Are Glass Mousepads BETTER? ...Maybe - Skypad

Mousepads are very important for your setup, be it a PC or Mac, but it's almost critical for gaming. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of snake oil products out there that say they are the ultimate way to get better accuracy. So we check out these glass ones from Skypad.

Buy Skypad Gaming Mouse Pad 2.0

Buy Logitech G303 Shroud Edition

Buy ASUS Zephyrus Gaming Laptop

Buy Fnatic Mousepad

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

AFFILIATES & REFERRALS
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 - Do mousepads materials matter?
1:25 - Unboxing
1:36 - Physical first impressions
3:31 - Available sizes
4:10 - Price thoughts
5:00 - LTT Labs coming soon
5:22 - Mouse sliding impressions
5:45 - Riley's thoughts
6:30 - Colors available
7:51 - Sponsor - Manscaped!
8:40 - Gaming impressions!
10:45 - Final thoughts
14:16 - Outro

[testbenchdude]

I used an Icemat glass pad for years. Takeaways: the tiniest bit of dust or grit will instantly ruin your day. Also if your hand sweats, it'll show on the glass. It is super easy to clean though.

[donaldmcduck]

We had these some 20 years ago. They were called icemat and had the same teflon feet for my MX510. Sadly the noise does not go away but it was smoothhh AF for those times.

[void-b]

Artisan pads are only $55 to start (when in stock), so definitely less than 100.

[gamebuster]

the logo on small one is totally okay. The logo with the cloud or something would prevent me from buying it. It looks really cheap, like it's from one of these cheap stuff stores. Talking about these stores: these stores usually also sell glass cutting boards for a lot less than 100$. I wonder how a glass cutting board would compare. I'm sure you'll be able to find a matte/frosted one.

[ericsankey]

All desk pads $30 is the only reason I bought one. It was so awesome to get the perfect size for my desk and not have to pay extra for it being "custom". Thank you Linus!

[fnatic]

Thanks for recommending our DASH XD! We've got even faster glide on the horizon 👀

[drvish]

I've been using the SteelSeries Icemat I-2 for ~15 years. Still looks and feels new, not a single scratch. Dust wipes off easy. Once you use a new mouse on it for a bit, the feet do get a bit more quiet as they wear in, but still audible when making large fast moves. But tbh, I don't notice it during a game. One thing to also be aware of is, it can feel a tad cold in the winter if you have a cold room. But again, once you're gaming for a bit, it warms up.

Every few months, I debate buying the LTT cloth pad, but seeing how crappy my brothers Razer cloth pad looks after all the skin and grime, it does put me off cloth pads in general.

Overall, I'm still very happy with my glass pad 15 years on. At this rate, I think it is going to out last me. Best ever £30 or whatever I paid back then.

[seettler]

I have had one of these for a few years now, when I bought it it included enough teflon pads for 6 mice/changes I think, in two different textures. They do wear but the reason I ever changed mine is due to folding or them becoming uneven for some reason. Its too bad they aren't included anymore because they are everything, without them I wouldn't bother. Sound is gone and its pretty smooth.

My kind of only complaint is that you need to keep it really clean, dust will cause noise and impede movements. I just do it with my dishes. I don't mind though, cleanliness is good.

[turrrret]

Small suggestion: For mousepad reviews, at least have a few different mice and (aftermarket) mouse skates at hand. I'm having the feeling that the skates supplied with the 303 just aren't that well compatible with this mousepad, since glass mousepads are usually wayy faster than average cloth deskmats. I think you guys could manage that

[majorbogart]

If you want to help with the noise, peel the feet right off and let the glass lay on something like the desk pad. That air gap makes the noise louder.

[Uriel]

"are glass mousepads better?" in my head all i see is someone slaming their mouse in rage and shards of glass ripping apart their hand...

[Elazul_END]

I'm a former high level competitive CS 1.6 and CS Source player and I've been waiting ages for a mousepad like this to come out. I had an Icemat back when I was playing competitively and it was by *FAR* the best one I've ever used in terms of accuracy and smoothness. If it wasn't so small I'd still be using it today, but large mousepads were pretty uncommon back then and they never made a larger size. I will be buying two of these at least (just in case they stop selling them and I break one). Regarding the noise, you get used to it and filter it out to where you don't even notice it anymore. It's not loud enough to be intrusive, and if someone is in the room with you your keyboard and mouse clicking is far more of a problem than a soft scraping sound.

[myanime]

they probably used the worst possible mouse to try on that pad

[mattdivito]

So interesting to see how many people don't realize how diverse mousepads used to be in eSports years ago.

Icemat (aka SteelSeries) made frosted glass mousepads back in 2001.

[feltmods]

I've had the Skypad for nearly a year. The noise is literally because of grime on the feet, and that the stock G303-SE feet are not rounded edges, they are literally trash on even cloth. The reason why they recommend the feet, is because they come with less impurities in the PTFE, and having more rounded edge. The only thing I will say as a con with the Skypad, is the noise because of the dust. Buy an air purifier, which, is always worth, and rounded feet, namely Tiger Arc 1, or Corepads as best value. Runner up being Tiger Ice, but you only get one set with Tiger Ice, Tiger Arc 2 are inferior in every way to all the others, and are only one set. Do not use glass feet, ceramic feet, etc on the Skypad. It will damage it. If you want less chance of dust, then use smaller feet. I recommend just using Tiger Arc 1 MS-3 style feet, they have really good rounding, are cheap, and readily available since they are purposely made for Microsoft mice, and any clones that use MS-3 style feet (Fantech XD5 and other products, Intellimouse Pro, etc.)

On a side note, the best perk of the Skypad, is as long as you don't intentionally scrape stuff harder than glass on the pad, it is technically indefinite, and if there is any grime, windex / rubbing alcohol / lighter fluid, etc, perfectly clean, dries in under a minute, vs washing a cloth pad and waiting a few hours for it to dry.

[rayzimmermin]

this is a problem with LTT having a store

this was suppose to be a review of a glass mouse pad but ended up just being an advert for your own cloth desk mat

[starwarsnerd]

I bought an aluminium mouse pad from corsair about 8-9 years ago now and it has been fantastic, best product they ever made even though I thought it was over priced when I bought it it has absolutely been worth it 10x over

[Enthayl]

As an owner of 3 of these Skypads (SkyPad XL 2.0[x2] and the new SkyPad XL 3.0) these are the best pads I've used in years. The noise you're probably hearing is some grime gummed up your your mouse feet. A new mouse or one with the teflon feet is super smooth and I don't hear a thing. Come on Riley!

[Kamel]

I got an Icemat when I was younger and spent most of my life gaming on a glass mousepad (I'm 36, that was around 2003-ish). It appears to be very similar to this. Here are my thoughts on gaming on a glass mousepad:

1. The sound never really bothered me or anyone else, but I've been lucky enough that I've always had a private space to game.
2. The consistency is the best attribute. I still have my mousepad, and it has the exact same friction as the day I got it. The only reason I stopped using it is it's too small. (also slightly suspect this is why they stopped making them - never need to buy another one).
3. Palm sweat accumulates on the pad and so I found that I would wipe it off somewhat frequently. It didn't really impact my aiming though
4. Tracking is way better than you might expect. Even super old mice like my razer diamondback 3g tracked on it perfectly, but some super cheap mice couldn't track on it (I'm going to assume this wont be a problem with any modern mouse).
5. The lip of the glass against your wrist/forearm can rub and get a little bit irritated but honestly once you get used to it you forget about it all together.
6. I was so worried about my mousepad at first, I carefully wrapped it each time I moved etc. Turns out it was for nothing, that thing is a tank. I've dropped it on concrete no issues at all. It is substantially smaller than these though, so I suspect these won't be as invincible.
7. The paint on my Icemat began to flake away some on the bottom. It was black and the glass was frosted, so I filled it in with a sharpie and it worked perfectly.
8. If you don't have mouse feet and/or the bottom wears too far down you can get a suction effect going on when lifting that's literally unplayable but hilarious. Fun for hours if you're ADHD like me.
9. For best results use a new mouse with it from day one. The mousepad preserves the condition of the mouse and feet nearly never need changing. I wouldn't believe it if I didn't experience it first hand, but usually the "crappy mouse feel" comes from a mouse that's been tainted by being used on non-glass surfaces. This even extends to things you don't think of like stickers getting curled and snagged on cloth pads then scratching the mousepad.

[Ryu-ixqs]

0:38 I was expecting a "pizza time" lmao