Review: Cyber Snipa Tracer and Pro Gamer Mouse Mats
VyperAus, 13-Oct-09 » As every gaming enthusiast knows, it’s all about getting the best performance out of your gaming rig and the associated peripherals. The widescreen monitor, the gaming keyboard with programmable macro buttons, and the gaming mouse with the option to switch the sensitivity on the fly. One piece of equipment does get overlooked quite often and that’s the humble mouse mat.
Every gamer knows that the desktop just doesn’t cut it when you are trying to out frag your opponents, or go for that elusive counter-attack. So you need to have a decent mouse mat. The $2 special, foam and fabric one that your mum brought from Kmart won’t cut it either, you need to have a decent surface under your mouse to get the best performance out of it in every way.
The market is growing with mouse mats and specialist gaming mats coming out thick and fast, we’ve been lucky enough to receive two from Cyber Snipa for review and will be putting it through the nGR Labs to see what stuff they’re made of.
Getting put through their paces are the micro fibre Pro Gamer mouse mat, and the Tracer mouse mat. While most people balk at the price of peripherals for gaming, these 2 mats come in at a very reasonable price of $24.95 for the microfiber, and a respectable $34.95 for the tracer.
Pro Gamer Mouse Mat
The first thing you notice when you take the Pro Gamer mat out of the tube it comes in (an unusual, packaging for a mouse mat) is the size of the mat. Unrolled, it measure a huge 380mm by 295mm, which means you will need plenty of space on your desktop for this mat.
The mat itself is made up of 3 layers, the micro fibre surface, the foam middle layer and then the rubber backing. The rubber backing on the mat, does a fantastic job and providing a stable non-slip platform for your mouse, ensuring that the mat doesn’t go sliding around your desktop.
The foam provides a comforting rest for your wrist while you’re waiting for levels or maps to load, but it’s also dense enough to ensure that the mat will keep its shape and not roll up at the edges after being in the packaging.
The top micro fibre layer is very smooth to the touch with a choice of two designs, either a soldier or an eye. While our test G5 mouse moved quite smoothly across the micro fibre surface, the older Microsoft IntelliMouse, we found, needed a bit more effort to move across the micro fibre surface, due to added friction of the bottom of the mouse on the micro fibre layer.
Putting the mat through its gaming paces in Battlefield 2, Team Fortress 2 and Red Alert 3.We found that to get the best performance the sensitivity of the mice had to be turned right up. This was easy to do with the on-the-fly setting ability of the G5 mouse but the IntelliMouse it took a little longer due to having to exit the game and use the Windows settings.
Several times especially during the fast paced action on TF2 and BF2 we noticed that there was a occasional stutter in the movement of the mouse on screen, we weren’t able to work out exactly why but we think this might have been caused by the laser not getting a smooth enough reading as the mouse was gliding across the micro fibre surface.
After an impressive start with the Pro Gamer, we couldn’t wait to fire up the Tracer mouse mat, and put it through its paces.
Tracer Mouse Mat
A somewhat different packaging is used for the Tracer mouse mat. A well sealed plastic case that shows off the shape and size of the mat from first glance, but also present a challenge to open (you almost need a degree in safe cracking to open it)
The Tracer is a medium sized mouse mat, measuring in at 305mm by 230mm, means that this mat will be able to fit on most desktops. For those with the really tight areas or keyboard draws, it might pose a bit of a problem as the height is 6mm, so it’s not made for slipping under your keyboard, not that you want to do that with this mat.
The acrylic glass provides the main body of this mouse mat, with 5 well placed rubber feet on the back to prevent the mat from moving while it’s in use. The top layer is a hardened plastic gaming surface, that doesn’t quite go to the edge of the acrylic glass, which leaves the way for the blue L.E.D’s to illuminate the edge of the Tracer. The L.E.D’s add a touch of showmanship and that bright blue cool look, which makes it ideal for taking to LAN’s. The L.E.D’s are powered by a USB cable, and the cable has a dimmer control for the L.E.D’s which enables the user to control the brightness or to turn them off.
The first impression the lab got when we put the G5 mouse on it was wow the mouse really glides well across the surface. The hard base of the acrylic glass, and the hard plastic top surface made the G5 just glide, like it was floating on air.
With the IntelliMouse, the movement on the Tracer was much better than the Pro Gamer Mouse mat, although the mouse was making some noise as it was tracking across the mat. The noise seems to come from a scratching between the rubber skates and the mat surface.
The Tracer when put through the gaming tests lived up to its promise as a gaming mat. The most notable feature of its performance, was that you needed to keep the mouse on a low to medium sensitivity, as when it’s cranked up to a high level of sensitivity, the cursor or crosshairs on the screen move too quickly for you to accurately control.
The Tracer ate up every challenge the three games could throw at it. Allowing a good sized area of movement for the mice, tight control of the cursor, due to the hard plastic surface, all added up to an excellent gaming experience. Even with the older IntelliMouse, the movement and cursor control was definitely improved due to the Tracer mouse mat.
CyberSnipa have done a fantastic effort with these two mouse mats. Both the Pro Gamer micro fibre mat, and the Tracer have performed well and both deserve to be classed as gaming mats. There was a little bit of issue with the older IntelliMouse, but that can be attributed to the fact that these mats are designed for gaming mice, and they still got decent performance out of the IntelliMouse.
The affordability of both gaming mats puts them right there for the any gamer. If you are looking to purchase a gaming mouse mat, the Pro Gamer micro fibre mat at $24.95 is a steal, although we’d recommend that you spend the extra $10 and grab yourself the Tracer, which is an absolute bargain for $34.95. Not only does it perform better than the Pro Gamer, but it has the awesome blue L.E.D’s to add that little bit extra to the atmosphere while you are gaming.
Rating
Pro Gamer 7/10 ( decent size and good performance for a bargain price)
Tracer mat 8/10 ( the complete package, great performance, and at fantastic price)
Every gamer knows that the desktop just doesn’t cut it when you are trying to out frag your opponents, or go for that elusive counter-attack. So you need to have a decent mouse mat. The $2 special, foam and fabric one that your mum brought from Kmart won’t cut it either, you need to have a decent surface under your mouse to get the best performance out of it in every way.
The market is growing with mouse mats and specialist gaming mats coming out thick and fast, we’ve been lucky enough to receive two from Cyber Snipa for review and will be putting it through the nGR Labs to see what stuff they’re made of.
Getting put through their paces are the micro fibre Pro Gamer mouse mat, and the Tracer mouse mat. While most people balk at the price of peripherals for gaming, these 2 mats come in at a very reasonable price of $24.95 for the microfiber, and a respectable $34.95 for the tracer.
Pro Gamer Mouse Mat
The first thing you notice when you take the Pro Gamer mat out of the tube it comes in (an unusual, packaging for a mouse mat) is the size of the mat. Unrolled, it measure a huge 380mm by 295mm, which means you will need plenty of space on your desktop for this mat.
The mat itself is made up of 3 layers, the micro fibre surface, the foam middle layer and then the rubber backing. The rubber backing on the mat, does a fantastic job and providing a stable non-slip platform for your mouse, ensuring that the mat doesn’t go sliding around your desktop.
The foam provides a comforting rest for your wrist while you’re waiting for levels or maps to load, but it’s also dense enough to ensure that the mat will keep its shape and not roll up at the edges after being in the packaging.
The top micro fibre layer is very smooth to the touch with a choice of two designs, either a soldier or an eye. While our test G5 mouse moved quite smoothly across the micro fibre surface, the older Microsoft IntelliMouse, we found, needed a bit more effort to move across the micro fibre surface, due to added friction of the bottom of the mouse on the micro fibre layer.
Putting the mat through its gaming paces in Battlefield 2, Team Fortress 2 and Red Alert 3.We found that to get the best performance the sensitivity of the mice had to be turned right up. This was easy to do with the on-the-fly setting ability of the G5 mouse but the IntelliMouse it took a little longer due to having to exit the game and use the Windows settings.
Several times especially during the fast paced action on TF2 and BF2 we noticed that there was a occasional stutter in the movement of the mouse on screen, we weren’t able to work out exactly why but we think this might have been caused by the laser not getting a smooth enough reading as the mouse was gliding across the micro fibre surface.
After an impressive start with the Pro Gamer, we couldn’t wait to fire up the Tracer mouse mat, and put it through its paces.
Tracer Mouse Mat
A somewhat different packaging is used for the Tracer mouse mat. A well sealed plastic case that shows off the shape and size of the mat from first glance, but also present a challenge to open (you almost need a degree in safe cracking to open it)
The Tracer is a medium sized mouse mat, measuring in at 305mm by 230mm, means that this mat will be able to fit on most desktops. For those with the really tight areas or keyboard draws, it might pose a bit of a problem as the height is 6mm, so it’s not made for slipping under your keyboard, not that you want to do that with this mat.
The acrylic glass provides the main body of this mouse mat, with 5 well placed rubber feet on the back to prevent the mat from moving while it’s in use. The top layer is a hardened plastic gaming surface, that doesn’t quite go to the edge of the acrylic glass, which leaves the way for the blue L.E.D’s to illuminate the edge of the Tracer. The L.E.D’s add a touch of showmanship and that bright blue cool look, which makes it ideal for taking to LAN’s. The L.E.D’s are powered by a USB cable, and the cable has a dimmer control for the L.E.D’s which enables the user to control the brightness or to turn them off.
The first impression the lab got when we put the G5 mouse on it was wow the mouse really glides well across the surface. The hard base of the acrylic glass, and the hard plastic top surface made the G5 just glide, like it was floating on air.
With the IntelliMouse, the movement on the Tracer was much better than the Pro Gamer Mouse mat, although the mouse was making some noise as it was tracking across the mat. The noise seems to come from a scratching between the rubber skates and the mat surface.
The Tracer when put through the gaming tests lived up to its promise as a gaming mat. The most notable feature of its performance, was that you needed to keep the mouse on a low to medium sensitivity, as when it’s cranked up to a high level of sensitivity, the cursor or crosshairs on the screen move too quickly for you to accurately control.
The Tracer ate up every challenge the three games could throw at it. Allowing a good sized area of movement for the mice, tight control of the cursor, due to the hard plastic surface, all added up to an excellent gaming experience. Even with the older IntelliMouse, the movement and cursor control was definitely improved due to the Tracer mouse mat.
CyberSnipa have done a fantastic effort with these two mouse mats. Both the Pro Gamer micro fibre mat, and the Tracer have performed well and both deserve to be classed as gaming mats. There was a little bit of issue with the older IntelliMouse, but that can be attributed to the fact that these mats are designed for gaming mice, and they still got decent performance out of the IntelliMouse.
The affordability of both gaming mats puts them right there for the any gamer. If you are looking to purchase a gaming mouse mat, the Pro Gamer micro fibre mat at $24.95 is a steal, although we’d recommend that you spend the extra $10 and grab yourself the Tracer, which is an absolute bargain for $34.95. Not only does it perform better than the Pro Gamer, but it has the awesome blue L.E.D’s to add that little bit extra to the atmosphere while you are gaming.
Rating
Pro Gamer 7/10 ( decent size and good performance for a bargain price)
Tracer mat 8/10 ( the complete package, great performance, and at fantastic price)
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| Category: | Game Reviews |
| Posted: | 13-Oct-09 6:19:50 pm |
| Author: | VyperAus |