Testing

With testing for mouse mats I like to try a few different game genres that require different levels of speed and precision to see how the mat performs under different gaming conditions. I also like to test the mat with different mice to see if the mat can perform across the board. The games I used to test the mouse were Company of Heroes, Doom and Battlefield 2142. The reason for the 2 FPS games is that I used the sniper class in BF2142 which obviously requires high levels of precision, whereas doom is a lot more of a "Blast Away" sort of game, requiring more speed. The two different mice I used for this test were the Razer Krait, to test the mats ability to work with high DPI mice, and a generic Logitech opitcal mouse.

Results

Krait: Using the krait on this mat was very enjoyable indeed. It was comfortable and sleek and I had all the speed I could need in Doom and plenty of precision when it was needed in BF2142. In Company of heroes it performed equally well and I had no problems with it all.

Generic Logitech: The mat performed perfectly well in all the tests here, just as the Krait did. It was smooth and fluid, and gave me all the control over my mouse pointer that I needed to make each one of those headshots count. I was even able to gain a combat efficiency pin while using the sniper rifle which is something I had yet to do before this time.

Comfort

After playing with this mat for around the 30 minutes mark, in all tests, I did notice that because of the material used in this mat, my wrist and palm sweated more than usual. This sweat did not get "Soaked Up" like it would on a cloth mat but stayed on the mat, causing the mouse to jutter slightly when it passed over it. It also made it slightly uncomfortable using the mouse as I had a clammy feeling on my wrist.

Price

The price for the Nova Killer mouse mat will, with most retailers, run you up about £20. This is a pretty acceptable price for a mouse mat of this high calibre, though I would struggle to justify spending more.

Noise

This may seem like an odd section in a review about a mouse mat, but it needs to be said, this mat is noisy. Due to the tiny rivulets in the surface designed to help clean mouse balls, and rebound optical and laser signals more accurately, when moving a mouse across it, it can sometimes produce a scratching noise. This noise is by no means grating but it can be slightly annoying when you are playing without headphones, and could be irritating in a working environment.