Hard or Soft mouse pad for laser mice?

Luggs

Luggs

Luggs

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Hey,

So, wanted to get some views on a new mouse pad (sorry - professional gaming surface ;)) for my Roccat Kone XTD which is rapidly removing the varnish from my desk and getting me an earful from the 'trouble & strife'.

Is there really much of a performance difference between hard and soft pads? Is one better for laser mice as opposed to optical? Is it more an issue of comfort? And do I really need to spend nearly the same price as the mouse for a mat? (The Steelseries QcK looks very attractive at £9!!)

I'm not a pro-twitch gamer - mostly mmo's. Warframe is closest I get to fps games... Being in very rural location, I do not have the luxury of 'try before buy' - so looking to get some ideas from the experts here.

Thanks all in advance!
 
That seems to be the majority of views I have read on the likes of Tom's Hardware and other sites I should probably not name on here bazzabear, but I have noticed 2 fairly regular negatives too, namely;

Precision - overshooting of targets due to how slippy surface is - guess that's just a learning curve?

Comfort - the lip or edge of the hard surface rubbing against one's wrist.

Is it better to get some of these larger pads so that more of your arm is on the mat?

Any suggestions on 'reasonably' priced hard mats? I kinda blew all my budget on the mouse, so can't go mad on price...

Roccat Siru comes in at a nice £14 or the Steelseries 4HD at £19 maybe?
 
If you're worried about it being too slidey then you can get hard pads that have a grainy surface, that is excellent for precision.

My Steelseries S&S is excellent.
 
I used to have a Razer Exactmat for years and it was great but it wore out so got the giant Overclockers xxl mate a year ago and have no problems with BF4 or any other game really you get used to it i suppose.
 
Well mine is a steelseries one that came free with a mouse and keyboard set I bought ages ago. It is quite large, as as said above, it has a slightly grainy surface.

The thinness is an additional benefit as it means I can have my keyboard overlapping it without it being unbalanced.
 
I use a Roccat Sota mouse mat along with Logitech MX 610

http://www.roccat.org/Products/Gaming-Mousepads/ROCCAT-Sota/

Best mouse mat I've ever had, absolutely no tracking issues. Mouse mat is durable also.

To give idea how good the Roccat is working, I also use to own an MX Anywhere mouse with the darkfield technology, if anyone is not aware these will even track on carpet.

Once I used the Roccat with the MX 610, the combination was tracking just as good as the MX Anywhere would track.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll look into all of the above and make a choice. I know its not the purchase of the century, but wanted to see if there was any 'scientific' reasons to go hard/soft depending on mouse type.

Thanks again!
 
It just boils down to personal preference, how it feels moving the mouse.

I had the eXactmat for a few years but once I moved to cloth I wouldn't go back.

Only major disadvantage I can see with hard mats is they usually come quite small so if you prefer a nice big mat you've got more options with cloth.
 
Personally I have a a big razer cloth mat, had it years and been very happy with it. I find the size to be a surprising advantage, not sure id go for a hard surface after such good experience with a cloth.

Hawker
 
I use the QPAD HeatoN Pro XL with the G700s. It does take some getting used to as mouse movement is much smoother (drags less than cloth), but then you can adjust your dpi to compensate.
 
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