in the world; if it doesn’t fit in your hand properly you’re not going to perform with it. The Flick 2 has a rather curvy (for an ambi mouse) though pretty safe design, and  a relatively flat profile. This means that it accommodates a wide variety of grip types. I myself use a mixture of palm and fingertip grip while gaming and the mouse seemed perfectly fine with that. 

Due to the mouse’s design it requires very little break in time. It took me some time to get used to the mouse feet (almost every new mouse will need some time to ‘break in’ though) and all of that, but the shape clicked almost straight away. According to me this could be a winner for most people, though gamers with small hands should stay away from this one.

If you’re a palmer and you need your mouse to really fill up your palm it might be a good idea to try and get an opportunity to hold this mouse in real life, but I still think it’s going to be fine for most palm grippers with regular sized hands.

Buttons and Scroll Wheel


The left and right click both provide a very satisfying and snappy click. They’re pretty light, but not overly so. No mushy feeling, insane travel, or other mouse click no-no’s here. Both clicks feel the same, but the left click does sound a little louder than its right door neighbor. The clicks on the Flick 2 aren’t loud at all though, so for me this is a non-issue.

The scroll wheel is a bit of a different story. It seems like we needed a bit of time to get to know each other, since it was rather rigid (too much so) out of the box. After using it for an hour or two it loosened up, and now it’s definitely not a problem anymore. It’s still not the lightest scroll wheel out there, but it has very easy to feel steps and I have no qualms about using it for either browsing or gaming. Once you break it in it’s a damn nice scroll wheel.

I’ve been using the scroll like a madman to see if it loosened up even further (which could indicate that it’s a shoddily designed wheel which becomes too loose after a while) but it seems to hold up fine. Extra points for the lack of noise and the middle mouse click, by the way. The wheel is practically silent when scrolling and the middle mouse button is easy and satisfying to press.

The side buttons are much of the same; easy to press, satisfying ‘snap’ to them and very little travel.

Build Quality and Cable


Fnatic, as part of the marketing for their new product line, like to say that their stuff is ‘built like a tank.’ The idea here is that gaming gear has to be able to withstand intermittent fits of rage from gamers who just got killed by ‘bullshit’ or what have you. I accidentally got to test the build quality part as I opened the mouse and managed to clumsily drop it from a height of about 1.5 meters onto concrete and I have to say the Flick 2 survived the drop like a champ.

That’s great and all, but usually gaming mice aren’t meant to be thrown around by raging madmen (or clumsy fools such as myself) so I’ve got this nagging feeling where I can’t help but wonder how much they could have reduced the weight of the Flick 2 had they decided to build it a bit less like a tank and a bit more like a nimble fighter. There is obviously a compromise to be made between sturdiness and lightness, but I think they leaned to one side a bit too much here.

When shaking/flicking the mouse there is nothing rattling or moving about (even after my impromptu drop test) so the build quality is absolutely ace.

Fnatic says that they collaborated with their pro players when designing this mouse (and why wouldn’t you when you have some of the world’s best gamers sitting around) and as a result the Flick 2 has a thin and very flexible rubber cable, as opposed to some braided monstrosity. No serious gamer wants a braided cable and Fnatic seems to understand that. The cable is great. Even if you don’t have a mouse bungee you won’t find too many issues with cable drag or anything like that.

Performance and sensor


The Flick 2 uses the Pixart 3360 sensor, which is arguably the best sensor on the market as we speak. As we all know the 3360 is a flawless sensor, and as such the ingame performance of the Flick 2 is absolutely perfect. I always test mice for accelerationsmoothing, and other things which would hamper performance, and as expected the Flick 2 passed all of those tests with flying colors. The 3360 also doesn’t spin out under any conditions, so even if you play at 100 DPI you should have no issues at all.

If you opt for the Flick 2 you’ll very much be the only factor to blame when you miss an easy headshot on a stationary enemy thanks to its excellent sensor. 

Conclusion & Recommendation


Fnatic has (rather quietly, it seems) released a really good product with the Flick 2. It does almost everything right while doing very little wrong. It offers a great shape which will suit a wide variety of grip types, satisfying clicks, killer performance, and a super solid build quality.

They could have tried to make it a bit lighter though. They say it’s ‘built like a tank’, and in all fairness the mouse does feel super solid, but tanks aren’t really known for their maneuverability and fast, precise movements, and those are things that most people do look for in a gaming mouse, myself included.

Don’t let me scare you off however; 98 grams isn’t heavy and I never felt like I was dragging a log of oak around my pad (I didn’t have an issue with the weight of the mouse at all, which is also due to the great cable), it’s just something that they could improve on in the future. If you’re looking for an ever lighter mouse the new Fnatic lineup won’t be for you.

In conclusion: the Fnatic Flick 2 is truly a great mouse, doing almost everything right. It might not be doing anything new (except for maybe the mouse feet, which admittedly are great) or revolutionizing the mouse industry, but that’s okay, not everyone has to. The weight can definitely be reduced, but it’s not like it’s unusable either.

If you’re in the market for a new mouse and you want a medium/large sized ambidextrous mouse (regardless of grip type) you should take a look at the Flick 2. 

This product was received for free from the manufacturer and given to our reviewer to test and review. Brands and manufacturers have no editorial control over our reviews. For more information, check out our review FAQ.

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