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Quality Mat

Sam investigates the cusp of rodent-surfaces once again...

I was walking to work yesterday morning when I passed some council workers filling in a hole in the road. They needed two trucks, one with a trailer, to carry all of their specialist equipment to the site. It then required the four of them to delicately manage the complex operation of manoeuvring the shovel of asphalt into the correct position, and then tip it into the 2 inch deep hole. Three of them then stood around offering up their years of experience and training to ensure that the fourth spread the stuff around nice and evenly. When I passed it today it looked like a cow had been on a mass Guinness drinking session before sauntering up to the hole and doing what comes so easily to all cattle.

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This has nothing to do with the Quality Mat, or mousemats in any way, although I do believe it does give an indication of the areas of local government that need to be looked into if council taxes are ever going to fall back to a sensible level. Actually, now I give it more consideration, the Quality Mat would have done a great job of filling in that pothole for a fraction of the price it would have cost for those four jokers to complete all the paperwork such extensive repairs no doubt require. That's not to say the Quality Mat is only fit for lobbing into a road defect, rather it is such a solid, well-made piece of kit that it could perform many other functions than just being a surface for a rodent to skate around on.

Made of super-strong safety glass the Quality Mat may not be the most attractive precision mat on the market but it is one of the best performing. Arriving in a non-descript but sturdy white cardboard box, (which I am told will be tarted up shortly) the Quality Mat arrived in perfect condition, showing no signs of stress from its journey across the sea from the Netherlands. The Quality Mat comes with a generous strip of frictionless tape and a basic foam wrist rest. You can choose from a selection of colours ranging from blue to orange through anthracite and red. These colours are silk-screened on to the glass in a reverse-dot pattern leaving a regular pattern of clear glass spots in a sea of the chosen colour. I reviewed both the blue and anthracite Quality Mats and must say that the darker colour really looks quite smart. One of the main selling points is the safety aspect of the Quality Mat. Coming in at 5mm thick the glass is heavy and radiates a sense of toughness. If you were to somehow break it the safety glass would shatter into relatively harmless little cubes of glass, making it an ideal surface for computers in hazardous locations. But that isn't what really interests us here at Ferrago, so it's with some happiness that I can report that the Quality Mat performs very well when it comes down to gaming.

The patterning on the QM helps to reduce the actual amount of the surface that a mouse will come into contact with as it goes about its business. Movement across the surface was always smooth and even. With the application of the tape my mouse just glided along, running slicker then a crooked presidential campaign. A gentle tap with my finger on the side of the mouse and it would coast from one side of the mat to the other while when under the hand control was both firm and responsive. Other mousemats have used dimpling to try and provide a smoother experience. The Quality Mat's implementation of the principles involved result in a sound mousing experience. Well, as sound as moving a computer peripheral around can be.

At first the QM seemed noisy but this may have had something to do with my cold making my senses more acute as I quickly forgot all about the QM even being there. This is one of the highest compliments that can be given to a mousemat. Even when balanced on the arm rest of my easy chair I have to look down to be aware of its presence. On a desk the wrist rest provides both comfort and support but as my testing on the arm-rest proves the relatively high height of the QM causes no discomfort. The edges of it are slightly rounded so it doesn't dig too badly into your flesh yet I would have liked to see a little more curvature to cure the issue completely. The banded pattern also helps to keep the glass warmer than the Icemat, another surface made from glass. Two of my major problems with the Icemat was the fact that it needed to be warmed up to become comfortable and that sweat quickly condensed on its surface, making tracking erratic and the Icemat an unseemly sight. Because of the way it is built neither of these problems effect the Quality Mat.

The surface area is more then ample at 280mm by 215mm although if that seems too small for you a larger version is in the works. Ball mice work just fine with the QM and the optical rodent I tested with it loved the reflective but non-refractive properties of the glass used. Precision is very good here, with both FPS and RTS games appreciating the fine control that this surface gives the player. Of course normal OS operations are great as well.

The Quality Mat has a lot of properties that any good mousemat should have plus a few others that help propel it into the realm of the truly great. Both the precision and ease of use are most commendable while I have yet to use a mousemat that exudes such a sense of quality manufacturing methods. It has four feet made of a hard gel-like plastic, which allow for a fractional amount of lateral movement of the QM while keeping their place on a desk. My Counter-Strike obsessed flatmate has swapped out his old favourite the Icemat for one of these. Personally, I will hold out till the larger version is available before I give up my Steelpad 4D as I prefer a lot of surface space. If that isn't a concern for you then I can list very few other reasons why you shouldn't pick up a Quality Mat the next time you are looking for a new gaming surface.

Most noticeably, the Quality Mat isn't going to win any awards for purtiness. It is rather plain to look at and the vibrancy of the non-anthracite colours is a little too lively for my liking. Quality Glass, the company that makes the mat, assures me that a new version will soon be released with some more attractive visual designs to tempt the gamer, so if aesthetics is very important to you some patience may see you happier in the end. Also, if you happen to rest your mousemat on your thigh the QM would probably eventually cut off circulation to your feet. The foam wrist rest that comes with it is very simple and although it is effective it could do with some extra refinement to suit the high standards of the Quality Mat itself.

These are all small niggles though as overall the Quality Mat is a really fantastic product. The company itself is a newcomer to the mousemat market and as this is a first attempt I had to be even more impressed than I was when the product was assessed on its own merits. A little more refinement and this could well become my favourite mousemat.

88%

1. Y'all suck mouse mats for dinner.

   gooliwok Friday, 23 April 2004, 10:45:12