Join our community in the tech forums for uncut technology discussion.
fUnc Industries sUrface 1030 Competition Mousing Surface
October 30th, 2003 - tekime@fury-tech.com
Comparison & Analysis
The first question that comes to mind when testing a mousepad is, how the hell do you test a mousepad?!
There certainly aren't any benchmarks or timedemo's when it comes to a mousing surface. But, this doesn't
mean we can't gauge just how well this pad performs with a little time and some head-to-head testing
against the most popular counterparts.
First let's ask who needs a mousepad like this. If you're a casual user who uses the PC for a little
email, browsing, and the occasional game of solitaire you probably don't need precision performance
from your mousepad. On the other hand, if you're a gamer, you know how important it is to have
a good surface. Nothing sucks more than getting your butt fragged because your cruddy mousepad makes
your mouse skip, lurch, or crawl. You need both high response to quick movements and very precise response
to small movements. Finally, aside from your average joe and your hardcore gamer, another group who
should demand a quality surface is the graphic designer. If you are using a mouse for your design
work you know how important precision response is.
On top of actual performance we also want to consider comfort level. Even if the pad rocks for gaming
you don't want sore wrists after just a few frags. To simplify things let's break this down some. The
major factors affecting overall quality are:
- Micro response (response to small movements)
- Macro response (response to large movements)
- Smoothness
- Comfort / ease of use
- Price
You can see I threw price in there too, as with anything even the best product can be worthless if the
pricetag is too high. Aside from price, we want to know how the pad handles small, precise movements,
and large usually faster movements. Another important thing to consider is smoothness: does it skip
when you reel the mouse from one end of the pad to the other or is it one smooth movement?
In order to guage how well the fUnc 1030 does up against the alternatives, I'll be using a small variety
of mousing surfaces and mice for my testing. For surfaces we have:
- fUnc 1030
- Ratpadz GS
- Allsop foam rubber mousepad
- Tabletop
These four pretty much cover the most common options right now. Of course, there are lots of other
specialty surfaces out there, but we'll save that for a future review. :) The Allsop is your standard
issue foam rubber mousepad. You've probably seen 'em at Wal-Mart or Best Buy a million times. The
tabletop is a clean, smooth oak surface, entirely not intended for mousing. The Ratpadz GS is another
very popular performance mousepad that had a hand on the market until surfaces like the fUnc started
appearing.
The Ratpadz is a very different design and should help us compare the effect of texture, height,
gripping methods, and surface material very well. Here's a look at the RatPadz GS:
It's definitely thicker than the fUnc, with a much rougher surface and a curved design. A good contrast
to fUnc's methods. The base is also very different, using rubber feet instead of a flat rubber mat:
The surface of each mousepad is critical. fUnc recognizes that you may have differing needs and has
a reversable surface. One side is very smooth while the other is a bit rougher. Let's take a side-by-side
look of each texture in extreme close-up:
 |
 |
|
fUnc - Smooth |
fUnc - Rough |
 |
 |
RatPadz GS |
Generic foam rubber |
It becomes pretty obvious looking at these pics that the RatPadz has a very rough surface. The fUnc's
smooth surface side is extremely smooth, with the other side being slightly rougher but still nowhere
near what the RatPadz is going for. The generic foam rubber mousepad has a cloth top like most of them,
and it's probably about the same surface roughness as the rough fUnc. Different material though, which
can affect how it performs.
Now the mousepad is of course only a portion of what defines your mousing experience. The mouse itself
is primary to the cause. I'll be using three mice to test with so we can get an idea of how each mouse-type
works with each pad:
- Logitech cordless optical mouse
- Logitech corded optical mouse
- Microsoft corded ball mouse
For testing I'm simply using each mouse in turn with each surface. I poked around my desktop, ran a few
Office apps, then fired up Photoshop to see how it felt working with some precision images. After that,
it's a few rounds of the popular Battlefield 1942 mod Desert Combat. This is the perfect game for
testing, as it relies heavily on mouse movement and precision for flying, shooting and of course just
running around trying not to get your self killed.
After using each combination of the above I got a very good feel of how each combination performed.
There were some clear winning combinations, as you will see on the next page as we conclude this review
of the fUnc 1030...
Previous Page Next Page
Subject: Werd
Posted by: Technophile |
This truly is an awesome mousepad. I always thought of mouse pads as kind of superfluous, like screen savers. This changes everything. It is such a nice smooth clean surface, the mouse just glides across it. It's such a nice feel I find myself reaching for the mouse just to move it around.  Worth every penny IMHO. |
Join our community in the tech forums for uncut technology discussion.
| 
