EVO-G Illuminated Mousepad VS QPAD XFX Collectors Edition Page: 1

Introduction

I have been sent two high end "professional" gamer mouse mats. My mission, is to investigate which of the pair was the better mouse mat for gaming and every day use. I have also included an average mat to hopefully show how much better a high-end mouse mat can be. There are certainly a lot of mouse mats around these days, lets have a look at if these can be set apart from the crowd.

 

The EVO-G Illuminated Mousepad

 

A little background infomation on this young company:

Evo-G was born in Dec 2006, it means Evolution Gaming Gear. Evo-G is all about innovative gaming gear for the market that makes more users professional. Evo-G is all about gaming gear. Our mission is to create performance-enhancing gaming products, created for and by leading professionals. Our staff is distributed throughout the world, working from offices in Europe, North America and Asia. Evo-G headquarters is located in Asia (Peking, China), and host the primary office facilities for the company. The headquarters handle all planning, production and partner coordination.

 

Evo-G seem to be interested in the evolution of the mouse. If you have a browse around their website you will come across some obsurce mouse mats and mouse aids. But today we are looking at the Illuminated mousepad that they have created. This is what they say about the ilIuminated Mousepad:

 

The IMP1 is a precision mouse pad for professionnal gamers, office and home users. IMP1 captivates with its sophisticated acrylic frame incorporating built-in lightning effect. The frame is illuminated with four bright LEDs whose light intensity can be modified or switched off by a variable cable remote control. The IMP1 mousepad is made of high quality cloth material, providing a precise and consistent glide.  

 

 

 

Specifications:

The illuminated mousepad specs have been taken straight from EVO-G's website. 

 

High Performance Cloth Surface
Weapon-like Shape
Illuminated Cloth Mousepad
Creative Lighting Effects
Color-changing Switch System
High Quality Acrylic Glass Base
Soft and Slip-proof Rubber Base
Steel Grid Gaming Surface
Dimension: 371mmx251mmx8mm
Illuminated Color: Blue, Red, Green, Tri-color, Multi-light Effects
Connection: USB
Weight: 450g

 

 

 

QPAD XFX Collector's Edition

 

QPAD have had a good few mouse mats available and all have been highly regarded and won several awards, if you are not familiar with QUAD below is a snippet about them:

QPAD built its success on a grassroots commitment to the gaming community. Like you, we thrive in the madness of competition and embrace the free spirit of gaming. Our sponsorship of the Q Tour, communities, cups, tournaments, teams and LAN parties reflects this commitment. The knowledge we?ve gained has fed into our development of high quality products that have a great performance and given many a winning edge.


So we now know that QPAD are professionals when it comes to mouse mats. Hopefully the QPAD XFX CT will defend it's creators reputation. Below is what QPAD say about the CT:

 

For all users with high demands on precision, feel and functionality this is the mouse pad that delivers. CT™ series smooth Hybratek™ coating ensures that the mouse registers every detail of the smallest mouse movement. It offers a smooth and a controlled glide with an optimum level of friction. Whether you are a hardcore gamer or work with other demanding tasks such as graphic design or large spreadsheets, you’ll thrill to the task.

 

Lets have a more detailed look at the QPAD.

 

 

 

Specifications:

QPAD's specs take directly from QPAD's website.

Size: Medium [33x25.5 cm 12.99x10.04 inch]
Thickness: 4 mm
Color: Black
Surface: Hybratek™ Coated soft top
Other: Including Glidz
Art.Nr. 3801
EAN: 7350020290299

 

 

 

If you follow over the second page we shall have a more detailed look at the packaging...



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Packaging - QPAD

The QPAD came in a neat plastic tube. A light plastic cylinder and a little bit of card with the company logo and information on it. You know that you are not paying for the packaging, which is a welcome change in the world we live in today. Although the packaging is minimal it is a cylinder, which is one of the strongest structures so I wouldn't worry about that clumsy courier.

 

 

Once you have the mouse mat out of the cylinder you won't find any additional plastic coverings.  One bad thing about this mat is that it stinks!  When you open your newly received package you are greeted with a horrid smell which nearly knocked me off my chair.

 

After further examination of the packaging, a little tab of stickers slipped out but these were not company stickers. To tell you the complete truth I didn't have a clue what they were at first.  I thought maybe they stick on the bottom of the mat to allow it to stick to a surface, but they were too slippery to do that. So I had to use good old "Google" and found that they were actually called Glidz.  They are used to stick on the bottom of your mouse to lessen traction.

 

Looking good so far, now turn over to have a look at the QPAD's rival.



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Packaging - EVO-G

Now this is what I call packaging, a rectangular shaped box about half the size of a medium tower computer case. You can definitely not worry about this one getting damaged in transit. Some interesting designs on the front including a smaller sized picture of the mouse mat.

 

Once inside the box you will come across another white box and you open that to retrieve your mouse mat.

 

Let's carry on to the comparison over the page. 



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The Comparison

Straight from the word go, the EVO-G has the "wow" factor with it's LEDs and unique design. I remember pulling it out of the box and thinking to myself, "Well, I know the winner" - but that would have been jumping the gun.

Let's have a look at the surface of the mats. The EVO-G has a thin padded cotton layer whereas the QPAD has some kind of smooth rubber.

As keen gamers know, the thickness of the mat usually determines the comfort of the mat. This is where I believe the EVO-G fails because of its carbon fibre edging. But on the other hand, the QPAD has 4mm of comfy clearance.

The EVO-G's show piece is its light presentation.  It does what it says on the tin - the EVO-G Illuminated Mousepad illuminates. You can get 5 different light options on the EVO-G.

We have the Tri-Colour which allows you to choose between 3 colours as shown below:
 
Red:

 
Green:

 
Blue:

 
 
The LEDs are powered by a spare USB port on your computer and controlled by a little switch on the cable.
 

 
 
Finally, a side-by-side comparison.
 



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Test Setup

For the testing part of this review I used my current rig - Tox's Rig

My rig is currently running Windows Server 2003 x64 and had all available updates for drivers and OS at the time of the review. Components consist of:

 

*Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 @ 3.65Ghz
*Asus Maximus Formula
*2Gb Corsair TwinX XMS2 DHX/Corsair XMS DDR2 @ 961Mhz
*1 x 320GB Western Digital SATAII - 32Mb cache - 7200.10
*Samsung Writemaster SATA x18
*Black X-Blade tower case
*Custom Swiftech water cooling
 
Testing Method
 
To give you and I a better idea of which is the better mouse mat I used the mouse mat as I would on a normal day. The first stage was browsing the net; assessing how well the mouse glides over the surface of the mat when moving slowly. Then the fun starts! I put both mats through rigorous testing on some of the most played games of today: Call of Duty 4; Frontlines; Fuel of War; Bioshock; Crysis; UT3; and finally something a little slower; Company of Heroes. I played Call of Duty 4's Multiplayer on OC3D's very own servers. Server 1: 212.69.36.85:28960  Server 2: 212.69.36.86:28960
 
Carry on to the next page to see what I thought of the mats while gaming.


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The QPAD XFX Collector's Edition

Gaming experience

For me the QPAD was a huge improvement from my old fish mouse mat. Being 4mm thick it really was a dream to use. I hate resting my wrist on the side of a table or even the side of my old mouse mat but the QPAD, being 4mm thick, allows you to comfortably rest your wrist on the mat. Unfortunately this is where the EVO-G stumbles - it has no place to rest your wrist except on the hard cold carbon fibre. Anyway on to the games...

The most noticable change when using the QPAD was the surface. The surface of the mat is a mixture of cloth and smooth rubber.  This combination worked perfectly together to produce a smooth and low friction surface. Combine the rubber surface with the Glidz and wow you have a brilliant mouse mat. 

Playing Call of Duty 4 multiplayer you can noticeably feel the difference between the QPAD and my old mat.  The low friction surface allows you to experience the ease of movement. I found it to be a great addition to support my aim while sniping as well. Being able to take smoother movements allowed me to get some pretty nice shots. In addition to CoD4, all the other games played wonderfully under the QPAD. I believe it is a brilliant mouse mat to use for long periods because the comfort it brings.

Desktop Control

Without even touching the sensitivity of my mouse you can feel how much more responsive and speedy the mouse pointer is. The surface of the mat not only allows for lesser traction but it can help improve the response of  the optical sensor of the mouse. While on the desktop and browsing I thought it would be a good idea to test the mat while in Photoshop. Photoshop is a brilliant program but can sometimes be very frustrating when you zooming in on your work. The QPAD, as expected was amazing. It really allowed for the smallest of corrections.

Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with how well the QPAD performed and improves mouse control. 

 

EVO-G Illminated Mousepad

Gaming Experience

I was not as impressed with the EVO-G. Admittedly it provided a slight improvement over my old mat but not significant enough to spend money on it. Once you get used to the cold, odd shaped wrist rest it can be quite pleasant. The cotton surface has a nice texture to it and subsequently the mouse responded well.  It was also nice to move your hand across while gaming. This mat is designed to have a "wow" factor and it sure does "wow" but when it comes to actually using it, I am afraid it is rather average.

 

Desktop Control

As before, I browsed using the new mat and as I have said in the Gaming Experience section it is much the same as my old mouse mat. After experimenting I have found that if you sit high enough so that your arm is not laying flat on the desk and is more at a diagonal, you can get quite comfortable. This is not my favoured sitting posture but helped when having to rest my wrist.

 

Let's head over to the next page for the conclusion.



EVO-G Illuminated Mousepad VS QPAD XFX Collectors Edition Page: 7

Conclusion

So which mouse mat has impressed us the most?

To tell the truth they are both pretty good mouse mats. But the EVO-G has a few flaws that ruins it for me. The main issue with the EVO-G is the wrist rest. I found it hard to adjust to and it's not exactly the most comfortable rest.  Whereas the QPAD, and it's 4mm height, is rather comfy and nice to use for extended perods of time.

The EVO-G for me has the looks, a little on the tacky side but it certainly can impress. But because of its good looks it has failed to provide the comfort that is needed for long periods of time spent in front of a screen.

The EVO-G may have the looks but the QPAD can see them off. The QPAD is also portable - great for that LAN party!  

Finally both mats suffer from size problems. If you have a small desk please look at the measurements before you buy as they are rather large. On the plus side they allow for more movement while in games.

 

EVO-G Illuminated Mousepad results:

The Good - 

 The Mediocre
The Bad
 
 
 
 
QPAD XFX Collector's Edition:
 
The Good
 
The Mediocre
 
The Bad
 
Thanks to EVO-G and QPAD for providing the products to review.
 
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