XSReviews

Introduction

In general, mouse pads are very hard to choose. The surface you prefer is very different from the guy sat next to you, and often the worlds greatest pad can be loved by one and hated by another. Today I have the Rantopad Super C4.

Specs

None, site in German and Google translate isn’t very helpful…

The unpackaged beast

Packed in a clear plastic bag, there is no mention of the name of the pad or its features. No retail packaging implies internet-only ordering.

The pad itself is a fairly standard cloth type, with a rubber backing and a thickness of about 3mm. In the bottom right corner, you’ll find a small Rantopad flight-school style logo in white. That is the only decoration that this pad has been afforded.

The surface is slightly shiny and is smooth to the touch. It’s very smooth, and feels like it’s made of silk rather than cotton. The smoothness is thanks to the incredibly fine weave that the pad is made of. A fine weave isn’t always the best however, it can cause tracking issues as two points often look the same as the threads are so close together.

I personally prefer smooth pads, and cloth pads often fit that bill a lot better than solid versions. Hard pads are generally more stable (as they don’t bend over your desk) and some say faster (quick movements are easier as the mouse glides better; less friction). Cloth pads are smooth and have constant friction that lowers your speed slightly but are often a lot more comfortable and quieter than their hard surfaced counterparts.

The pad itself is nice a big allowing low sensitivity users to flail their mouse around as they see fit. The extra size may cause problems if you are using your mouse in a tight spot, but for most it’s the perfect size.

The edges of the pad aren’t very well finished and the top of this pad is already fraying. The bottom edge of the pad is most likely to fray badly if this pad is used a lot due to the constant rubbing and wrist sweat.

Testing

To test the Rantopad Super C4, I’ll be using a huge array of mice to fully review the gaming surface. Some are not pictured, but I’ll be using a generic optical mouse, a Razer Deathadder, a Razer Krait, a Saitek GM3200, a MSI StarMouse, an Ideazon Reaper and a very retro rollerball mouse.

These mice are a mixture between infra-red, laser, optical and rollerball which means that every base is covered.

I started the testing with my current favourite mouse, the Razer Deathadder. The first thing that I noticed was how ridiculously smooth the surface of the pad was. Seriously. This is THE smoothest cloth pad I have every used. It’s not so smooth as to send your mouse flying, but it’s the perfect mix between glide and friction.

At any DPI that the Deathadder can manage, the pad tracked perfectly. Below is our tracking diagram, which we have used for other pads. You can read about this test here.

The tracking is very strange. On some parts of the pad you’ll find that it tracks perfectly, but other parts aren’t quite as good. The ‘bad patches’ can be attributed to the desk being uneven so there is a slightly different height between certain areas which confuses the mouse as to where to put your cursor on the screen.

In actual usage there is the very occasional cursor jump where you hit a ‘bad patch’ on the pad, but for the most part this pad tracks well.

Using the Saitek GM3200 at its full 3200DPI there were more ‘bad patches’ on the pad. Overal, the high DPI settings of mice will be fine if you use this pad on a flat surface.

The other mice that I used also exhibited these minor tracking issues, apart from the generic optical which seemed to track fine. This can be attributed to the low DPI of the mouse. The roller ball mouse was the least happy with the texture as the friction between the pad and the ball wasn’t enough to keep the ball moving. The mouse would completely miss whole movements as a result. That said, who uses a rollerball these days?

Gaming wise the pad was incredibly comfortable, and the tracking issues didn’t arise in game. Battlefield 2142 was perfect and everyone that had the misfortune to end up in my sights died. Every quick movement was perfectly translated into ass kickery on screen.

Conclusion

This pad is nothing special to look at; a plain black cloth pad. However, once mouse hits pad you’re in for a treat. The super slick silk-like surface makes sliding your mouse around simple. Enough s’s for you?

For only £9 this pad is a steal, although there are no UK distributors at the moment; but they are looking…

Pros	Cons
Ultra smooth silk surface	‘Bad patches’ of lower accuracy
Large size	Not the most eye-catching
Good tracking and accuracy

I’d like to thank Rantopads for providing us with the mouse mat.

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