Last time I did a mouse pad roundup, all of nine months ago, there were three new mouse pads vying for the dollars of gamers like yourself, and at the time, that seemed like a lot. In fact, at the time it WAS a lot, seeing as a few short months beforehand we were still using boring old cloth-covered mats. 3M had released their rather thin mouse mat with a rather embarrassing acronym, the Precision Mousing Surface, Everglide had released their ultra durable solid plastic mouse pads, and of course let's not forget the "bigger is better" Ratpadz.
Three new mouse pads in so many months is, however, nothing to compare to the whopping total of seven mouse pads I'll be looking at today. The only downside of this increased number of mouse mats is that you won't be seeing any of the patent pending "Mouse Mat Pseudo Benchmarks" from the previous incarnation of this article. Come on, you think my wrist and would survive that many hours of testing these mats on the same Unreal Tournament map?
In alphabetical order, here they are:
Link: 3M Precision Mousing Surface
Listing the mouse pads in alphabetical order this time means that the 3M Precision Mousing Surface is first to come under the magnifying glass, which is fitting enough because last time round I chose it as my personal favourite. This time round though, after a much longer testing period (I used to use one for both of my computers) I'm no longer so keen on these wafer thin little mouse pads. After extended use, the surface that once sent my mouse pad gliding about like a skater on ice became worn out and was no longer much better than your average pad. The underside surface of the pad also offered more than adequate grip when new, but sadly, after a few weeks that surface suddenly had all the grip of Teflon. It's almost as if the two surfaces switched qualities, with the underside becoming smooth and the top slightly rough. All this is quite a shame because during the first few weeks of use the 3M was a great pad, especially for gaming of course. It is wonderfully flat (in fact its not much thicker than a credit card), and the special surface of the pad itself, formed of miniscule, uniform rows of pyramid structures, offers what I'd argue is a near perfect balance between smoothness and grip. It's a real shame the damn thing deteriorates in a matter of weeks. Thankfully, Logitech decided to take the 3M Precision Mousing Surface design and inject a little more sense into it. More on that later though...
