SteelSeries QcK Gaming Surface - Medium Thick Cloth - Peak Tracking and Stability - Black

Since 2015-9-14, updated 2015-12-25 I bought refurbished / recertified, which comes rolled up in a plastic wrap with no retail stuff. No imperfections so far, and it smells like new. I chose the Mass mainly because of the much lower price of the refurb, and also because I limit myself to brands that directly support professional gamers such as Steelseries. The size is standard for a gaming mat: enough for 1080p on the desktop, and best for medium to high sensitivity in first person games. It also makes for a good value point priced below the larger mats and higher quality mats and hard surfaces. The Steelseries surfaces, in general, are more square than Razer surfaces, which means that a Steelseries surface might not fit in a laptop sleeve that the similar sized Razer can, but the thickness of the Mass and Heavy would suggest they are better at returning to flat after being tossed in a larger bag. The thickness was not a necessity for me but I think it is promising for travel use. So far it does not seem to be any more rigid on a flat surface than my previous mat, a Goliathus Speed. The foam does not depress much from hand pressure so it has no shortcomings there. This is my first QCK. Compared to my Goliathus Speed, the surface of the Mass is rougher to the touch. If your wrist drags on the mat, you will notice the roughness, but there is very little friction with mouse feet when moving slowly, or from a standstill, even for a heavier mouse. The above makes this mat good for small precision movements, especially for high sensitivity users, acceleration users, wireless users, and perhaps artists. Although, I am none of the above. I am not sure, but I believe the Mass and Heavy surfaces are meant to be more water resistant than others. It is extremely easy to clean with a damp to dry sponge. And it is quite necessary because the surface is a dust magnet. As expected from a Steelseries surface, the tracking is perfect for both my optical Salmosa and laser Razer Tron mice. At low DPI, the sensor was the limiting factor before the mat. Tracking is not disrupted over the logo in the corner. The lift off distance of the Mass and Goliathus are similar, but the Salmosa, with its huge lift off distance, seems to track fully all the way to the top on the rougher Mass, as opposed to tapering off during lift on the finer Goliathus. The movement during lift is more predictable but it is more important to lift the mouse as fast as possible when needed. I would say that users who often pick up their mice will find this to be the biggest difference between the mats. Finally the bottom rubber is quite impressive. It has a bit of reflective shine, presumably helping to distinguish up from down in a dark LAN center. The Mass also holds the table much better than the Goliathus, and the Mass stays put over time unlike the Goliathus. I wonder if that is helped by the thickness. Read more

I had been using a cheap mouse without a mouse pad for years, but when I finally upgraded to a gaming mouse, it didn't quite work as well on wood, and the inaccuracy of a wood surface seemed to defeat the purpose of a $150 mouse. It's nice & large, feels nice, sticks to my desk, and most importantly, it works. Given the size, I rarely find myself "falling" off the edge of the pad, and after a couple months, it's still clean, with no frays, but I don't eat at my computer and there is only a thin layer of dust under my monitor now, so my office isn't that dirty. I read some complaints that it is shipped rolled up. I didn't think much of it, and just put it on my desk, and went about my business. When my hand is on the mouse, it flattened out the pad, and within a few days, the pad was flat. A month later, it's still flat. ...I'm not why people complained. The only negative I can think of is the logo. I don't like extra trash on my desk, so this bothers me a bit, but I prefer the size and feel, more than I don't like the little logo. Read more

Have had this mousepad for a couple days and I absolutely love it. It's very smooth and allows my Logitech G602 mouse to glide very easily across it. Also the thickness and softness of the pad allow me to rest my wrist on it easily without any discomfort. Now it's just a test to see if it lasts. The only thing that I've noticed is that it can gather dust quite easily, but I thinks It's due to my room which needs a good cleaning. It can easily be cleaned off if needed by wiping it or vacuuming it off. As a note when you get it, it's rolled up and will retain the curve of being rolled up a little bit, although not as much as I've seen with the regular qck and qck+. For this since it's heavier, you can easily stretch it out over your desk and it'll stay flat mostly until a day or so when it'll completely flatten out. If you want it flat immediately, just throw it in the laundry dryer for a few minutes and it'll loosen up. Apparently, although I haven't tried it myself yet due to not needing to, it's machine washable, but i'll probably just resort to using a sponge and water and wash it by hand once I need to. Read more

I was switching off a Razer Vespula. I was big into wrist pads and the razer was one of the coolest that offered it so I tried it for a little over a year. I got used to the plastic "surface" vs "cloth" but always felt like it was a little off. Recently, I switched back to cloth pads. I tried several out at my local best buy - Roccat Taito Control, Lenovo gaming pad, and finally the SteelSeries QcK pad. The Taito Control was the best because of its thickness but it was way too big. The Lenovo was slimy feeling and too slippery for me. The QcK was ok but way too thin. The description for the QcK states that the pad is so thin in order to make the most out of the natural high quality surface of your desk... If I wanted that, I wouldn't use a pad at all. I don't think they make memory foam desks yet, so the natural quality was uncomfortable as s***!! Anyway, I started looking for the mid size Taito and came across SteelSeries other lines of pads including the Mass and the Heavy. I saw that the Heavy was as big (or bigger) than the Taito Control so it was an easy cross off. The Mass sounded like just the right size. And now that I have it, I see that it is! Perfect size and an easier transition from having a wrist rest due to its thickness. I do miss a little comfort from the wrist rest but you can't beat the control of having the base of your palm rest on the pad itself. I love it so far. I can agree with the others though, this pad will be a dust magnet. I usually wipe of my pad regularly anyway, but this one will keep me busy for sure. Hope this helps with your decision! Read more