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09 February 2010 

1/1 

The Icemat: On Ice. After Dark.

"The Icemat is no ordinary mousemat. Made of glass with a special coating,
the Icemat provides unique gaming and design qualities."

There was a time when a mousemat was a horrible fabric covered, rubber bottomed thing. Over time the fabric would start to peel off and the rubber base would fall apart in great chunks...

Not anymore, a whole truckload of re-designed mousemats with specially researched surfaces and textures from several different manufacturers have wormed their way into the mousemat market over the last few years - making the demand for an old style mousemat virtually obsolete.

Mousemats are often made from rubber or plastic, yet the company behind the Icemat 'After Dark' have opted to use glass. At first this sounds a little crazy, but by breaking away from 'tradition' - they have created a product of both beauty and function, which works...


Packaging:

The Icemat 'After Dark' comes in a fairly large box about 1" thick as shown below. A major concern for purchasers is that fact that "glass can easily be broken". Icemat know this and therefore the Icemat 'After Dark' ships well packaged to ensure that it arrives to you in one piece - the main protection being two pieces of Styrofoam that encapsulate the Icemat 'After Dark'.

The Icemat's box.

The Icemat 'After Dark' that I received made it safely from Denmark to the UK without so much as a scratch or worse any breakages.

Styrofoam shipping protection...

It would be an idea to keep a hold of all this packaging - it makes an ideal 'carry case' for LAN gamers or for future storage etc...

Bear in mind that the Icemat 'After Dark' is in no way a flimsy product, being constructed of about 3mm of solid glass it would take some extreme abuse to cause any real damage to it, but it is better to be safe than sorry...


In the Box:

Shipping along with the Icemat 'After Dark' itself is a small strip of 'Pad Surfer' and instructions to apply it.

In the Box...

Icemat 'After Dark':

Measuring 250 x 210mm and approximately 3mm thick, the Icemat 'After Dark' is a fairly large mousemat. Being glass, it has a heavy but solid feel to it. It has been designed to work with both optical and mouse ball types of mice and so would suit any user.

Overall the Icemat 'After Dark' has a very clean and modern look, the whole mousemat is black and free of decoration except for a small Icemat Logo in the bottom corner:

The Icemat Logo

As the surface of the Icemat 'After Dark' has been specially created to enhance performance, the logo appears a little blurred or 'frosted' - perhaps to add to the 'ice' element...

Flipping over the Icemat 'After Dark' reveals a total six equally spaced rubber feet (three one one side and three on the opposite side). These feet have two important functions: firstly to stop the mousemat from slipping around your desk during gameplay & general use and secondly to raise it ever so slightly off your desk surface etc... in order to protect if from being damaged:

Six rubber feet over the base.

Each edge of the Icemat 'After Dark' is rounded and smoothed to a quality finish. There are no sharp edges to cut your finger on... the entire mousepad has a very smooth touch to it.
 

Pad Surfer:

As previously mentioned, a small strip of a product called Pad Surfer is supplied with the Icemat 'After Dark'. What do these do? The aim is to "improve accuracy" of the mouse and reduce friction to allow the mouse to move freely. Pad Surfer's are to be applied to the underside of the mouse itself.

The included instructions detail how to apply them in five simple steps. Icemat recommend that you use pieces that are bigger than the actual feet of your mouse:

Pad Surfer strip and Instructions.

Application was just a case of cutting the Pad Surfer down to size and sticking it over one of the mouse feet, repeating the process to cover all four mouse feet. Patient people may wish to cut the Pad Surfer to exact oval size - I opted to just cut them rectangular in shape.

As long as the edges are glued flat right over each of the feet, no dirt will be picked up and stick to the edges:

Pad Surfer's attached to mouse feet.

Testing:

To test the Icemat 'After Dark', I used my Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer mouse. At first I did not apply any of the Pad Surfer's... finding that the mouse was unable to slide freely and made a scratchy sound - it was obvious that the Pad Surfer's were needed to be applied...

Microsoft Optical Mouse with the Icemat 'After Dark'

After application, the mouse moved much more freely and the scratching sound was significantly reduced. The mouse pointer moved across the screen, responsively matching my hand movements of the mouse.

Having not used an actual mousemat for a very long time (just the surface of my desk, as my mouse is optical), the Icemat 'After Dark' was a welcome change and I could straight away 'feel' the difference that the specially designed surface makes.

Gamers would benefit from this most - where timing is an all important factor, a responsive optical mouse is a must but often gamers forget the mousepad itself. Use of the Icemat 'After Dark' in conjunction with an optical mouse would place any defeat in-game on the players skill only... ;)


Conclusion:

I found the Icemat 'After Dark' a joy to use, with its great look and specially designed surface. Being constructed of glass it is an unique product. Users may worry about the fragile aspect of glass, but being approximately 3mm thick it would take some force to do any real damage. Each edge of the Icemat 'After Dark' is smooth, so there is no concern about getting cuts from it.

The black colour looks very modern and crisp. It matches my computer setup perfectly as my keyboard and base unit are black also. The Icemat is also available in a white finish, both versions along with the Pad Surfer's are available on the Icemat website.

At around £24.95 it may seem a little expensive for a mousemat. However I believe it is well worth the cost, as you become the owner of an a great looking, unique mousepad that has been specially engineered for performance gaming and general mouse use - a mousepad that would look great in any environment be it an office or at home, modern or not...

You spent much hard earned cash on your chosen mouse, so why not on your mousepad...?

modtown rating: 4.5 out of 5



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