Mouse pad or no mouse pad?

[Guest]

I have this cloth mouse pad, but recentley I noticed something. I tried using my mouse (corsair m65) without the mouse pad on my wooden desk and i couldnt help but notice that the response time and general 'smoothness' of the mouse was slightly better.

Thats great and all, but would using the mouse WITH a mousepad increase its life? The m65 has a full metal base with some plastic like stickers on the bottem.

So, should I use the mouse pad?

 

[g-unit1111]

Yeah my experience with the two mouse pads that I've received (both freebies / promo items) just confirmed my suspicions that they're simply not needed. Especially when you have mice with weighted backplates and reinforced steel like the Corsair Vengeance series and the Mad Catz RAT series.

 

[gytisxp]

Most mice mats are useless unless you have a surface that con not be recognized by a mouse ( glass desk ect.. )

 

[norseman4]

As long as the surface isn't glass then optical mice work wonderfully on nearly any surface. The 'plastic stickers' that you reference actually let the mouse glide over the whatever surface and those may start to pick up debris a bit quicker than on a mouse pad. Rubbing them against a rough cloth, like denim pants cleans them up just fine.

(Disclaimer: Using the pants leg, and the outside of the leg at that, draws MUCH fewer strange looks.)

 

[g-unit1111]

(Disclaimer: Using the pants leg, and the outside of the leg at that, draws MUCH fewer strange looks.)

I have done that. :lol:

 

[Guest]

As long as the surface isn't glass then optical mice work wonderfully on nearly any surface. The 'plastic stickers' that you reference actually let the mouse glide over the whatever surface and those may start to pick up debris a bit quicker than on a mouse pad. Rubbing them against a rough cloth, like denim pants cleans them up just fine.

(Disclaimer: Using the pants leg, and the outside of the leg at that, draws MUCH fewer strange looks.)

Actually this mouse is laser, corsair m65. Any differant?

 

[norseman4]

Actually this mouse is laser, corsair m65. Any differant?

Nope, still using an optical pickup where it bounces a 'laser' off a surface looks at the illuminated surface, and compares what it sees with what it saw just a few scant (some-huge-numer)enths of a second ago to determine where the mouse was moved.

This is opposed to a mouse that uses something physical between the surface and the electronics. A ball with a ruberized surface with rollers on the ball to determine the x/y movement. The ball and those rollers got gunked up pretty bad requiring partial disassembly to clean them. Then a mouse-pad not only provided just a bit of extra friction, but also kept most of the junk out of the mechanism.

There was a transition period where the mouse-ball was a pale color with a multitude of darker dots on it. Optical sensors watched the movement of those dots. This is the way most trackballs work today. The balls on these deviced, being smooth, didn't gunk up either, but a mouse-pad was very important then since the balls were much smoother.