Icemat 2nd.EDITION
Manufacturer: Icemat
Type of pad: Hard, single surface
Material: Glass
Size: 12” x 10”
Price: $47.50 (MSRP)

In 2005 the biggest name in eSports peripherals was probably SteelSeries. Not only are they the company that sponsored The CPL champions, Schroet Kommandos, but they also released two of the most sought after and high quality gaming headsets to date, the Icemat Siberia and the SteelSound 5H. I'm willing to bet a lot of young gamers out there had never heard of the name “Icemat” before the introduction of the Siberia headset, and oh how sad that is. In 2003 Icemat launched there “Icemat” mousepad, the world's first official glass mousing surface. With unparalleled smoothness and its ability to provide a totally unique experience, it quickly became a favorite in the gaming community. It had one major flaw however, optical mice were not fully compatible with the surface because it was semi-transparent, and if you've ever tried to use an optical mouse on a clear glass desk, you know there are some problems with that. Icemat fixed this problem with their “On Ice: After Dark” pad that was just a black version of the original. Since then they have released their equally outstanding 2nd.EDITION

The 2nd.EDITION comes in a rectangular cardboard box with a simple yet appealing design on the front. One thing I would like to call attention to is the claims that are made on the outside of the box. While none of the claims on any of the products in this article are blatantly false, the ones listed for the 2nd.EDITION are probably the best supported and accurate of the lot, especially the “Looks damn cool” one. This mousepad from Icemat is unarguable the coolest looking mousepad of all the ones reviewed. The designs of some of the other ones are superior, even the concept of the other ones are more innovative than the Icemat, but you cant deny that having a frosted black slab of glass sitting on your desk “Looks damn cool”. Inside the cardboard box is 2 thick Styrofoam blocks that sandwich the glass and keep it fairly safe from bumps and bangs that might occur during shipping or elsewhere. Also included in the Icemat box are a set of SteelSeries' renowned mouseskates “Padsurfer”. I have never used mouseskates other than the ones that came with my mouse, so having the option of using these ones was nice, and seeing if they improve performance on this surface also promised to be interesting.

The smoothness of this mousepad is incredible. It is sitting on a clear glass desk at the moment, and I have to say that the Icemat somehow feels considerably smoother than the desk. I can not attempt to provide a reason why this is the case, the only explanation I can offer is that it is magic. The Icemat surface also has a lot less friction than the desk; running the mouse along the mousepad is easier and more uniform than it is on the desk. Tracking on this pad is also superb except for one instance that it refused to register mouse movement. The fact that this only happened once in a day's worth of use leads me to believe this was an isolated incident. Using Photoshop with this mousepad was actually kind of fun, but gaming on the Icemat was probably the best of all. The pad seems to allow for quick mouse movement while making it possible to stop the mouse effortlessly at any location, which is usually a characteristic exhibited by cloth mousepads. And on a final note about gaming, for what it's worth, I was able to get a lot more Desert Eagle headshots with the Icemat than with any of the other tested pads.

The construction of the pad is very simple. It basically consists of just 1 slab of 12”x10” glass that has filleted edges for comfort. I would expect the edge of this pad to cause irritation on my wrist when mousing, but surprisingly, it did not. This is the hardest mousepad available, and as such the contact between mouse and mousepad was somewhat noisy. The act of running the mouse along the pad produced noise at about the same level as all of the other tested pads, but when the mouse was picked up and placed elsewhere, the clickity clack of the contact was quite loud. This sound is significantly dampered when the included mouseskates were used. In fact, the pad seemed to get even smoother and the performance of my optical mouse seemed to increase when the mouseskates were used. This mousepad makes use of hemispherical clear rubber pads that elevate the mousepad about 3 millimeters above the desk and keep it in place nicely. However sturdy this pad is, you can't escape the fact that it is made out of glass, and if I accidentally dropped it from any height, chances are it would shatter or at least chip. This quality would seem to make it a rather unattractive choice to a professional gamer who transports their peripherals often. The mousepad also seems to highlight scratches that are made on it, and although the small scratches I made on mine are hard to notice, they are still there and could be bothersome to more aesthetically concerned users.

Pros:
+Looks damn cool
+Bigger than original Icemat
+Comes with padsurfers
+Very smooth

Cons:
-Fragile
-Noisy use

Score:
8/10