I started with the cloth mouse pads (the EYEpad series), since I didn't think I was going to find these too slick for my optical mice. Speaking of which, I only had one optical mouse hooked up to start with (a cheap Logitech model M-BJ58). To make this a fair review, I decided to open up a few other optical mice I had in my vast supply of modding parts. I bought these other two optical mice on sale over the past year "" both are wireless designs, where the Logitech M-BJ58 was a wired mouse. The two additions were the wireless Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 (figure 9) and the wireless Micro Innovations PD880P (figure 10) mice. Gaming mice these are not, but remember that I'm a trackball kind of guy.
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Figure 9 Time to break out some better mice; first the Intellimouse.
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Figure 10 Here's the Micro Innovations bargain-bin special.
I tried the smaller EYEpad mouse pad on my 'Ella' gaming computer first, since this configuration has a nice wooden desk with pull-out keyboard tray. I used both the Logitech and the Microsoft optical mice, and found that I couldn't detect any problems moving them across the cloth mousing surface. No tracking issues were noted when I watched the cursor move across the screen. I did tend to run out of mouse pad surface area though, as I was used to the size of that glowing Thermaltake plastic mousing pad you see in figure 11 (also shown there is the smaller EYEpad). So I swapped in the medium EYEpad mouse pad and just look how well it fits the keyboard tray (figure 12). Even when I put that wrist pad back in there (as shown in figure 11), I still have plenty of mousing room. Hey, I kind of like this medium EYEpad. It's a keeper!
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Figure 11 Out with the Thermaltake glow-pad, and in with the EYEpad.
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Figure 12 The medium EYEpad is a perfect fit for me.
I was paying close attention to the difference between that old Thermaltake plastic mouse pad and the new Corepad cloth mouse pads. There was a definite improvement in both "feel" and "tracking", but it's a hard thing to measure. Perhaps over time both will wear differently and I'll reverse my option. If I was looking for a non-emotional measurement, I guess I could try to measure the coefficient of friction values between the mice and the mouse pads, but not easy to do without precision equipment. I did notice that cat hairs were attracted to the cloth mouse pads. We have four cats, so I need to keep the kitties away from my keyboard area.
Ok, we can't forget about the bigger EYEpad XL and the DESKPAD XXXL (figure 13), can we? These require much more room than a keyboard tray, so I set the larger mouse pads up on my workbench (figure 14). Here I used the Micro Innovations wireless optical mouse for some "glide" and "tracking" tests. These pads felt about the same as the smaller EYEpads (ignore the bumps you see, as they will flatten out in a few days), so I have to say that you should just get the size that fits your desk layout. Any one of these pads would be a good choice, and price-wise, they range from about $11.99 to $23.99 on-line. You can find most of the Corepad items at www.performance-pcs.com.
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Figure 13 The Corepad DESKPAD XXXL up close.
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Figure 14 Size comparison between the larger cloth mouse pads.
I was able to find an excellent place to test the DESKPAD XXXL in a real application. We have a friend that owns one of those Power MAC G5 machines "" you know two IBM G5 microprocessors in that beautiful aluminum case. Anyway, she has the large Apple cinema display to support her photography work. The large work area afforded by the DESKPAD XXXL is perfect on the desktop, as shown in figure 15.
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Figure 15 The large desk area is a perfect fit for the DESKPAD XXXL
Moving on to the MAGNA safety glass gaming pad (figure 16), I tried a little gaming on this mouse pad with the Microsoft Intellimouse. While the tracking was fine, it didn't feel quite as smooth as the cloth pad. It did feel about the same as my old Thermaltake plastic mouse pad. The size is just about right for my keyboard tray, and don't get me wrong "" I do like it. I would be happy with this mouse pad. But I think I prefer the cloth mouse pads. Which will last longer? That's a no-brainer. Get the MAGNA if you do extensive mousing. I couldn't even attempt to wear out the cloth EYEpads, but I bet that in a year they will be showing signs of wear. Washable yes, but they will wear out over time? All the more reason to buy a few extra ones.
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Figure 16 This glass pad gets a thumbs-up from Big Al!
That leaves us with some mice feet testing. Performance PCs sent us three sets of the SKATEZ PRO mice feet, but none of these sets were a direct fit for the three types of mice I had on hand. If I tore off my current mice feet and replaced them with SKATEZ PRO mice feet, it wouldn't be a good solution for me. So I did the next best thing. I pulled out samples from the three sets, and placed them under my mice to get a feel for the different sliding motion. These mice feet are better than what comes stock on your mouse. Of course, I'm talking about non-gaming mice here. I don't know what type of mice feet are installed on the high-end gaming mice like the Razer Diamondback series and Logitech MX series. I also moved the mice feet pads around individually with my most precision instrument available (yep "" my finger), and I did this on several surfaces, not just the cloth and glass mouse pads. They are slick. I pulled the backing tape (figure 17) off a few of them, and found that they do stick. What's more, they slide so well because they use untextured Teflon (figure 18) and that makes the SKATEZ PRO series a top pick.
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Figure 17 The backing tape side of the SKATEZ PRO mice feet.
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Figure 18 The untextured Teflon side of the SKATEZ PRO mice feet.
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