Whether you’re rocking a wired ball-mouse or the latest in ergonomic laser gaming mice, one fact remains: your mouse is only as good as the surface it glides on. Most surfaces are not uniform, thus affecting both the physical motion of a mouse glide and the tracking that relays information from mouse to computer. When a millisecond in reaction time means the difference between a win and a loss in a game, a good surface is key.
Enter the Vespula Gaming Mouse Mat, a hard surface mouse pad by the folks over at Razer.
The Vespula rocks two playing surfaces, a smooth side marked by a speedometer icon next to the word “Vespula,” which offers a fast glide for your mouse, and a control side marked by an exclamation mark next to the word “Vespula,” which subjects your mouse to slightly more resistance, thus offering improved accuracy. Which surface you use depends on your play style, but personally, I prefer the matte finish of the control side so my mouse doesn’t overshoot its target.
Want to play on your bed or carpet? No problem. Unlike the flimsy soft mouse pads typically made from rubber, the hard plastic that the Vespula is comprised of provides a stable play surface on any uneven terrain. The pad also measures in at 300mm x 240mm, giving you ample room to mouse on.
The key difference between this hard mouse pad and others of its kind, however, is the gel wrist rest that it comes with. At first the wrist rest feels hard and uncomfortable, but after about an hour of use it wears in and begins to feel like a natural extension of your arm, so much so that I often forget that the rest is there at all. This rest alone was enough to make me switch from my Thunder 8 mouse pad, which I’ve sworn by for the past four years, to the Razer Vespula.
Holding up your own wrist is so 1990s gaming.
My only real gripes with the pad are more aesthetic than functional. The lime green rubber strips that line the four corners of the mouse pad take away from the otherwise sleek black and grey pallet, while the rubber Razer logo printed on the gel wrist rest quickly rubs off after a day or so of use.
Retailing at $34.99, the Razer Vespula might seem pricey to some, especially since no combination of mouse and pad will make you a better gamer if you’re just plain bad. However, given how much time everyone spends in front of their computers, both gamers and non-gamers alike owe it to their mice and wrists to consider investing in one.
What surface do you mouse on?