I tried the Everglide Attack Optical Smoke. The pad is ever so slightly warped. I've tried everything to try to fix it (even what the website says) but it's like those things have permanant memory. The stick-ons they put on the bottom were not where they should be or the proper ammount. The pad itself is high maintainence, requiring a cleaning in the sink every couple days. If it doesn't get cleaned the static friction builds up. When clean and with a clean mouse (MS Intellimouse Explorer Optical here) the mouse pad has very good (low) static friction. I bought the smaller one and it is definitely too small for the mouse I use. The mousepad pad is also too thick.
Then I bought a RatPadz GS. The good is that it sits perfectly flat on the desk and it never really needs cleaning. The bad is that no matter how clean everything is the surface has a static friction that is unacceptible for pinpoint gaming.
The next Mouse pad I plan on trying is an Xtrac pad. (Someone said it was good)
I have read Tom's recent review on mouse pads, however there is more to a good mouse pad than what the article says. What I am talking about is friction, and more in depth info. Alot of reviews and posters I have seen write about "less friction is good". Thats about all they say. First of all, there are 2 types of friction, static friction (force required to get the mouse moving) and dynamic friction (force required to keep the mouse moving).
Some people think "zero friction is teh bomb" however if you have near zero friction it actually becomes a pain in the ass to use the mouse. I have used "Mousewax" and experienced zero friction (zeros both static and dynamic friction). What happens is the mouse has no friction to stop it's movement. So to move the mouse to a specific spot you don't have to just push it there, you also have to stop it there by applying opposite force (instead of just not pushing anymore) Your wrist muscles have zero feedback. Zero feedback is not good when you are trying to position something.
People who rollerblade know that zero friction wheels are only for racers (speed). But for general use, rollerblades wheels purposely put friction there so that you have feedback and can manuever much easier around things like a lightpost at an intersection without slipping around and falling on your butt.
Dynamic friction should not be zero. There is a wide range of dynamic friction that is acceptible. As long as there is some resistance half the work is done for you (stopping the moving mouse).
Static friction, however, is the huge deal when it comes to mouse pads for gaming or CAD/CAM applications. The lower the better. When you have bad static friction, you can not make tiny adjustments to the mouse without it jumping like 10 pixels as soon as it starts moving. Static friction is the bane of anyone who does a task involving targetting a single pixel. You can counteract it by pseudo lifting the mouse a little to reduce it's weight then moving it that way but that of course is not a natural mouse movement.
To get good (low) static friction on a hard mouse pad without compromising the dynamic friction, the surface area in contact with the mouse is reduced by making it "rough". This is not enough for good static friction though. There are many ways to be "rough" but static friction can be reduced furthur by making the small surfaces of the roughness "sharper" (thereby decreasing the surface area contact furthur) The problem with that is that they wear down (become dull) and the microscopic valleys fill up with dirt easier (shorter lifetime and higher maintainence)
I don't know what the best mouse pad you can buy is (and I know now you are building one yourself) but I can say that Everglide Optical and RatPadz GS are NOT the best mousing pads out there. It has to get better than that and I am trying Xtrac next.
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