Finding the Serious Mouse Pad for the Serious Gamer

Mouse pad review introductions usually start off about how this piece of gear is generally underappreciated - albeit important to the serious gamer. It's almost cliché at this point, but so be it.

Depending on your preferences, mouse pads can make the difference. They can be large enough for a mouse to move around on a low sensitivity setting, or have a design that helps a laser mouse do its job.

Indeed, quality mouse pad manufacturing is a thriving niche area. While you're not going to see a much-heralded product launch every other week, the sector remains in perpetual motion. Well, some sort of motion at least.

How We Test

Alright, I'm not going to lie to you: the process of testing mouse pads isn't as precise or methodical compared to when you benchmark a processor with 3DMark. I'm going to look at the mouse pad and point out its good and its bad points, but with a lot of these pads the final verdict is in your hands. Unless I find an odd flaw that sees the pad devouring the mouse and one or two of my fingers along with it, I won't advise you to not buy the pad.

My aim, and the aim that we've always had in testing mouse pads, is to let you know what the pad does best and what it does worst, and from there you can decide. For example, I might find a massive pad that has a lot more drag on it than the others, but you still might prefer it if you're a low-sensitivity buff and need plenty of floor space to move the mouse in-game.

To make things more methodical, we try each pad with a couple of mice: The Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000, the Logitech MX518 optical and the Logitech G5 Laser, as well as (for those of you still living in the dark ages) some old Logitech ball mouse I found in a box.

In regard to laser mice, some do not work on all mouse pads, while it is claimed that mouse pads exist that are optimized for them. I've found that while some pads won't work well with laser mice (particularly with glass ones), there aren't any that offer noticeable advantages.