Review: Mouse Mat Group Test

by Nick Haywood on 20 January 2006, 16:53

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Final Thoughts



So time for a few conclusions… If you’ve read this far you’ll already know which mat we reckon is the best out of both the soft and hard options. I have to say that the Everglide Ricochet 2.52 only just shades it past the Razer eXactMat, purely on its more compact size. If I had more desk space, I’d have to go for the Razer eXactMat based not just on its performance but also for the aesthetics… it looks so good and is certainly a mat to be proud of. As it is, the Everglide Ricochet 2.52 will serve you well regardless of how much spare desktop space you have and the reversible nature of the mat, like the Razer eXactMat means you’ll find a gaming surface you can work with.

Out of the soft or cloth mats, the Qpad Gamer LowSense was, for me, a surprise winner. Looking at the packaging for the Titan and the F10.s, you’d expect either of these to utterly trump the less flashy Qpad but in practise it pays to not judge a mouse mat by its cover. Certainly the Titan is a luxurious mouse mat and is the most comfortable cloth pad for long gaming sessions because of that deep foam cushioning. The F10.s is just a bit too slippy for my taste with not quite enough friction there, which sounds odd, I know, but you do need a bit of grip. Which is why the Qpad has walked off with our Editor’s Choice Award for the cloth based mats. It could maybe do with being a tad thicker to give it a touch more weight but in every other respect it’s a gamers dream.

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Pick up these and many other gaming products at www.1moregame.co.uk and www.everglide.co.uk


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HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Posted by threEchelon - Fri 20 Jan 2006 21:34
Will the Everglide Ricochet 2.52 work with laser mice?
Posted by Nick - Fri 20 Jan 2006 22:51
I don't see any reason why not, laser mice, in general, perform better on a wide variety of surfaces than optical mice.

The Everglide was only tested with two optical mice and a ball mouse though.
Posted by .broken. - Sat 21 Jan 2006 12:16
disappointed to see that some gaming surfaces were left out, most notably the Icemat and the Ratpadz. i can understand that you wanted to test the latest mousemats, but it would be nice to see how they compare to some old school ones.

is the exactmat, being made out of aluminium, cold on your hands? also, if i remember correctly you did not mention that it ships with a gel-filled wrist rest - did you take this into consideration?

it should be noted that cloth mats have a habit of wearing down and collecting dead skin cells, making them lose their original texture hence impairing (in some cases improving…) their performance. how long did you have to test these mats and did you experience any wear-and-tear on the cloth mats?
Posted by iranu - Sun 22 Jan 2006 19:37
My ratpadz wore down after 12 months of use - I'm now using a steelpad QCK (from scan @£6) It's a cloth mat stuck to a rubber nonslip backing. Whilst not as quick as a new ratpadz it's certainly a nice surface. Much thinner and warmer than the usual plastic hard mats.

Mouse mats are always a personal preference and you have to try many before you get the one that suits you and your mouse. It would be nice to have 8 or 10 to test myself but some are expensive.