Over the past few years everyone and their mom has produced a “gaming” mouse pad. Our friends at SteelSeries are all about making anything to help improve your gaming. So it comes as no surprise that they produce gaming mouse pads also. In fact they sell 14 different variations for every type of gamer. They have provided us with a Blue I-2 mouse pad. I wouldn’t even call it a pad, this is the first mouse pad I’ve ever used made of glass. Click to read more about it….
Specs
- Material: Glass
- Acid treated glass surface
- Dimensions: 250 x 300 x 4 mm / 10 x 12 x 0,2 in
- Size: Medium
- Glide: Smooth
- Compatibility: Optical, ball
Packaging
The I-2 arrives encased tightly in Styrofoam in a black box. On the box there are descriptions of the mouse pad and of Steel Series as a whole. With Steel Series being an international company everything is repeated in at least 4 other languages. There is also a picture showing all four of the available colors. You should be able to find something to match your pc or your office area with the optional colors Black, Clear, Blue, and Pink.
Looks
There is no doubt, if you are going for a classy look this mouse pad will fit in wonderfully. The blue on our sample is the perfect shade, not to bright. They have smoked the surface to give is a nice look. The smoke goes over the steel series logo itself making it subtle but noticeable. The pad has 6 rubber numbs installed on the bottom to keep it from sliding around on your desk while fraging.
How does it work?
How a mouse pad works is very subjective. Some people like the slickest surface, others want some resistance. Some want big, others want small. The size of I-2 gives you enough room if your DPI is turned down, but small enough to fit on almost any desk. The I-2 is smooth, but with some resistance. It takes a few days to adjust to the feel of your mouse gliding across the pad. It’s similar to rubbing your hand across a chalk board; you can feel the smoked surface. Once you get past that feeling, the pad tracked amazing in testing using a Logitech g5 Laser mouse and also a Razer Diamondback. In the specs the mouse doesn’t mention being usable with laser mice, but I had no troubles using this pad for the past week using the Laser G5, nor did any problems come up with the optical Diamondback. The I-2 tracked very well in game, and in photoshop during all of our testing.
Overall
Overall the I-2 does take some time to get used too. If you only tried it once you may not like the mouse pad. But after a few days of use it will be hard to give up. It’s obvious that Steel Series put a lot of time into their product. I do wish that it came with some sort of case for traveling; the sound of glass hitting things during travel is unnerving. It is nice to see that they included new gliders; this is the level of detail people expect with their gaming equipment. This is also why Steel Series is one of the top providers of gaming accessories.
I give the Steel Series I-2
4/5 stars
Pros-
Amazing looking
Great tracking
Cons-
Adjustment period needed with smoked texture
No travel case provided.