Today, we take a look at the Everglide Ricochet 2.52 mouse mat. Everglide are a well known and by most gamers, are a respected company. Their Ricochet 2.52, even just upon first impressions, looks as if it will be very popular with everyone who uses it. But … onto the real review
Photo of the mousemat
Firstly, in case you are wondering, the “2.52″ stands for the thickness (in mm) of this mouse mat. The size of the mouse mat is quite large - 30cm x 24cm. It isn’t your average sized mat from the market. And also, interestingly to those who have always had budget mouse mats, this is not bendy - at all. It is very sturdy, and this seems to help when playing games. It means that your mouse will always easily move over the surface, even if your desk surface had a huge two inch hole in it.
The mouse mat has two sides to it, one is smoother than the other. It is really upto you what side you want to use, although I find the smoother of the two sides easier to work with. Depending on your mouse (I am testing this with a Microsoft Intellimouse v4 [optical]), you may find the rougher side best.
Both sides have eight rubber grips, and that is more than adequate. Even when you WANT to move it, the grips act as if they as glued down. It really will not move by accident. And this is a good thing!
The nice, thin box the Ricochet arrives in
The mouse mat also comes in its very nice presentation box, along with certificate! I almost felt like framing it - then I remembered it was a certificate… for a mouse mat! It is a bit extreme, but for the price, it is nice to have some extras. Inside the box, it also came with some small friction free pads to stick to your mouse. I did not find much difference, although it does seem to help a tiny bit.
Above, you can see the contents of the box, including the certificate (!)
Now then… testing. This was hard. How do you test and benchmark a mouse mat? It isn’t like a graphics card, where you can use programs to benchmark it. I had to come up with an idea. It didn’t really work. But anyway - I set up a CSS local game, loaded up de_dust2, and played for a bit against some bots, first with the mouse mat, then with out. With the Everglide, my k:d ratio was about 3 (i know! its a bit poor against bots, isn’t it!). And without the Everglide - 2.8. Maybe it was a fluke. So i decided to have a bit more fun. I aimed my cursor at a certain distinctive mark on a wall, then would attempt to turn 360 degrees and see how long it took me to get the cross hair back on the spot. Of course, I cannot give any accurate timings or anything, but just believe me - it made only a little difference. However, I do feel it increases accuracy, and is very smooth and easy to move your mouse on.
So, if you want a tiny performance increase - get it. In fact, get it anyway. It looks nice, and it makes your mouse work in things such as Photoshop more accurate I find. If you have the money just go out and get it now (/buy it online).
Photo, which shows it in use (ok - while browsing Gmail, but still…), and also shows its size.
7/10