RipTen Review: Razer Mouse Mat Four-Way Showdown
When it comes to taking quick aim and fragging your opponents more efficiently, many people simply look past the humble mouse pad. However, such a simple and inanimate object can often afford players not only a great deal of comfort, but also precise control and deadly speed.
Razer, a company renowned for their high quality keyboards and mice, also produce some of the best mousepads and mats on the market, and RipTen is here to compile a showdown of four of their products.
The awesome folks at Razer supplied us with a Razer Vespula, Razer Sphex and the Taj Mahal of mouse control surfaces; the Razer Ironclad. I also purchased a Razer Goliathus for myself earlier in the year. Each product has a seperate entry comparing the best and worse points to ensure you get the full run-down on what surface is best for you.
The Razer Vespula is a dual-sided mousepat with a smooth sided SPEED surface and a rougher and more abrasive CONTROL surface. The mat looks cool on your desk and has rubber base to prevent it slipping during those full on mouse movements and gaming experiences.
Towards the bottom of the mat is a gel arm rest that is quite frankly uncomfortable and at times painful. It’s raised too high off of the mat and causes your wrist to sit at an unnatural angel which both prevents a full range of control but makes long sessions impossible due to your wrist getting sore. This is quite ironic seeing as the Razer Zone entry bills the wrist rest as allowing you to enjoy longer gaming sessions with less fatigue.
Another gripe I had with the wrist rest was the cool looking Razer logo. Why would I have a problem with a logo as cool as a three headed snake? Well simply because it rubbed off after only a few hours of use and left a sticky substance on the bottom of my arm.
The dual sided surface is great, with both feeling incredibly responsive and natural to use. I coupled the Vespula (And all the mats) with the Razer Imperator and I immediately was afforded a lot more control and precision that really did allow me to dispatch my enemies in a number of games.
The Rundown:
+ Great look and style
+ Dual sided mat works amazingly well
- Wrist rest is painful and counter-productive
- Logo rubbing off was a bad experience
The Razer Goliathus is billed as the “soft mat for the hardcore” and it really lives up to it’s name. Leading up to my switch to Razer mat’s I was exclusively using a cheap product I picked up at the computer shop, and after making the switch to Razer’s Goliathus I knew I could never go back to cheap products.
The Goliathus surface is an amazing weave texture of sorts that really feels specifically made and designed to give you just the right amount of control and speed. If you’re into graphic design or precision games like RTS – well the Goliathus would be perfect for you as your actions become more precise and defined.
The mat offers a slight amount of comfort due to the soft surface however it’s still painful to lean on for extended sessions. That being said, it’s not hard to lift your hand for a minute, give it a stretch and dive back into the action.
The only gripes I had with the Goliathus were both centered at the surface. After a month of use the edges of the mat became frayed and started lifting off the soft foam bottom, and the weave surface also has a tendancy to capture large amounts of dirt and crumbs obscuring the perfect tracking that it otherwise affords across a large surface.
The Rundown:
+ Perfect size and surface
+ Offers minimal comfort for long sessions
- Edges are prone to fraying/falling apart
- Surface is a magnet for dust and crumbs
As I stated in my introduction to this piece, the Razer Ironclad is like the Taj Mahal of mouse surfaces. Smooth, perfect, the ultimate surface for literally sleek devastation. Right from the get go you can tell this isn’t any ordinary mat – and that’s just from unboxing it. Razer literally packages this like it’s the crown jewel, a priceless antiquity.
Once you get your mouse onto the Ironclad and start moving around more freely then ever you’ll never want to go back to something else – unless it’s two Ironclads conjoined! The Ironclad features a non-slip rubber flooring although it’s a pretty heavy mat so I wouldn’t imagine it slipping around very much anyway.
The ultra-smooth sandblasted surface is designed specifically to offer you maximum speed at cost of control. The surface of the mat also gives off a nice cooling feel onto your wrist which is passively relaxing and something I grew to like after the two weeks I spent with the Ironclad.
I literally have nothing negative to say about this mat – but if you
