Ratpadz GS Mouse Surface

Manufacturer:  Ratpadz.com
Street Price:  $12

by Dean Barker  (3/15/2003)

Introduction

High end mouse pads, aka Gaming surfaces, are nothing new to the hardware community.  The original Ratpad created by Kyle Bennett of Hard|OCP fame started the landslide of other hard surface durable mouse pads coming to market to.  All these different hard mouse surfaces come in many shapes and materials from glass to aluminum to translucent plastic.  The problem with glass, aluminum, and translucent colored plastic is that they aren’t 100% compatible with all optical mice.  This is why the overwhelming choice of gamers, are pads made of the standard black plastic.  If you have never used a performance mouse pad you will have difficulty comprehending the differences in feel it has over your standard office supply store cloth pad.  These differences are far from subtle.  The handful of folks I’ve introduced to hard pads all reacted the same way: “I always thought a $15 mouse pad was a novelty.  There really is that much of a difference.”  Do yourself a favor, the next computer show that comes to your town, go and just try one of these hard surface mouse pads.

Today, we are fortunate enough to look at the newest version of the Ratpad, the Ratpad GS.  The Ratpad GS while oversized, does not occupy so much room as to be a nuisance.  Measuring 295 x 239 mm, not counting the beveled wrist cut out, you have lots of freedom and range of motion.  The beveled edge actually helps your range of motion, allowing you to pivot your arm at the elbow instead of your wrist.  This is much more comfortable and lessens any risk you may have for Carpel Tunnel Syndrome.

While the original Ratpad and the new Ratpad GS are of almost equal size, the GS has more surface area.  This is accomplished in large part by eliminating the beveled edge.  Sure, this only adds 20mm to the length of the pad but how many times have you been in a game or, while working, hit your pad edge and had to re-center the mouse for lack of just a touch extra space.

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