Steelpad 4D and Icemat Review
Provided by: www.softtrading.info and written by Kupe Master
I’d like to thank Danny Ramkvist for sending these two mouse pads for review.
I received the Steelpad 4D and Icemat from Soft Trading via DHL. Danny informed me they want to give their customers a higher level of service by offering express shipping with DHL. DHL’s service offers a transit time of about 2-5 business days and also includes a tracking number, which is handy so you know where it is. The only downside is ship on the following Tuesday which you place your order, keep in mind that this is from Denmark.
Specifications:
Icemat
$38.54 USD
The
size of the ICEMAT is 250 x 210 x 6.2 mm
Black Icemat has been tested and approved with the following optical
mice:
Microsoft: Wireless Intellimouse® Explorer, Intellimouse® Explorer
3.0, Optical Mouse Blue
Logitech: MX 300, MX 500, MX 700
Steelpad
4D
$23.07 USD
To fulfill your expectations:
Light, slim, great size, stick to the table, two different surfaces.
Description: Length 290 mm - Width 257 mm - made from plastic
Thickness 2 mm (base included)
First Impressions:
Icemat:
The goal of this mouse pad is to have a slick surface for gamers. It
says “Sliding Perfection” on the box. The Icemat is made
out of glass and has a special coating for the mouse surface. And yes,
as we will find in the testing results, it was very slick. The surface’s
size is just about the standard size for a mouse pad, it’s no
xTrac ripper, which has huge surface, but adequate for gaming and general
use. What is very nice are the little plastic feet on the bottom which
gives a good solid base on the desk so it doesn’t move around.
Having a black piece of glass on your desk just looks so damn cool!
Steelpad
4D
The Steelpad 4D is also geared towards gamers and is a thinner piece
of plastic with two sides that have different textures. One side is
rough and one side is slightly shiny and smooth. In addition to the
mouse pad is a piece of special material, which goes under the mouse
pad to make it so it doesn’t slip. It does its job extremely well.
Pad Surfers
You might be wondering what these are since they are not in the title of the review, but they are important. You get one strip of this Teflon tape to put on the feet of your mouse. They reduce the noise and make your mouse smoother on the mouse pad. Be happy they included them for you.
Testing & Results
I tested both mouse pads whiusing Adobe Photoshop 7.0 and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and I will describe what I experienced in the next paragraph. The mouse that is to be tested on the pads is the Logitech MX300. This mouse is an excellent compact mouse with a high-resolution optical sensor. I’ve had the chance to test these mouse pads for two weeks now and here’s what I’ve found:
Icemat:
The Icemat is very slick and offers good control. This mouse pad is
better suited towards gaming than Photoshop because of their slickness.
It’s great to use in FPS games though. The only complaint I have
is that it is raised and the height of the mouse pad is a little bit
annoying.
9/10!
+Slick
Surface!
+Looks Damn Cool
+Easy to Clean Surface
-Slightly Raised Surface
-Price
Steelpad
4D
I encountered a problem when using the slick side of the Steelpad 4D
when using my Logitech MX300 mouse, it would not work correctly, the
mouse wouldn’t respond very well to my movements. I also tested
the slick side with my Kingston optical laptop mouse, which also didn’t
work. So I just flipped over the mouse pad and used the rough side,
which worked well. The Steelpad wasn’t as good as the Icemat in
gaming, but was very good in Photoshop because of its rough surface
side. Unless there is a list that gives compatible mousse for the smooth
side, I can’t recommend this mouse pad for gaming.
8/10!
+Good Control in Photoshop
+Good shape and Size
+Slim
-A little bit noisy on rough side
-Slick Side doesn’t work on some Mice
