1. Are There Any Mouse Pads That Are More Expensive Than A Mouse?
Computers have been popularized for more than 20 years and it has become a familiar standard feature of life. Along with computers, many computer peripherals have become a part of life such as mice, keyboards and speakers. But there is one computer peripheral product. Although it is inconspicuous, it is still very important. It is the mouse pad.
Many people may have never paid more attention to a mouse pad. The gaming mousepad you are using now is most likely given when you buy a computer or a mobile phone or it may have an advertisement from a certain merchant printed on it. But if you have extremely high requirements for the quality of life and have professional needs (such as gaming competitions). A mouse pad is very important. Considering the brand and price of the product, a top-quality mouse pad may be more expensive than a brand-name mouse.
2. Mouse Pads Are Not Created By Mice
A mouse pad literally means a pad that is placed under the mouse and allows the mouse to be used more sensitively. In professional terms, the surface of special materials such as glass has reflection and refraction phenomena, which will affect the positioning of the mouse’s photoreceptor. The mouse pad can provide a flat surface for the mouse light sensor system to calculate the movement vector, ensuring accurate mouse positioning. In addition, mousepad products can also reduce wear and tear on the bottom of the mouse and play a certain protective role.
It should be noted that the mouse pad doesn’t come with the mouse. The earliest mice had no pads. It mainly relies on the trackball at the bottom to control cursor activity. At that time, the mouse pad had little impact on the mouse. What really made the mouse pad appear was the optical mouse. In the early 1980s, the first generation of optical mice appeared. Although they were highly accurate, they also required an optical mouse pad. Because of its high cost, optical mice have had limited applications for a long time.
3. The Invention of Mouse Pad
The inventor of the mouse pad is Bob. At first, Bob chose polyester when trying to make a mouse pad. Not only is this material highly flexible, but it can also be printed with designs. With the unique selling point of the mouse pad being able to print advertising graphics, the mouse pad quickly gained favor from many big companies at the time such as Apple and Disney. In addition, he also conducted a lot of research on the materials of mouse pads. The original material caused damage to the desktop, so there was an experience where a mouse pad cost thousands of dollars in damage to the table.
In addition, due to a business philosophy that focuses too much on quality, the company has gradually lost its competitiveness. When mouse pads gradually became popular, Many China manufacturers found a way to make mouse pads at low prices and quickly opened up the world market by relying on the advantages of the world’s factory. Therefore, in the 1990s, some people compared mouse pads to mobile phone cases at that time. They thought that low-quality mouse pads were similar to mobile phone cases. In 1999, the optical mouse abandoned the dedicated micro-grid mouse pad. After that, optical mice began to slowly become popular in China, and there were more mouse pads to choose from, which is becoming a must-have computer peripheral for us.
4. Games Pushed Mouse Pad Development
With the popularity of computer games, computer users are paying more attention to mouse pads, which is also in line with the law of computer development. The development process of many software and hardware is closely related to the needs of games.
In 2001, due to the popularity of CS, many people began to have high demands for mice and mouse pads. At that time, the price of some mouse pads was dozens of dollars, which was equivalent to hundreds of dollars today based on the purchasing power at that time.
Meanwhile, do you think mouse pads are still cheap?
5. Main Types of Mouse Pads
The main materials of mouse pads are divided into traditional cloth, special cloth, synthetic resin, glass, metal, etc. In daily life, most mouse pads are made of cloth. These kinds of mouse pads are in low price, durable, high in softness, high surface friction, and is easy to move and position. So it is very popular among everyone.
Secondly, it is the cloth mouse pad. This mouse pad cloth surface is coated. The ordinary cloth surface is made of extremely fine cloth attached to a piece of rubber. The second is a special cloth mouse pad. This mouse pad cloth surface is coated. The ordinary cloth surface is made of extremely fine cloth attached to a piece of rubber. The back uses natural rubber to contact the desktop to provide an anti-slip effect. Compared with traditional cloth, this material is more advanced. In addition, glass mouse pads and metal mouse pads are easier to match with optical mice. Metal mouse pads are more commonly made of aluminum alloy. The special texture on its surface increases the sensitivity of light reflection, which has a good hand feel. Moreover, it is easy to clean, and is very suitable for gaming.
In addition, because of the material, hard mouse pads look better and beautiful. However, because it is expensive and inconvenient to carry, its market is relatively small. There are not many domestic manufacturers especially glass mouse pads, which are almost extinct due to their fragility and inconvenience to carry. Whether it is metal pads produced by a few domestic manufacturers or more expensive imported metal or glass pads, they are the choice of professional players or mouse pad enthusiasts. In addition, due to the smooth surface and material of these two products, they are not suitable for people with sweaty hands, because once the surface is wet, it is easy to slip.
Silicone Mouse Pad
Silicone mouse pad is a very popular mouse mat which is made of organic silicone material. This material has the characteristics of high and low temperature resistance, oxidation resistance, corrosion resistance, non-toxic and tasteless. In addition, due to its easy cleaning and long service life, silicone materials are more high-end than ordinary cloth-made products.
For gamers, low-end cloth is not the best choice, and higher-grade silicone, glass and metal materials are also not the best choice. Because real-time gaming emphasizes mouse speed and small-range precision, the mouse pad should neither be too slippery nor too jerky. In the past few years, plastic mouse pads have become a popular product among gamers because of the need to ensure both rapid and precise movement. Its biggest advantages are that it is easy to clean and cheap. At the same time, its shortcomings are also obvious, the material is not wear-resistant. Therefore, it is more suitable for real-time games with small-scale precise operations. If it requires large and frequent movements of the mouse, it will be very unstable. In the past few years, cloth mouse pads have become the mainstream choice for e-sports players due to the use of new materials and technological advancements.
6. Mouse Pad is One of The Important Accessories for Gaming
For professional gamers, a mouse pad is an important accessory. First of all, a high-performance mouse is a standard product for professional gamers. Secondly, the performance and feeling of top-tier mice are similar. Therefore, mouse pads with different performances have become a key factor in game control. In e-sports competitions, it has been normal for players to bring private mouse pads to compete. Every professional player will tell you that no matter how high-end a mouse is, without a good mouse pad, you can’t hope to get good results.
The basic principle for professional gamers to choose a mouse pad is based on the requirements of the game. If controllability and frequent micro-operations are required, then a mouse pad with a rough texture is the best choice. If you need a smooth feel, a smooth mouse pad is better. Of course, personal feel is also important.
So, what are the important criteria that professional gamers need to consider if they choose a mouse pad?
- Startability. Startability refers to the rapid acceleration performance of the mouse on the mouse pad. It needs to overcome the static friction between the mouse foot pad and the mouse pad, and then switch to the dynamic friction state. This has a lot to do with the surface material of the mouse pad. Some mouse pads have greater static friction, while others have greater dynamic friction.
- Fluency. The higher the fluency, the smoother the mouse pad is. But if the smoothness is too high, it will also affect the controllability. According to analysis, smooth woven cloth pads are the weakest in terms of smoothness.
- Braking performance. Compared with starting performance, braking performance is the characteristics of fast starting and stable braking. If it is a game that emphasizes micro-operations, such as various real-time strategy games, then braking is very important and is related to stability.
7. Mouse Pad Brand Development
Contrary to different people think, there are many brands of mouse pads. For example: Mainstream brands include SteelSeries, Kingston, Raccoon, HP, Razer, etc. The mouse pads of these brands are not cheap. The cheapest ones are tens of yuan each, and the expensive ones are several hundred yuan each.
SteelSeries
The manufacturers of mouse pads definitely do not specialize in mouse pads, but deal in computer peripherals or mainly gaming equipment. SteelSeries, a brand that focuses on gaming equipment, has created the first true gaming headsets, gaming mechanical keyboards, gaming mice, gaming mouse pads and other products
In 2001, SteelSeries launched the world’s first e-sports gaming mouse pad, iCEMAT. This is a glass pad with an acid-etched surface that provides good friction and is very durable. The biggest feature of SteelSeries is its bold attempts in materials. After iCEMAT, they published the SteelPad mouse pad which is made of steel. In the following years, different materials such as aluminum alloy, plastic, resin, cloth and multi-layer material lamination were tried. Based on the most popular and cheapest cloth pad, SteelSeries has also made products that exceed the overall performance of the market, such as the 5L mouse pad launched in 2005.
In 2004, the QCK mouse pad was published, which is one of SteelSeries’ most famous products. QCK’s mouse pad has become a product with a good reputation among the public because of its durability, portability and balanced performance. At the same time, the micro-fabric texture on the surface can effectively optimize the tracking performance of the sensor and increase stability, so it has become a mouse pad that frequently appears in major gaming events, and has long been ranked first in usage among professional players.
In 2007, SteelSeries launched the SP resin mouse pad, which is characterized by its translucent material and large particle surface. It not only looks good, but also has an extremely smooth experience. In addition, SteelSeries also launched the SX metal mouse pad, which was made of aluminum and became the best metal mouse pad for many gamers at the time.
In 2010, SteelSeries QCK series mouse pads had become the leading product in the mouse pad industry market. In 2014, SteelSeries launched the DEX mouse pad. This mousepad uses three-dimensional weaving technology. It not only can it be easily rolled up and stored, but also feels very good. As of 2018, SteelSeries gaming mouse pads have sold 10 million units. It is the longest-running gaming mouse pad. At the same time, the price of the products also ranges from tens to hundreds of yuan. There are a variety of choices.
The SteelSeries series of mouse pads have run through the development of the entire mouse pad market. It reflects that in the era of rapid development of electronic games, players not only attach great importance to basic game accessories, but also attach the same importance to detailed products such as mouse pads.
8. Mouse Pad Is One of The Ways of Advertising
With mouse pads popularity, some businesses have also realized that printing patterns on mouse pads surface can also promote their own brands. Therefore, this method of using mouse pads for promotion is becoming more and more popular. Compared with other forms of promotion, the advantages of mouse pads are very obvious.
Although sending flyers is low-cost, it is less efficient and most people will throw it away. On other hand, Television, radio and newspaper advertising are too expensive for small businesses. The cost of the mouse pad is not high, but the publicity effect is very good. After all, the mouse pad has a long service life and a high usage rate. When companies print promotional materials or corporate logos on the mouse pad, it can bring great exposure.
However, from a practical point of view, the mouse pads used by most companies for promotion are very rough in workmanship and use the cheapest materials. This mouse pad can meet general home and office needs, but it can’t be said to be of any quality. If it is a large company, it can design a mouse pad based on its own products. For example, a technology company can use high-tech materials, and a tire company can choose natural rubber pads.
In fact, for ordinary computer users, this type of promotional mouse pad can fully meet their daily needs. Even if they want to buy a new mouse pad, a product worth more than ten yuan can already meet their needs. The only thing to note is not to choose a cheap mouse pad that smells strongly.
