Best Gaming Mouse Pad Reviews 2016

The point of buying a gaming mouse and mouse pad is to enhance your gaming experience and to improve your control, giving you an edge in online gaming. Having the right gaming pad to support your mouse will give you just that edge.

In best gaming mouse pad we are going to review a few mouse pads, each with different features and a different price tag. I recommend that you try to match your preferences to the features these mouse pads offer.

The Razer Vespula is a hard, medium sized gaming pad measuring 11.8 x 9.4 x 0.2 inches.

The feature which defines the Vespula is it's 2 sides. The one side is a 'speed' side and the other one a 'control' side. This is basically controlled with friction, the high speed side having lower friction than the control side. If you tend to play games where large fast gestures are important, you will like the speed side (FPS games) and if you play games where small specific movements are important, you will be using the control side more.

The Vespula comes with a detachable hand rest. The hand rest contains a gel which allows it to change shape to more comfortably support your hand, this helps with fatigue during long gaming sessions. It's quite a nice feature and most of the mouse pad's owners do use the hand rest. However if you go to a LAN party, you might want to leave the rest at home.

The Vespula is made from painted plastic, while a few of it's competing high end gaming pads are made from aluminum. Compared to those pads the Vespula is easier to clean and quieter. However it is also less durable than the metal pads. The performance of the metal pads can be affected by temperature changes and they tend to pick up oil from the user's hands. Mostly gamers who have owned both types recommend the Vespula over the metal alternatives.

The biggest drawback of the mouse pad is it's height. If you have a large gaming mouse moving from side to side is easy, but the up and down movement is a little cramped.

The bottom line with the Vespula is that it's not cheap at $30. So the question becomes: Is it worth it? In my opinion it makes a substantial difference to your gaming, without a good mouse pad you are simply not getting the most out of your gaming mouse.

The SteelSeries SX is an extremely smooth mouse pad made from coated aluminum. The base of the mouse pad is made from rubber which means it won't slide around and it also dampens the noise. The SX 's dimensions are 11 x 13 x 0.6 inches and it weighs 1.4 pounds.

The SteelSeries company is known for making functional straightforward products without any unnecessary features and this mouse pad is no exception.

The most important feature of the SteelSeries SX is it's durability the surface is extremely resistant to degrading and even after using it for months defects are almost non existent.

The SteelSeries SX, retailing at $50 is the most expensive product of it's type on the market, the price is however justified by the production costs in terms of time and materials.

This mouse pad is quite light on your wrist. All the edges on the SX have been filed down and are grate free, this means that you can't hurt your wrist on minor flaws in the mat.

The SteelSeries QcK is a cheap medium size gaming mouse pad. The dimensions are: 12.6 x 10.6 x 0.08 inches. It is a cloth option with a rubber base. This mouse pad isn't nearly as good as say the Vespula, however it only costs $10. If you compare it to a non gaming mouse pad which costs around $5, the movements are more consistent and more precise. So it is definitely worth the extra cost.

Some users have had issues with the packing of the QcK. It came rolled it up so it isn't completely flat when you start to use it. If you have this problem all you need to do is to put it in the dryer for 5-10 minutes and it will be flattened out perfectly.

The 4HD is a small hard plastic gaming mouse pad. It's dimensions are 9.4 x 11.4 x 0.08 inches and it only weighs 5 ounces. If that is too small for you the 9HD is the same pad just larger.

The bottom is a plastic grip which grips well on a table and the top is a semi-hard plastic composite. I would describe the surface of this pad as semi-smooth.

If you enjoyed best gaming mouse pad 2016 you might also enjoy best gaming headphones 2016.