Intro:

    Razer has been making high precision mice for gamers since 1999. Razer now has made a dual surface mouse pad. It's large like other "gamer" pads if you will, but does have one unique feature, two sides with differing surfaces. One is geared for "control" and the other for "speed." Continue on for my thoughts and impressions of Razer's first endeavor into the mouse pad world...


Features and Specs:

   • The Razer eXactMat - Razer's first mousing surface!
   • Two-sided, longer-lasting Anodized Aluminum mousing surfaces
   • "SPEED" for high-sensitivity users
   • "CONTROL" side for low-sensitivity and professional design users
   • Over-sized and uniquely-shaped, 10.4" x 13" x 0.1" (265 x 330 mm x 2.5 mm)
   • Jet-black with Razer green logo
   • Non-slip, anti-reflective, abrasion resistant hard coat


About Razer - Brief excerpts...

  December, 1997: N00bz
   
    We (the founders of Razer) were first exposed to the core technology of what would become Boomslang through a consulting project in Asia. At that time, we saw 800 dpi performance inside a "butt-ugly" mouse.


  Summer, 1999: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?

    On September 21, the most severe and deadly earthquake in Taiwan's history hit, destroying all the integrated circuits.


  January, 2000: Kacked

    Our production partner ran out of cash and went out of business. Razer manufacturing was suspended.


  October, 2001: foop!
   
    With Synergy Media as a distribution partner, a limited number of Boomslangs were produced for holiday, 2001 sales … unfortunately, financial and other business problems plagued the Synergy/Razer relationship, which folded.


  March, 2003: Those meddlesome kids
   
    TerraTec demonstrated the Mystify Razer Boomslang 2100 at CeBIT in Germany, to overwhelming response. But manufacturing issues, as well as travel restrictions related to the SARS epidemic, delayed product release. TerraTec later discontinued the MRB 2100.


  October 2004: Uber Mouse

    Razer is the official Mouse Supplier of the World Cyber Games (Germany - Austria - Switzerland). Look for Razer at the World Cyber Games finals in San Francisco, October 6–10th.

    For the whole story, which I think is a very interesting about Razer and their unfortunate fate in the past, click right here for the 2.6 meg .pdf file. I do recommend it if you don't know about Razer.


The packaging:

    My review sample came packed in a padded envelope. A large one really. Don't forget this pad is 13" long, and 10" wide...Anyway, In picture 1 is what I saw. A plastic bag covered a foam carrying case. The carrying case is padded, yet has a rubbery elastic feel to it. Something like you might expect from Body Glove. Opening the carrying case reveals the pad, and another plastic bag. While you might wonder why I mention the plastic surrounding the pad, in my opinion, it would help against scratching in shipping. Even though that maybe a moot point, the surface(s) of the pad is extremely tough. The pad does fit pretty snug in the case, so you shouldn't be too worried about scratching up your pad, unless you are taking it to the beach. (Which is doubtful.)

(1) From the envelope	(2) Carrying case	(3) The mat - well, one side...

A closer look at the pad and the COA:

    Those looking for this to be collectable, will get your Certificate of Authenticity. Mine is a First Edition, as they all are currently at the time of this writing, hence the title of this review. The COA is a nice color copy, which could be forged with a Color Copier, but that shouldn't matter at all. I doubt anyone will try to sell knockoffs. I hope not anyway...Please note, that in my lighting below, the COA looks faded on the right side. It does not look like that in person.

(4) COA

    Below are the two anodized surfaces of the eXactMat. As acknowledged before, one is control, and the other is speed. I'm sure you can figure out what each side is geared for. Right? To give a quick summary though, the speed side is a bit smoother than the control side. Personally, I've always liked smooth mouse pads, so the speed side is much more suited for me. Although the surfaces are metal, they don't feel cold, like for instance, a Steelpad does. Nor is the surface noisy. That is if your pads on your mouse are in good shape. Ball mice work equally as well on each surface, even though this is geared towards optical mice.

(5) Control side	(6) Speed side

    Now I'll briefly outline the rubber pads, and the thickness of the pad. As you can see in picture 7, the pad is amazingly thin. Roughly I'd say about 2 credit card sized thin. Add a small amount for the rubber pads that hold the pad in place on each side, and still you have a very low profile mouse pad. The rubber pads are probably one of the tightest gripping mouse pad surfaces I have encountered to date. Of course most are pretty good when fresh and free of dust, I have no doubt that if your desk surface is like my smooth laminated desk, this pad will stay put for you.

(7) It's thin!	(8) Close-up of rubber pad

The surface explored: (Better described in text than via the camera eye.)

    I had great intentions of doing close ups of the different surfaces to give you a better idea of what to expect. The pictures didn't really show that. You can see the somewhat subtle differences in person, as the control side has a more "rougher" grain to it. I've included the pictures anyway, so take a close look and you probably will be able to see some difference. It sure isn't as pronounced as what your eye sees though. Sorry...

(9) Speed Side	(10) Control Side	(11) Side by side

Razer pad and mice:

    Most normal people will find the size quite adequate for gaming, content creation, and graphics design. There is plenty of room left over after you add a mouse on the surface. I barely use any of the surface in day to day use, but I'm glad it is there in case I decide to fire up games, which I never have time to play...Take note for comparison that the Razer Viper, on the left, is slightly smaller than a normal sized mouse if you will, and the Boomslang on the right is a bit larger than your average mouse. I decided to leave my serial M$ Intellimouse out of the mix for the picture...

(12) With Razer Mice (Viper and Boomslang)

So which side and use:

    Honestly, in general use, neither side really seemed more accurate to me using a Razer Viper optical mouse for testing with the optical Viper mouse. Nor did any side feel any different with testing with two ball mice. I guess to each is own though. Like I said before, I like the smoother mouse pads myself. I hate mouse drag!

    Day to day operations of content creation, including image manipulation, and the occasional stint in UT, D3, yielded very good results, with no real anomalies detected with the surface(s). By all means, a mouse pad may not make you a better game player, well, only if you have a ratty old crappy pad, or one that you have worn out, at least you will get status for having a Razer pad. :) Ok, maybe not, regardless, if you are looking for a new pad this might just be it.


Summary:

    To sum it up, the Razer eXactMat is one great pad. Having anodized surfaces should easily outlast plastic based pads. Keep that in mind when you shell out your $30-35 bucks for a pad. That may seem expensive to some, but anyone should know, that if you go buy a $60 dollar mouse, using it on a $3 dollar cloth pad with a picture of your dog on it, just isn't going to cut it. You won't get the accuracy, and they're all going to laugh at you. I personally hadn't seen any really bad mouse pads, but in all honesty, this one ranks very, very high, in the scale of what I have experienced since using a mouse on a pad. About 10 years worth...Hence the review score below.

    Just remember, this pad does come with a COA, albeit not like something you'd get from M$ or something, but heck, it would look good framed. I think so anyway, and that is why I mentioned it. So frame yours, use it, whatever suits your fancy. If you get one of these pads, I'm sure you'll be hard pressed to find something from keeping you to like it.



Pros:

   • Two surfaces in one pad, your choice.
   • Comes with carrying case for LAN adventures.
   • Compliments a Razer mouse perfectly, or any mouse for that matter.
   • Large size.
   • An eXactMat now includes a wrist rest.


Cons:

   • None.
 

"The best mice in the industry just got their own pad!"

Closing:

    Keep in mind my review sample came a long time ago. This was way overdue. My bad. Anyway, if you hadn't noticed me mentioning it above a couple of times, an available eXactMat bundle now comes with a custom wrist rest. I've used a wrist rest on an off over the years, mostly with higher profile pads, but to have that included at an affordable price I think is excellent.

    I'd like to thank Razer for sponsoring the mouse pad for review. If you want your very own, you'll have to go to the Razer Store online, or check out where to get one locally at a retail outlet.


Closed:

    Below is a picture of the wrist rest. The wrist rest also includes the Razer logo. Quite nice I think. Thanks goes to Razer for supplying that picture! Thanks for coming by. Until next time...

(13) The eXactMat with wrist rest

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