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 it’s gaming ability and comfort.

The games used for testing were as follows:

• Dawn of War 2
• Peggle Nights
• Assorted Flash Games

Results

Games

Dawn of War 2 is a title that requires very fast paced game play for a strategy title, so speed of movement is very important. The Slidamat performed very well, giving me a slick surface to slide across and excellent accuracy when the right mouse was used (more on this later). It’s surface is one of the smoothest I’ve ever used, but it’s not quite on par with the Overslide and Slider combination.

Peggle

Peggle is a title that doesn’t really need speed, but accuracy is incredibly important. When the right mouse was used (again, more later) the Slidamat performed flawlessly, providing a beautifully smooth and easy to navigate surface. Accuracy was perfect under the right conditions, and I had no problems hitting those final pesky pegs.

Flash Games

With the various amount of titles I played, speed, accuracy and longevity are all important. That said, because of the windowed method of play, as apposed to full screen titles, accuracy is even more important. During all tests, the Slidamat was pretty damn great, providing me with all the accuracy I needed and when fast pacedness (new word?) was necessary, it was available.

During all gaming tests, the Slidamat didn’t move at all. The rubbery backing material did a stellar job in holding the pad in it’s place.

Comfort

Surprisingly for such a basic looking mat, the Slida’s comfort levels were up there with the best of them. It cushions your hand very well at all times, it’s surface doesn’t stick to your skin and for a material that doesn’t take in any moisture, the teflon/PTFE surface surprisingly didn’t cause any sweating problems like we’ve had with glass and plastic mats in the past. It’s a little clammy after long periods, but no sweat issues at all.

Functionality

Normally I don’t address the functionality of mats, as most of the time, they either work or they don’t. However, in the case of the Slidamat, it performed flawlessly with some mice, but with my NZXT Avatar, it was horrendous. Using the latter mouse, the pad would cause the mouse pointer to jump all over the place so much as to make the pad unusable with that mouse. That said, occasionally it would work fine, but soon enough it would be back to it’s old ways, jumping all over the place. Checking the sensors used in the Avatar, I found that it uses an optical sensor. Interestingly, the Ideazon Reaper uses an optical sensor as well and had no problems at all. Similarly, the Cyba Snipa Stinger with it’s laser sensor had no problems either.

To date the mice that I can confirm work with the Slidamat are:

Cyber Snipa Stinger
Ideazon Reaper

Mice that don’t work with the Slidamat are:

NZXT Avatar

Would anyone who uses this mat in future, please let me know what mice worked and didn’t work for you, and I will update this list.

Cost

The small version is £9, and the largest is £14 making this one of the cheapest, gaming mouse mats I’ve ever used.