Icemat Black mousepad review

Most good mousepads are made from hard plastic, so you might be wondering if there are any good alternatives out there which are not made of plastic. In this review I'm going to give you a look at the Icemat Black. The Icemat Black is made out of glass.

The front and the back of the box in which the Icemat Black ships. While a nice cool box does not tells anything about how the product performs it does tell you that the company behind it cares about the product. First lets take a look at the specifications of this product :

Specifications:

The most obvious distinction from an ordinary mouse pad is the fact that the Icemat is made from glass.
Furthermore the polyurethane feet beneath the Icemat, secures that the Icemat will stay in place, be stable, without sliding and the Icemat always keeps its shape.
The logo on the Icemat is placed on the bottom of the mat, in order not to affect the mouse movements on the surface.
With every Icemat, free Icemat-Padsurfers comes along in the retail box. Padsurfer is a stripe of special made teflon tape.
Attach the Padsurfer to the feet of the mouse in order to obtain “Sliding Perfection”

Production/Quality:
The product is made in Denmark.
CNC machines ensures that the quality of the glass has a consistent high standard in every detail.
Prints are made with special care and every item is double-checked manually.

Facts:
Measures:
One Icemat retail box measures 285 x 245 x 32 mm.
Weight:
A single Icemat has a weight of 0.449 kilograms and including the box, it has a weight of 0.639 kilogram.
The weight of the Padsurfers in the plastic bag is 0.005 kilogram.

Sales arguments:
Amazing accuracy with the mouse
It doesn’t bend or lose shape
A long lasting product.
Looks damn cool
Gamers has approved the product.
Fast and professional expedition to customers.
Make a profitable business.

Compatibility:

Except for Wireless Intellimouse® Explorer and Intellimouse® Explorer 3.0 from Microsoft on the Black Icemat neither of the two Icemats officially supports the use of optical mice.

The name Icemat Black obviously refers to the colour of this glass mousepad : Black. These mousepads are made in Denmark and its measures are 250 x 210 x 6.2 mm. In the bottom right corner of the mousepad you can see a frosted Icemat logo. On the back of the Icemat are six feets to prevent slipping. It is a strong and heavy mousepad, but remember that it is made out of glass, so there is a rather high chance that it will brake if you accidentally drop it.

On the left a closer look at one of the polyurethane feets which are glued to the glass surface. On the right the thickness of this mousepad : 6.2 mm. You can hardly see it on the pictures but the edges of the glass mousepad have a greenish shade.

Also included with each Icemat is a padsurfer. These should be applied on the feets of your mouse to improve accurancy and to decrease noise. Applying it is very simple. Cut of a piece of the Teflon tape for each feet of your mouse and stick it on the feets. Then seal the edges with your finger nails and your done.

Testing and Conclusion
Actually to be honest I was quite sceptical about this mousepad. I was expecting a lot of noise from this mousepad when moving my mouse over its glass surface. Then when I received the mousepad I tested it and indeed it made a very annoying scraping sound. But fortunately after applying the padsurfers to the feets of my mouse it became almost noiseless. Only when moving your mouse very quick over the surface you will hear a soft sound, but it is not as loud and irritating is the sound I heard first without the padsurfers applied.

The mouse I used for this test is the Logitech MX700. On their website they say that the Icemat Black is offically only compatible with the Wireless Intellimouse Explorer and Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 from Microsoft but I had no single problem with my Logitech MX700. It slides very smooth over the surface of the pad, and its accurancy is very high.

So overall this mousepad was a lot better than what I had expected from it. Price over at Icemat.net is $29.50 and 33,51EUR over at Icemat.com

The Good Stuff
- Good accurancy (tested with Logitech MX 700)
- Smooth surface
- Mousepad is made out of an extraordinarily material
- Easy to clean
- Its weight and feets will make sure that it won't slips over your desk.
- Very solid

The Bad Stuff/Things that could be better
- Makes an annoying scraping sound if you use it without Teflon tapes.
- It is made out of glass so sometimes it will feel too cold.
- High price

The Icemat Black receives a 8/10 from DV Hardware

Questions or comments regarding this product can be posted in our forum

Added: October 30th 2003
Product reviewed: Icemat Black mousepad
Reviewer: LSDsmurf
Score: 8/10

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