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At the moment the Steelseries Ikari laser seems to be the safest and best alternative.

I am thinking about buying a new mousepad for the new mouse.
Right now I have an Icemat I-2. It is the most durable mousemat I have ever had. It will last for a lifetime.
However, I have heard that there are materials better suited for laser mice than glass.
I have read through a lot of tests and a lot of different opinions and it seems to me that the Razer Destructor is the best mat available.

Has anyone used this mat ?
Anyone know how durable it is ? Does it get worn out after a month of playing like most non-glass mousemats ?

Just get ikari optical again, no point switching to laser. Optical tracking is more consistent on a wide range of surfaces + you won’t get the massive negative acceleration problems associated with most laser mice when making fast movements.

Ikari laser has neg accel problems according to a lot of people who have used that mouse.

Razer Destructor is a plastic mousemat btw. Apparently very good based only on user feedback, never seen anyone complain about it wearing down, actually quite the opposite.

Make sure not to buy Razer eXactmat, I’ve had one myself and it DOES wear down, very quickly. I wore away the anodized/textured aluminium surface on the speed side in about 3 weeks so it has big smooth reflective patches now. Once that happens even an optical mouse doesn’t track on it properly, and any moisture on the surface from palm/fingers will make it skip horribly.

Obviously when the surface wears down it also makes it inconsistent in glide because it wears more in the places where mouse feet go and not the rest of the surface. On top of that it destroyed the mouse feet on my DA, wore them down really fast. Moving mouse on eXactmat also makes a lot of noise.

If I wanted to try an anodized aluminium surface again I would try Steelseries SX: http://www.steelseries.com/int/products/surfaces/sx/information
It is however quite expensive. The eXactmat was the best surface I used for totally unrestricted glide until it started wearing down, so maybe this is worth trying in the hope the same thing won’t happen with this mat.

If I bought this mat I’d be sure to buy hard teflon mouse feet at the same time. The soft teflon wears down really fast and embeds itself into the surface. So much so with my DA that the entire mouse base started resting on the mousemat, so the entire underside of my DA is now covered in micro-scratches.

I don’t care much about the price of the mouse and the mouse mat as long as they are of good quality.

Kovacs, this about the negative acc of the Ikari laser is really confusing.
All reviews are praising the Ikari laser, but the opinions from the users are completely contradictory. Some says this mouse is the best and most exact mouse they have ever used and som says it skips and have neg. acc.
It might maybe have something to do with what mousepad thay use ?

Several reviews says that the laser is superior to the optical when it comes to precision aiming. The also say it doesn’t have any neg acc.

I don’t know what to believe.

Also many reviewers says that it the laser sensors of today is superior to the optical ones and that the opposite was true only some years ago when the laser technique was a bit new.

I would prefer to get a better mouse than my previous one, but of course, if there is none then I have to buy an Ikari optical again..

Theres absolutely no truth to a laser mouse being superior for precision aiming. It’s just not true. Especially considering 3 of the most popular gaming mice ever are optical mice (MS Intellimouse 3.0, MX518 and Deathadder). The intellimouse 3.0 is quite old and can get tracking issues on very fast movements for low sens players, but the MX518 and DA are the two highest performing mice on the market in terms of tracking consistency/accuracy.

In terms of ikari laser, it could be down to mouse surface, but more likely users sensitivity preference. Using high sensitivity with laser mice is less likely to cause tracking issues because the mouse is rarely moved at the same speed/distance so it may never reach its limit in tracking accuracy.

Saying that, the ikari in terms of shape seems to me to be designed for palm grip which is the favoured preference of low sensitivity gamers, whilst higher sens players tend to use claw or finger-tip grip for more control of small movements in the hand.

I would pay more attention to the user feedback than reviews, as they tend to be from people who will play with the mouse for a few hours or maybe a day or two and as much as I hate to say it, often they won’t properly scrutinize or test the mouse to check for these things.

Main point though is that laser mice have NO advantage over optical in terms of tracking accuracy, its usually quite the opposite, especially since laser mice have trouble on a much larger range of surfaces.

Ok, I have looked around even more now.

When it comes to optical mice it seems like the Deathadder is the most appreciated mouse among the users and also the reviewers.
However it has some main drawbacks :
* It sometimes tracks movements high above the mousepad (up to 10 mm).
* It seems almost impossible to install good drivers if you use Windows Vista.
* It doesn’t track very well on blank mousepads.

Anyone with a Deathadder that can confirm this ?

The shape of the DA seems quite ok it is starting to look like my main option atm.

The Steelseries SX mousemat has recieved good reviews, but seems to have a problem with “wobbling” of the crosshair when you move the mouse at higher speeds.

What kind of mice does the majority of the people in here use, laser or optical ?

I used to use an SX when I was a medium sense user (12cm/180) and imo it is easily my favourite mousepad.

The glide is fantastic with minimal friction but good grip (unlike the super slippy plastic pads). The surface is smooth and easy to clean and they give you a little polish cloth so you can constantly polish the metal surface keeping it slick. The tracking for me was excellent and I tried a deathadder and mx518. Both did great!
One of the best aspects was unlike other hardtop mats it was very durable and lasted me a good 4 months before finally wearing in the middle. This is much more durable then the Steelseries SP and S&S which only lasted me like 2-3 weeks.

The deathadder in my opinion is a good mouse but my aim just isn’t the same as when I was on a mx518. I’ll put this down to not playing as much or as frequently. The shape of the DA takes about a day or two to get used to but gives really good grip and feel.

The sensor of the DA is very fast and you can tweak its response rate that’s nice. I still think I prefer the mx518 sensor but the deathadder has much better mousefeet.

Basically best mouse = Mx518 with DA’s mouse1/mouse2 buttons and the DA’s mousefeet. (People complain the mwheel is too small and far forward on the mx518 too)

Mice I’ve tried:

Ikari Optical
Deathadder
Diamondback
Mx518
Mx510
G5

Definately a close one between the mx518 and DA. But you can’t get the classic mx518 now… :(

I can’t find the review I saw a while ago. They made some sort of turntable with a mousepad surface. The used it to track clipping limits for highspeed movement and acceleration. Was a very nice test. MX500 with increased polling rate was the best, followed by the MX518 and DB. Copperhead and G5 didn’t come close . Hopefully laser technology got a lot better :P

lol
http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1265679