I am a software developer who spends about 10 hours per day in front of a PC. I'm picky about mouse performance since I have work quickly and operate over a large expanse of screen real estate (I use a dual-monitors). One of the reasons I purchased this mouse pad is because it is relatively large and with some much "ground" to cover I was often finding my mouse falling over the "cliff" of the edge of a smaller pad.
I had been experiencing a lot of issues with dragging and selecting text which I'd attributed to the Logitech wireless mouse I use. It appeared as if the connection would fail and the text block would drop as I moved it rather than waiting for the end of the move when I released the mouse button. Likewise, when I tried to select text I found myself constantly fighting to keep the selection going through the whole block of text until I finished and released the mouse button. Another symptom was when playing solitaire and dragging a card, it would drop suddenly before I finished the move.
So, I was pleasantly surprised that this mouse pad not only gave me enough room to move the cursor far, from the right side of the right monitor to the left side of the left monitor, but also it cured all the other problems I was having with the mouse. (Tip, to get the accelerated movement needed to move far in Windows 7, make sure the the "Enhance pointer precision check is marked in the mouse control panel setting).
So, I have a theory on why this mouse pad works so well. The surface is very smooth, the physical feel of the mouse sliding over the surface is very smooth and has much less drag than my other pads. As you may know, over the years the optical precision of mice has been improved over time - I recall the first ones (before many of you even owned a PC) was on the order of 300 dots per inch and now the norm is over 800 DPI. So, it stands to reason the surface itself must present an optical texture of at least that and probably double that for the mouse/pad system to work properly. And, I think that many manufacturer's of mouse pads have just not kept up. They're still producing lower texture products in dots per inch. I'd also suggest that they still have a bit of drag resulting from the older, mechanical (remember the rubber balls) mice actually needed and that this drag was tied to a lower resolution surface. Perhaps people think they need to the drag because that feel is so embedded in their experience, and perhaps that drag is also tied to the optical resolution of the surface. Finally, and I admit I buy pads so infrequently that I haven't paid attention to it in the past: perhaps they degrade over time with the surface once so smooth getting pock-marked. I'll pay attention to that going forward.
The pad sticks well to the smooth desktop and that's also a good thing.
In any event, I'm very pleased now. The only thing I'm concerned about is that this pad is that it is very thin and lightweight. But, as with all of us, time will tell. And, for the price, if I only get six months to a year out of it, I'll be happy and just buy another one. At least now I know I don't need a new mouse which is much more costly.
| Manufacturer | Vankey |
|---|---|
| Brand | VANKEY |
| Model Number | Wrist Rest Pad V1 |
| Size | A Mouse Wrist Rest |
| Manufacturer Part Number | Mouse Wrist Cushion V1 |
