Black Icemat 2nd Edition
http://www.icemat.com

Stats:

"The black Icemat is an updated design of the original transperent Icemat. No matter what kind of interior you are surrounded with - the black Icemat makes it feel even more exclusive" "

"Black Icemat 2nd Edition is 44% larger than the regular Black Icemat. Measures: 250 x 300 mm. or 10x12 inch."

Price: DKK 279.00 + shipping
(USD 46.89 / EUR 37.55)



For those that don't know, the Icemat is made from glass! I was quite worried to receive a parcel that looked like it had gone through a grinder and I expected to be opening it up to find a 1,000 piece jigsaw mousemat. Credit goes to the Icemat people though for the safe and secure packaging ensuring a one-piece mousemat emerged.

The packaging is nice enough, colourful, professional, and filled with marketing slogans and quotes from gamers who have used the pad. The is only one way to test if they are lying.

Lets roll on with the test:

Size - bigger the better, so you can move your arm about without fear of the mouse falling off.
Material - solid is better, will not crease or peel, leaving you with a flat even surface.
Texture - depends on the mouse you have, textured pads will grip the ball more, and a matt finish will not reflect well for optical mice.
Profile - a really deep pad will cause wrist ache, a thin pad will keep your wrist straighter.
Grip - must stick to desk.
Looks - there is a style aspect believe me ;)


At 250 x 300 mm this is one mighty mousemat, I really don't see the need for a bigger mat than this, you could have more than one person using it at the same time! There is no doubt that you would have a hard time moving your mouse of it by mistake. I use it with my hand on the mat as well, there is lots of room and I find that the most comfortable way.

I like a nice solid mousemat, and I think you will agree that glass is pretty solid? The surface is very flat and appears to be totally flawless upon close inspection. No need to worry about poor contact between the mouse and pad at all. The pad doesn't sag or warp in any way but I would seriously recommend not trying to flex it!! Oh and I really wouldn't want to drop it either. Mine has taken a few knocks with the coffee cup which made me cringe a little but the mat is unscathed and pretty resistant to scratches.

Because it is very solid and made of glass it has the slightly annoying ability to make mouse movements very audible. You might notice this loud scratchy noise at first - plastic against textured glass. Fortunatley the nice people at Icemat bundle some 'Padsurfers' (review soon) with the Icemat. Padsurfer is a very low friction tape (teflon) that you stick to the feet of your mouse, making mouse movement very slick and also virtually silent.

The combination of the Icemat and the Padsurfers is simply outstanding. If you just tap your mouse it will slide across the Icemat effortlessly, if you have never used low friction devices before you will be very shocked and will never be able to play games without them again. It really is great to be able to aim exactly where you want to every single time, no jamming or sticking, just pure smoothness constantly. Imagine the advantage this can give you.

The surface of the mat is slightly frosted and you probably won't want to drag your nails across it if you don't like that kind of feeling (no problem here). I'm just describing the texture here, I'm not saying you have to do it. Ball mice have no problems here but I was wondering if the optical mouse would struggle a bit, but testing in match situations and hours of gaming only produced one slight flicker of the cursor, and really that is not enough for me to discard the pad by any means.

It looks like it might be about 5 or 6mm thickness, pretty thin really, but you dont really ever get the feeling that it is fragile. The one problem I came across is that the edges are not tapered, this is for obvious reasons but you may feel the mat digging into you wrist depending on your situation. Because of the size of the pad, I place my whole hand on the mat so that I do not come into contact with the edge at all, and that suits me fine.

The Icemat stick to the desk like glue. I was very impressed with this and have little to say except it is very good at not moving.

If there is ever such a thing as a sexy mousemat, then the Icemat is 'Miss Mousemat'. It is very smart and the frosty coating finished it off beautifully. There is not a gamer out there that wouldnt be proud to have this sitting next to them.


It looks good, feels good, works good, what more is there to say?


Check the Icemat out here.