Cloth mouse pads



There have been only a few products in this group that I have tested, but this is the most widely spread type of mouse pad in the world. They are made of cloth, which makes them cheaper but less durable. They are more suited for ball mice than the fast pads because they provide with extra friction. It doesn’t mean they are less suitable for optical mice, as the amount of friction does not have a role there. It’s utterly upon your preference to decide what kind of pad you want. There are people who would prefer a 1$ cloth pad over a 30$ hard pad anytime.



Generally speaking, the biggest difference is the amount of control you get with the mouse. The higher friction of the cloth pads will allow you more precise tracking aim - when you are trying to precisely track something on your screen for a longer period of time. The less friction of the hard pads will allow you to get flick movements better, for example when you are trying to quickly put the crosshairs on something that is on another part of the screen. Taking Quake 3 for example, aiming with a shaft will be generally easier on cloth pads, while rail will be more accurate on hard pads. That’s all just in general, and everyone can get used to whatever kind of pad. Now, the pads.



Microtracker mouse pad is a rather unusual product.

It’s based on micro fiber technology that incorporates millions of fibers hundredth as thin as human hair. Among other things, they are able to absorb any dirt into their dense structure, also preventing anything from going inside your mouse or dirtying the ball. They also provide superb precise tracking. The pad is very thin with excellent grip. What then prevents it from being the best pad ever? Well apart from being a cloth pad, meaning it will wear off one day, designers really took of everything they could to keep the size barely satisfactory. This pad is one of the smallest on the test, with only less then 23 cm wide. The other thing is that it’s the highest friction pad that I’ve ever tried, almost to the point it’s painful to move the mouse (ok I am a bit exaggerating, but this pad has extremely high friction). One could probably get used to it, and the high friction freaks out there should definitely give it a try. In a way that kind of friction makes your movements more calculated. Should it be any bigger, if nothing just to have the default size, it would be a very, very interesting product. I guess the designers thought when you have so high friction, you can’t move the mouse so far for the size to matter. There is another bonus for this pad. Having great dirt absorbing abilities and considering it’s size, you can even use the mouse pad to effectively clean off your computer screen or TV before the matches or whenever, and I am not joking here.



Pros: technology, grip

Cons: size, very high friction

Site: www.centraltradingagency.com



Standard Cloth pad. What can I say about it that you didn’t already know? Cheap, standard, provides satisfactory results. Easily replaceable. You’ll even get one free if you buy a new computer. I still use one at home, it’s green and totaly worn off, the power of habit I suppose.



Pros: availability, suited for any mice

Cons: doesn’t last long, you usually don’t want to play CPL finals with one

Site: anywhere



Allsop Raindrop is probably the most famous cloth mouse pad. Many professional gamers who prefer cloth to hard material use this very pad. Allsop is specialized in all kinds of computer accessories and one can tell they have experience. Allsop mouse pad is thicker then other cloth pads which provides more durability. I’ve used one for six months now and the surface is still untouched. It requires cleaning as any other cloth pad, unless you have an optical mouse and do not mind the pad getting darker and darker, hehe. It is noiseless as most other cloth pads and provides great feeling when controlling the mouse. Tracking is superb as well, without a glitch. I can not really find any bad thing about it except that I wished they were larger.




Pros: all-round good mouse pad

Cons: size

Site: www.allsop.com



Conclusion



Here is a little table describing the pads and their qualities.




Mouse Pads

Mouse Pad	Material	Size	Friction
Bullet'n'Board	Hard Plastic	Small	Low
Litepads Optical	Acrylic Ice	Small	High
Icemat Black	Hard Glass	Normal	Very Low
Steelpad 3S	Steel	Normal	Very Low
Steelpad 3R	Steel	Normal	Low
fUnc surface 1030	Fine Plastic	Normal	Very Low
Everglide Gaming Mat	Plastic Layer	Normal	Very Low
Everglide Giganta	Rough Plastic	Normal	Low
Compad SpeedPad	Rough Plastic	Large	Low
Steelpad 4S	Steel	Large	Very Low
Glide Tapes BigPad	Plastic Layer	Large	Very Low
Microtracker	Micro Fibres	Small	Very High
Standard Cloth pad	Cloth	Normal	High
Allsop Raindrop	Cloth	Normal	High

As you can see I did not give any marks or grades for the products, just gave my opinion and descriptions. Every of these products deserve attention, as there are people and effort behind it (who would get involved into a business of making professional mouse pads few years ago?). I also did not have the opportunity to try out all of the available products on the market, so I will hold out any official recommendations.



With so many different products in the world of pro gaming, it is certainly difficult to find a proper one for yourself. I hope I have brought them a little bit closer to you. You should decide what is important for you, when choosing the proper one. The right mouse, with the right shape and the technology, and the right feeling of the mouse pad are the things you need to combine in order to get the most of your skills. Everything else comes with practice and talent.



See you all in the next article which will be devoted to the pro-gamers, personally.



Vladimir “tomcat” Prelovac

[email protected]



(here’s a link to the first ticle aragain, in case you need it to understand better some of the things I mentioned here. And I owe you the answer to the quiz question. It is of course the commercial towing vehicle “The Nostromo” from the Alien I movie.)