So, as promised today I have my review of the SteelSeries SP mousing surface or mousepad if you will, this pad has become my new favorite and for good reason, aesthetically it looks great, but it performs as a professional mousing surface should, flawlessly!

The SteelSeries SP pad truly is a professional grade product, and I believe that anyone who decides to purchase this mousing surface will be very happy that they did, so continue on to check it out a bit further…

SteelSeries SP Mousing Surface Review

Author: Kristofer Brozio

Sponsor: SteelSeries

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

SteelSeries SP Mousing Surface 

SteelSeries SP highlights:

– Extremely durable hard plastic mousepad

– Macroscopic texture offers minimal friction

– Medium-sized, optimised for optical and laser

– Two component mousepad; plastic surface with rubber bottom

SteelSeries SP is a macroscopic-textured, hard plastic mousepad designed for competitive gamers demanding precision, accuracy and stability from their mousing surface. The responsive gaming-grade surface of SteelSeries SP offers minimal friction, even for gamers applying a high force of contact on their mice.

The surface is compatible with optical and laser mouse technologies and was developed and fine-tuned in co-operation with professional Counter-Strike players from mousesports, SK Gaming, Team 3D and compLexity.

A non-slip rubber base ensures that the mousepad doesn’t slide, even during the most frantic gaming sessions

Specifications for SteelSeries SP:

– Material: Textured hard plastic

– Dimensions: – thickness: 320mm*270mm (12,6 x 10,6in) – thickness 3mm (0,1in)

– Size: Medium

– Glide: Smooth

– Compatibility: Optical, ball

Price: USD: $39.99 + shipping

A Better Look at Things

:

The packaging for this product is a bit different than others, there’s no box, it comes packaged in it’s own carrying case, a heavy duty vinyl that resembles a large ziplock bag, but with a metal clasp. There are paper inserts in the front and the back that tell you about the product of course, but the carrying case is the cool part, and it does away with any extra trash like a cardboard box as well.

One thing you’ll note with the pictures in this review is that sometimes the pad looks to be a blue/gray, and other times a dark gray or black, it all depends on the lighting and flash or lack thereof. It’s interesting really, in bright light the SP takes on a bluish coloring but in low light it’s dark.. kinda cool.

Included with the SP is a SteelSeries sticker for you to show your pride in ownership of a professional gaming product, an advert, and a pack of SteelSeries Glide MS mouse feet that of course SteelSeries recommends you use with the SP.

The SP pad itself is not overly large, it’s just right for most any desk size. It’s a two layer design with a hard plastic textured surface on the top and a rubber non-slip backing attached to that. The rubber backing actually is inset from the edge of the pad making it look as though the pad is floating on your desk. There is a faint SteelSeries style logo in the background, and the SteelSeries logo in the bottom left corner.

The surface of the SP is textured, and to the touch it feels a bit rough but it’s a smooth style rough texture if you understand that.. what I mean is that the roughness is not sharp but soft. When you glide your mouse across the SP you really do not feel the roughness it’s just like using a smooth surface pad. I tried to get some pictures of the texture but the shiny surface made it a bit hard, but I think you can get the idea from these pictures:

Installation, Testing and Comparison

Here’s a picture of my Logitech G5 Rev2 laser gaming mouse to give you an idea of the size of the SteelSeries SP in relation to a mouse:

The SteelSeries SP Mousing Surface is one of the best I have reviewed to date, I still find it amazing that something as simple as a mouse pad can be improved upon so much with each new type or revision. Some people might consider mousepads more of those blah kind of products to get for review, but I really like them because I like to see the changes being made to them, the types of surfaces etc. Mousing surfaces really do change quite a bit as technology progresses and it’s always interesting to see what their doing with it. Some people think that a mousepad is just a mousepad, and some people just use their desk surface and are happy with that, those people really don’t know what they are missing until they use a quality mousing surface, and of course a quality mouse as well.

So the SteelSeries SP does look really cool, it has a look that resembles ice or crystal and it’s actually attractive for a mousepad. Though we know that looks aren’t everything and it has to perform as good or better than it looks to be considered a quality product.

I’ve been trying to get some gaming in whenever I can playing BF2142 (yeah still..), Crysis, COD4, Portal and a few others that I’m playing off an on, no matter what type of game I played with the SP it kept up perfectly, tracking was and is excellent with the SP no matter what resolution the G5 was on.

As for everyday use the SP was perfect with that as well. When I first started using the SP I was actually tempted to lower the resolution on my G5 as it seemed a bit too sensitive, but I gave it a few days to get accustomed to it before I did anything drastic such as that. Still though for my everyday use I do lower the resolution down one setting and raise it up again while gaming, I found that the SP makes the G5 more sensitive or in reality it tracks better than other mousing surfaces do. My all around setting was 1200DPI for everyday use and gaming on other pads, but now I lower it to 800DPI for everyday use for a bit more accuracy but still having the speed to traverse across my dual monitors quickly, and when I start gaming I bump the resolution back up to 1200DPI.

It’s really nice to have a mouse that allows DPI settings, when I use a mouse that doesn’t it just feels odd and I have to go in and change the settings manually through Windows…

Summary:

I got me a new mousepad, I don’t have to say anything more than that do I?

Seriously though the SteelSeries SP is one of the best mousepads I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing. The size, thickness, construction and overall performance of the SP make it a mousing surface that truly is professional grade…

Go get one.

DragonSteelMods gives the SteelSeries SP Mousing Surface a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.

Pros:

-Well made

-Lightweight

-Includes carrying case

-Includes mouse feet

-Excellent tracking

-Fairly quiet

Cons:

-None really

I would like to thank SteelSeries for the chance to review the SP Mousing Surface and for their continued support of DSM.

Discuss, Questions HERE

review# 368