Irritated with increasingly poor performance in FPS games, I started to question things. Life, my PC's performance, the current president. You know, the usual. Upon better analysis of why I just wasn't playing up to where I was pretty sure I should be, I realized my aim in these games was off. Not because I didn't know where to shoot, but because when I tried the mouse didn't quite get to that spot, or went past it.

I've got a quality mouse, so I didn't really think it was the culprit. If it wasn't the mouse, it must be where that little sucker lives. So, I went on a mouse pad frenzy of sorts. Ok, well it was a very small frenzy. A frenzylet, if you will. After testing each of the pads out, I will present my findings.

Tested:

3M Precise mousing surface

Func sUrface 1030

Icemat black

Setup:

Logitech MX700 mouse

Tests:

Call of Duty, online. This is my current addiction, and one of the motivators to seek a better pad in the first place.

Office work, including making Word docs and using Visual Studio for painfully long stretches of time.

3M's little over the counter remedy

This guy is the easiest to procure of the bunch, you can get them damn near anywhere that sells computer stuff. I got mine at a local CompUSA.

This pad has a very smooth surface, but is textured with a hard substance in a weave like pattern. Initial testing on the Wife's machine gave very good results. This is using a microsoft explorer 3.0 mouse, just so ya know. Taking the pad to my gaming rig, I had some less than optimal results. By less than optimal, I mean like Bush is doing a less than optimal job. Meaning terrible.

The mouse would seem to work for a bit, then would (without warning, mind you) go quite berzerk. The cursor would seem to take note of which direction I had moved the mouse, then move an equal distance in an arbitrary direction. Assuming maybe it was the black color I tried a blue one - with identical results.

For this reason, it is exempted from serious gaming tests. Well, I did play with it, but after getting “pwned by nubs” while my gun was pointing in random directions, I removed it from play.

It is now the property of The Wife, who actually really likes it. I suspect it may be more the wrist rest than the pad that she enjoys.

Pros:

Cheap, easy to find

Nice smooth surface

Integrated wrist rest

Cons:

Small - larger mice have about 1 inch to move vertically on it before going off the edge or hitting the wrist rest.

May not work well with your optical mouse. It worked with an MS mouse, not my new Logitech.

Scariest name ever: Func 1030 sUrface

All Ron Jeremy jokes aside, this is a highly regarded “competition” mouse pad. I’d read a number of reviews on it, and decided to give it a go. Of course, what separates a competition mousing surface from a mouse pad is a question for the sages.

The pad comes in a large aluminum case, a fact that will instantly make you feel like you got ripped off the second you see it. It’s neat, but I don’t know what else I could do with it once I’ve retrieved the pad. It reminds me a of a Sucrets™ tin on steroids. Maybe I just need a serious throat problem and I’ll think of a use.

In any case, the pad is pretty to-the-point. It is a thin (appx. Half centimeter) rigid pad, and delightfully it comes with a rubber mat to keep it from creeping off your desk. I got the obnoxious blue pad that comes with an orange rubber mat that surrounds it. It scares people away, which I viewed as a plus.

The pad has two sides, one being somewhat rougher than the other. Both give the mouse a very smooth glide, but I give the nod to the smoother of the two. The mouse just gives you very little backtalk on that surface.

This pad performed very well in Call O’ Duty. I was able to track targets with good precision, and I did improve my game considerably. I found sniping difficult still, as both sides were too susceptible to my crazy drunken jerking around. A little more friction would be useful, at least to me. If you have better hands, this may still be optimal.

For office work, I love this pad. I use a Fellowes gel wrist pad in conjunction with the little guy to give me a carpal tunnel free setup. While I primarily use the keyboard, there are a number of things that obviously require mousing around. This pad works great in this context, and the lack of friction actually works wonders. I think the reason being there is (purposefully) a pretty high accuracy tolerance in guis. Buttons are actually pretty large, compared to say, an enemy’s head whipping around in CoD.

Pros:

Very low friction, allows for precise movement with little drag.

Mouse tracking was totally error free, I did not ever see the mouse misbehave on this pad.

Rubber mat keeps the pad where it needs to stay. STAY! Good pad.

Fairly inexpensive. I got it from NewEgg for 20 bucks. I’ve seen other reviews say that is expensive, but honestly, that’s half of one game. The pad will last a while.

Two sides to increase chances you like the feel.

Cons:

About the only complaint I have is that some movement styles, like the sniping I mentioned above, could actually use a little more friction. But seriously, I don’t know how you could make a pad simultaneously slick and rough.

It’s cold, it’s glass. It’s an Icemat!

Brought to you by none other than the Danish, and believe you me, those chaps know their ice. This pad is really a piece of glass with rubber feet, a black backing and a frosted finish.

I have to admit I had a great deal of skepticism about this one. Great industry – sand a piece of glass down, call it a mouse pad, and charge 30 bucks. Wheee!

Turns out, it works pretty darn well, in no small part to their frosted finish. It doesn’t look like it would work well for opical mice, as there is no human visible pattern for the sensor to pick up. Well, she’s a pickin’ up something, because the mouse tracks wonderfully.

It is worth noting they include some Teflon strips for the bottom of your mouse to use on this pad. Makes it a little smoother and quieter.

In Call of Duty, I think this was the best yet. It seems to have a slight edge on the func pad overall. It tracks well for quick movements, and has a slight bit of friction that helps with quick stops (useful in sniping).

For regular use, this is a mixed bag. It tracks well, but the slight extra friction seems to annoy me in this environment. In addition, the mouse makes a noise of Teflon strips scraping across frosted glass while in use. Who saw that coming? While this is hardly a Harrier taking off, or even the Nvidia 5800 dustbuster, it is more than any other mouse pad you’ve ever used. I can just imagine a coworker of mine who is very fussy about noises coming over the cubicle wall and throwing my cute glass wonder into the street.

All in all, a very good pad.

Pros:

Very nice feel. The pad is slick, but the frosted glass provides just a hint of grab to keep the mouse from sliding around.

As with the func pad, 100% flawless tracking. Awesome improvement over conventional mouse pads. Of course, that comment makes these premium pads seem like Pads Of Mass Destruction, but they do actually exist.

Looks mad cool. The black surface with a white icemat logo visible through the top is quite slick.

Cons:

The slight grab of the surface may annoy you. If you want a very slick mouse ride, this is not the pad for you.

The noise will annoy you if you do a lot of mousing, and there aren’t explosions from your 5.1 speaker rig covering it up. It isn’t loud, certainly no more than a whisper, but if you are like me you aren’t use to whispering mouse pads.

More expensive than others, 30 bucks at newegg.

Conclusion

I think most people would be very well served with the func 1030 surface. It has a great blend of comfort, and works near perfect regardless of task. It is also pretty cheap, considering the improvement you get.

The icemat is by no means a bad pad, but the sound issue does annoy me. I also suspect the pad would be terrible if you didn’t have the little Teflon strips, but I didn’t have the forsight to try that before applying them. And, I’m not terribly keen on pulling them off now.

Your best bet: grab the func pad. I can’t imagine anyone not liking it. And yes, it does make a big difference over whatever crud came with your computer.