Until a few months ago, I paid practically zero attention to my mouse + mousepad combination. We've all been using them for years, they haven't changed much and basically they just faded into the background. This first started to turn around for me with Jim's review of the Intellimouse Explorer. I bought one, took it to work and they spread like some kind of bizarre mouse virus, managers wanted them, staff saw them and wanted them, it was incredible. Not only did it look good, it certainly made an improvement to my comfort at the PC. Recently a few manufacturers have started seriously looking at the other part of the combination - the mouse pad. One that's been getting a lot of publicity lately is the EverGlide series and they are brought into Australia by Aus PC Market.

This particular unit is called the "Large Attack Pad". It looks pretty wicked, more like some kind of Klingon hurled weapon than a humble mousepad. For the true fetishists there's even one with the Q3 logo emblazoned across the top. This one has a small "EverGlide" logo in the bottom left corner. This has been painted on - stamped, it seems - the rough surface makes the paint look pretty scruffy around the edges, though. The units are apparently hand-made and they have that feel, the not quite machine-perfect curves and the occasional ripple on the bevelled edge. It seems to be made from the same plastic as those chopping boards - in fact, it really does seem to be one of those plastic chopping boards cut to shape. The surface is covered in millions of extremely fine craters and I wonder how it would stand up to months of sustained use. For general abuse it seems pretty much indestructible, short of burning it, spilling some corrosive goo on it, gouging it with knives or physically snapping it in half (not easy) you'd be hard pressed to damage it in the normal desk environment - even the covered-in-urban-silt desks like my own. It is secured on the table by 6 little clear rubber feet. These did a great job of stopping the unit moving around both on the cheapy fibreboard desk at home and the polished wood one at work.

The surface itself is certainly very pleasant to mouse on. It's quite odd at first, the surface seems to almost repel the mouse so it skims lightly across the mat. It makes the mouse seem a lot lighter and you tend to overshoot the mark for a fair while until you get used to it. On my main desk at home I have 2 PC's - I use a classic Microsoft Intellimouse 1.1A on my games box and the IntelliMouse Explorer on my workstation - it's a little small to use both mice together on the mat, which is what I normally do with my old wetsuit-material type pad.

Even though the Explorer does not need a mouse mat it still benefits from the lower friction on the Everglide surface. The ball mouse was similar - I would say my accuracy with the railgun in Q3 probably doubled because of the fine, smooth movements afforded by this mousepad. Sadly, that is where the first flaw with this unit appears. It first manifested as an irritating habit of falling off the railgun platform on Q3DM17. I first put this down to my not being used to the higher sensitivity of the mouse and persisted. But no, I would land on the platform, run to the first health, turn on that corner of the platform and accellerate towards the other health with the arrow keys.. falling off the platform. It really seemed that I was not completing the turn in time, even after my brain had compensated for the new mousemat. After a fair bit more experimentation, I discovered what was occurring. It seems the surface is a little TOO smooth for my ball mouse. It seems that when you move the mouse rapidly to one side (as when turning) the ball does not grip and takes a little while to spin up - basically it skids unpredictably. This soon became a serious point of irritation and noticeable in a few other places in Q3.

I will mention that I don't have my mouse set to super-low sensitivity or anything - I'm not reefing it across the whole length of the mouse-pad. In fact, my sensitivity is pretty high, I'm definitely a twitch-player - I don't experience the pickup-problem that a few people have complained about with the Intellimouse Explorer (look here for a discussion in our forums). I think that problem is caused by too low sensitivity and as I said, I don't experience it. This skipping may be caused by the age of the mouse and the ball being smoother - I don't have access to any other ball mice so it's hard to diagnose this as a proper fault with the pad.

I took the pad to work and used it on the machine there. That has an Intellimouse Explorer on it and despite hours of impirical research in Q3 and Q1, I did not experience the same issue as I had with the ball mouse. In fact, once I got used to the speed and lightness I probably played better Quake than I have in a long time. There's no denying this surface increases the accuracy and sensitivity of the Intellimouse Explorer, which is already impressive. This may be the ultimate mouse/surface combination.

For general mousing duties the Everglide works well with either mouse. It's hard to judge the accuracy of clicking when surfing the web or general use (how often do you miss clicks anyway?) but it certainly feels lighter and is less effort to move around. I found the extra height of the pad a little uncomfortable - the front edge is a bevelled inward curve, the theory presumably being that you rest the heel of your hand against that curve so it is supported across a wider area. This is fine, but the extra height, especially when coupled with a tall mouse like the Explorer but also noticeable with the ball mouse, means that you are tilting your hand up and I was therefore resting on the bones in my wrist which becomes uncomfortable during a long mousing session.

Finally, the shape, while looking the goods, is more irritating than practical. The amount of usable space is pretty small for something with "Large" in the title. Although actually tipping off onto the bevelled edges was quite rare, I was aware of the proximity of the edge of the pad and this made me feel a little cramped, a little mouse-claustrophobic. This is most noticeable during general mousing. I think realistically a rectangular shape would be more useful - I don't think I'll miss the curved bottom edge. Maybe if they made the bevel shallower on the front edge or something that would be more comfortable than a curve anyway.

Conclusion
This is by far the smoothest, most accurate, lightest-feeling mouse pad I've used. There's no question that my accuracy went up in games and the lowered friction of the pad makes general mousing less effort on the wrist and forearm. I would, however, offer a couple of suggestions to EverGlide or someone making a comparable product - firstly, make it thinner. The same thickness as a normal foam/cloth mousepad would be ideal. Second, make it larger in area or at the very least make it rectangular. Thirdly, while the surface is extremely good, it may be just a tad TOO smooth, not quite enough friction for ball mice - or at least, not for twitchers like me. Having said all that, if you're on the lookout for a mousepad, this unit is definitely worth looking at and deciding for yourself. The increase in smoothness over a conventional pad is pretty much indescribable so you really need to experience it for yourself. If you eventually decide you don't like it you can always rest drinks or chop carrots on it - or find some Romulans to throw it at.