Other Sites
SteelPad, despite its name, is actually made from 3.5 mm aluminum plate with a proprietary hardened surface coating engineered to optimize both performance and traction. SteelPad is claimed to provide optimal performance with both conventional ball mice and optical mice -- or at least some optical mice. Soft Trading warns that SteelPad doesn't work with Logitech Optical mice other than the MX Series.
The Steelpad mousepad comes in two sizes. Our test unit was the larger 4S model, which measures 290 x 267 mm, or about 10 1/8" x 11 3/8". The standard 3S SteelPad has smaller dimensions of 250 mm x 235mm.
I'm not a gamer, but I do use the Quill mouse, which is one of the physically largest mice -- perhaps the largest -- available for the Mac platform. The Quill is great --very comfortable for those of us who struggle with mousing pain, but it does tend to be a bit cramped for space on a standard mouse pad. I was curious to see how it would fare on a larger expanses of the SteelPad mouse pad.
A recommended accessory for use with SteelPad is SteelPad PadSurfer -- a self-adhesive Teflon tape appliqu� for the mouse "feet," or contact surfaces, made of solid teflon tape and is developed especially for the SteelPad surface. A strip of the PadSurfer material comes with the SteelPad, so the first order of business was to apply it to a mouse. This turned out to be a moderately tedious job. You have to measure the mouse feet and then cut the Teflon film to match their shape as closely as possible (a bit of overlap is recommended). It took me nearly an hour to do two mice (7 "feet" in total). Someone with nimbler fingers might be able to do it quicker.
Tools I used included a ruler, an X-Acto knife, and a pair of scissors. Aside from getting the shape of the cut out material accurately matched, the trickiest part of the job was separating the sticky Teflon film from its backing and then transferring it to the mouse feet without it sticking to itself or my fingers. Also, don't forget to wash any dirt or oily residue from the mouse feet before applying the Teflon film.
Soft Trading recommends that when applying the Teflon tape you make the pieces bigger than the feet, and make sure that the tape is glued all over the feet - right down to the mouse bottom surface, to ensure that no edges can pick up dirt. Seal the edges with your fingernail.
That preliminary task accomplished, and I proceeded to check out the SteelPad, which is, as noted above, a flat metal slab with a black satin "stealth" finish. On the bottom side are eight rubbery urethane "feet," which seemed to have plenty of traction, and do a good job of keeping the SteelPad from skating around the your desk or table.
I found that the Quill mouse slid effortlessly about on the SteelPad's surface with its Teflon coated feet, but then so did an Apple " hockey puck" USB ball mouse I tried for comparison, which had no Teflon film applied.
In either case, one thing that some users might find off-putting is the "metallic" sound either type of mouse makes as it navigates the SteelPad's metal surface. Perhaps you would get used to this. Another characteristic of metal surfaces is that they tend to feel cold under normal circumstances, although I also found that the black SteelPad would get very hot when exposed to direct sunlight. That would not likely beat any very common issue however. I have to say that I prefer the aural and tactile characteristics of plastic or fabric coated mousepads.
So how did the SteelPad perform as a mousing platform? Well, with the ball mouse it worked great. This is probably an ideal surface for ball mice -- flat, smooth, excellent traction, and easy to clean.
Unfortunately, I didn't fare as well with the optical mice. I established for myself that the Logitech Cordless Mouseman wireless optical mouse indeed wouldn't work at all with the SteelPad. The Cursor simply refused to respond. The Quill mouse's performance was better, but erratic, with the main problem being a reluctance to start tracking from rest. Once you got the cursor moving, it tracked nicely, and with satisfactory accuracy, but about half the time or more the cursor would get "stuck," and refused to respond until I applied some very vigorous body-English, moving the mouse back and forth on the pad rapidly.
I'm wondering if the matte black pad surface is the issue here. I've noticed that the Quill mouse is a bit picky about the sort of surface it's used on. It works nicely on a plain medium blue fabric coated mouse pad I have, but tracking is a bit wonky on pads imprinted with text or graphics and uneven coloring. Personally, while they are serviceable, I'm generally underwhelmed by the performance of optical mice, including the Apple optical mouse I had with my G4 Cube.
I am obliged to say that I was not blown away by the SteelPad as a mousing platform For more information, visit: he sort of computering I do. On the plus side, it's very nicely finished and attractive in a subdued and tasteful way. The materials and workmanship appear to be first-rate. The large mousing area would be a major advantage with my big Quill mice (I have both right and left-handed versions) if it were not for the cursor-sticking problem, but that is a big "if" that renders those mice essentially unusable with this pad.
I can't speak to the SteelPad's advantages or otherwise for gaming -- its primary target market -- since I have no games on my computer other than a couple of chess applications, which I don't think is quite what they have in mind. However, for ball mice, it is, as I noted, a functionally superb mousing surface.
The Standard SteelPad 3S sells for $37.82 and the larger SteelPad 4S as tested has a price tag of $47.31, plus shipping, which are hefty chunks of change for mouse pads. However, if they will give you the performance edge you;re looking for in competitive gaming, perhaps the cost is justifiable in that context.
In light of the problems with optical mice performance and the stiff price, which is no doubt partly due to the currently low U.S. dollar, I'm obliged to give the SteelPad 4S no more than a middling 3-A Applelinks rating.
Steelpad 4s sells for: DKK 299,00 (EUR 40,30 / USD 47.31 ) + shipping
Steelpad 3s sells for: DKK 239,00 (EUR 32,21 / USD 37.82 ) + shipping
Steel PadSurfer: 2 stripes of each 100 mm Price: DKK 30,00 (EUR 4,04 / USD 4.75 ) + shipping
For more information, visit:
http://www.steelpad.com/
C/O Soft Trading
Ryesgade 19C
DK-2200 Copenhagen
Denmark
Phone: +45 7025 0075
Fax: +45 7025 0076
Tags: Reviews ï Hardware Reviews ï MooresViews ï
