Testing

To test the Rantopad P4, I’ll be using a huge array of mice to fully review the gaming surface. Some are not pictured, but I’ll be using a generic optical mouse, a Razer Deathadder, a Razer Krait, a Saitek GM3200, a MSI StarMouse, an Ideazon Reaper and a very retro rollerball mouse.

These mice are a mixture between infra-red, laser, optical and rollerball which means that every base is covered.

By using our tracking test, explained in more detail here, I was able to get a comparable result of how well the pad tracks.

As you can see, perfection. Thumbs up to Rantopad on the playing surface.

Unlike a solid pad, there is no harsh grinding sound when you move your mouse across the surface. Instead, there is a hushed rubbing noise that is far from distracting.

The pad has amazing glide, and tapping my Deathadder would cause it to travel a few inches of its own accord on the slick surface. This should help when trying to target certain objects at speed (e.g. FPS).

After powering up Battlefield 2142 I was ready to test the pads ability to kick ass. Eveyr single movement was seen on screen, no negative acceleration, no cursor jumping, no tracking issues; 100% accuracy and fun. It was genuinely entertaining to be able to flick around, pick off several targets, all at high speed without any tracking or accuracy issues. Very nice to use.

In Windows, the effect of the mouse pad is less noticeable. In Windows you generally only see the bad points of a pad (poor tracking, jumping cursor etc.) rather than the good sides. The mouse did glide well and I have no complaints.

Unfortunately, like every other hard pad I’ve tested, sweat becomes an issue. If you are like me and seem only to sweat from the wrist you’ll realise what I’m on about. Soon the bottom of the pad was moist and the hard edge of the plastic top began rubbing against my wrist. This pad isn’t really cut out for long-term usage (>2 hours), but until that time elapses, you’ll be happy with the pin-point accurate tracking.

Using a mouse with a low DPI was nearly impossible, not only because of the size, but the odd shape. I found several times that I was trying to use parts of the pad that weren’t there as they had been removed to make the pad look as it does. If you choose higher DPI’s you can skip past that last point.

Switching to the ancient rollerball there were still no problems, and it worked fine on the surface. Rantopad's ‘Compatible with all mice’ point was obviously not just marketing spiel.