QPAD XTR

Testing

Test Rig

Methodology

Mouse mats and other peripherals fall into an interesting category for testing, as your opinion on them tends to be very personal, as the mat, mouse or keyboard has to be right for you, beyond having the specifications to do what you want with it. Therefore these reviews can be highly subjective so as always, please make sure to test a peripheral for yourself before you buy it.

However with that said, our testing methods involve using the mat over prolonged gaming and general usage periods to test its gaming ability and comfort.
The games used for testing were as follows:

• Battlefield 2
• Call of Duty: World at War

The mouse used for testing was the Mionix Saiph 3200.

Results

Games

Battlefield 2

Battlefield 2 is a first person shooter ideal for testing mouse pads and peripherals alike as it requires sharp reflexes and quick accuracy. I jumped into battle and immediately found that the XT-R offers amazing precision – I was able to pinpoint my enemy’s craniums with ease. What’s more, I really like the fact that the XT-R, being made of hard plastic, doesn’t move, bend or press down as many cloth pads tend to do.

The speed at which you can move the mouse across the pad too is really impressive as the frictional forces are minimal allowing you to quickly move the crosshairs all over the screen.

The pad is very quiet too – now this seems like a strange way to describe a mouse pad but for some harder surface pads, when the mouse is moved it can produce a really annoying grating sound. Luckily, this product is ultra-quiet (only slightly noisier than a cloth pad).

Call of Duty: World at War

World at War is the latest in the Call of Duty series and moves back to the World War II game play; it too is a first person shooter but it has a faster pace than BF2 and requires really quick movements of the mouse. The QPAD XT-R was perfect for this as the mouse can quickly be moved due to the limited friction and this combined with the pinpoint precision and accuracy made the game much easier to excel at.

There is only one slight problem when using a lower DPI mouse because, as the surface area isn’t that great, it can mean having to actually pick up and move the mouse back to the centre to avoid going off the edges – clearly this is less than ideal. However, this wasn’t really a problem for me as the Mionix Saiph with a DPI of 3200 requires the smallest of movements to send the mouse flying across the screen. Just note the size though if you’re intending to use with a low sensitivity mouse.

Comfort

I had doubts about how comfortable the pad would be considering the hardness of it but in all truth, it’s really not bad. Obviously, it’s not quite as comfortable as a cloth pad but it’s not far behind – impressive indeed.

Durability

This is where the hard surface and structure come into its own as the edges can’t frey like a cloth pad or chip like a glass pad. Instead it’s pretty much impossible to damage this product which makes it awesome for taking it to LAN’s.

Moreover, spilling any form of liquid, even fizzy drinks doesn’t stain and can simply be wiped off – a real bonus in my opinion.

Cost

This isn’t going to make for good reading with the XT-R pad coming in at a whopping 47 Euros (including shipping). Now that is truly monstrous for a mouse pad…way off the scale!

Peripherals