The Best and Worst Mouse pads I’ve Tried

Mouse pad is something that I got asked about quite a lot recently. I never knew that so many people were interested in mouse pads.

Mouse pads are on the trend these days, and many gamers are upgrading to newer variants. Recently we’ve seen a lot of innovation in the mouse pads like RGB mouse pads and wireless charging mouse pads.

In this article, I will talk about some of the different mouse pads I am currently using and which ones are my favorite and recommended for you guys. I will also talk about the things you should consider while choosing a new mouse pad.

If you’re into FPS games like me and you’ve run out of things to upgrade, and part of that, I think, is due to this recent wave of some of the more premium options that are available now.

After trying quite a few mouse pads, I would say that your choice here does matter. It is pretty important but not as important as what gaming mouse or monitor you’re using.

However, in terms of speed and control, all good mouse pads offer a pretty different experience. Some of them are pretty similar in terms of glide, control, and the overall feel, but we also have really fast and relatively slow and control-focused mouse pads with a lot of stopping power.

So, depending on the glide and control of the pad, the characteristics of your aim will be fairly different, let alone just how well you can aim and how accurate you will be.

Also Read: Top Aimbot Mice

One of the big questions that I get is in regards to Artisan mouse pads. Artisan pads are very premium, and these are made in japan.

One thing I want to clarify is that this isn’t a list of best mouse pads that you can buy or a top 5 best mouse pad list or anything like that. It’s simply the ones that I’ve tried, and I think are good and bad.

Some of these are good, and some are bad, and for many of these, it just kind of depends.

Logitech G640

The first premium mouse pad that I bought when I started taking FPS games seriously was the Logitech G640, and I still enjoy gaming on it.

If anyone tells me to throw out Artisan pads that I have and never use them again and go back to using Logitech G640 instead, I would be okay with that. I honestly think that if you want to pick up a decently good pad for FPS games today, without thinking much, I will recommend Logitech G640.

In terms of friction, it’s a medium glide speed that is fairly average in terms of stopping power and control, which honestly makes this pretty suitable for many different FPS titles.

There are pads in the market that are a lot faster than the G640 and some that are a bit slower, but it’s good at being an overall good no-frills mouse pad.

G640 is a popular option for pro Overwatch and Apex players and many Valiant and CS players.

Durability is one of the downsides of this mouse pad. After some time, this pad tends to slow down a little bit. But I think the breaking in period and pad slow down will be so gradual that it won’t really matter for most people.

Once the pad has been used for a few weeks, the feeling is pretty consistent if you keep it clean. The G640 is decently sized at 460mm in width, which means that even if you play on fairly low sensitivity, you should find it to be fairly adequate.

Glorious Mouse Pads – Element Series

Glorious came out with the new elements series, the fire, the ice, and the air. However, the only reasonable option out of these three is the fire. It’s a bit smaller than the G640, and it’s more of a control focus pad, so not as fast as the G640 either.

I have used the fire one for quite some time and enjoyed using it. The other two pads (ice & air) in this series are obnoxiously fast even in FPS games where you’re continuously moving your mouse, and you know you don’t require that much stopping power.

You still require a little bit of control, which you won’t get at all with these two pads. The air is like a paper-thin adhesive hard pad, which I won’t recommend at all. It is different and looks cool, but in terms of improving your aim, the air and the ice pad are not something that I would recommend.

I eventually stopped using the glorious fire pad because I kept running out of mouse pad space. It’s only 430mm in width, which is a real shame, in my opinion. It’s not ideal if you play on low sensitivity.

So, I needed a mouse pad that’s slightly bigger than the glorious fire pad with similar control. This is where the next mouse pad in this list comes.

BenQ Zowie G-SR

Zowie G-SR is bigger than the glorious mouse pad with better control. It is one of the most used mouse pads across CS:GO and Valorant because it pairs pretty well with the aiming style in those games.

Also Read: Gaming Mouse for Fortnite

This is a very control-oriented and slow pad with tons of stopping power which helps you snap to targets as tight as possible. But continuously tracking your target is quite tough.

So, for games like Apex Legends, where you’re continuously tracking an enemy, it feels like you’re constantly fighting the mouse pad, and the result is that your cursor ends up feeling a little bit jittery. Since there is so much stopping power on this pad, micro-adjustments are very hard to correct.

If you exclusively play CS:GO or Valorant and you’re a low sense player, then this is a pad that you might want to consider if you want something with a ton of control.

Read: How to Choose a Gaming Desk

Artisan Mouse Pads

I think artisan mouse pads are super hyped up, probably about as hyped up as mouse pads can get, but the big question is if this hype is justified.

In terms of build quality, yes, these are some of the most premium-feeling and highest build quality mouse pads that you’ll ever see. The stitching on the edges is perfect, the rubber edge is the grippiest, and it comes packed entirely flat, not rolled.

The 490mm width of XL size Artisan pad is perfect, in my opinion. You won’t be running out of space with this pad. The Artisan pads also come in three different hardness options, extra soft, soft, and mid.

Extra soft is the softest and slowest of the three, and mid is the hardest and the fastest. To keep things simple, the three Artisan pads that I’ve tried are all XL, and they’re all in soft.

Artisan Zero

The first Artisan mouse pad that I tried was the Zero which is one of their slower mouse pad options. As a control pad, it’s perfect for games like Valorant and CS:GO.

In terms of glide, it is a little bit slower than the Logitech G640 but noticeably faster than Zowie G-SR. In terms of durability, I think it is a much better option than G640 and G-SR.

The G640 and the G-SR have a break-in period, and after a couple of weeks, the pad kind of slows down until it feels eventually just pretty consistent for the next few months.

The Artisan zero feels exactly the same as the day I bought it. I’ve been using this one pretty much every day for quite a few hours for about three months.

One thing that I do not like about this mouse pad is when it comes to cleaning it. Usually, cleaning a mouse pad is pretty simple. Just grab a lint roller, roll all the dust off, and then the surface should be nice and smooth again.

But with the Zero, many tiny hairs and dust fibers get stuck and embedded in the pad, which is quite annoying, and you do feel them when you’re using the mouse and swiping from side to side.

So, maintaining the clean surface of this pad is pretty difficult. Some people probably won’t be bothered by it but for me having OCD, feeling little bits of fibers on the mouse pad is annoying.

I think, eventually, it would get to the point where you just couldn’t get the Zero back to its brand new condition.

Artisan Hayate Otsu

Cleaning is not a problem with the Artisan Hayate Otsu mouse pad. This one is also soft, extra-large, and noticeably faster than the Artisan Zero, but you still have a bit of control and stopping power, in my experience.

This pad has been absolutely unreal for games like Apex Legends, where most of the time, you’re continuously tracking your target non-stop. That style of aiming just feels incredibly smooth and uninterrupted.

If you mostly play games like Valorant and CS:GO, this is probably not what I would recommend. There’s not enough stopping power and control, and landing headshots are kind of difficult unless you have insane mouse control.

This is like the perfect pad for Apex, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Battlefield-type games. The movement feels terrific, and the smoothness of tracking is unlike any other pad that I’ve used.

Razer Strider

I have not used this pad for long, but I think you know it has quite a bit of hype behind it. It does try to emulate the textured feel of Artisan Hien XL. However, the surface of the Strider is a lot more textured and faster but has less control than the Hien.

Speed is not something that I’m a big fan of. Honestly, I struggle to find a scenario or game where you would want to trade-off that much speed and control.

Even for games like Apex, where you are mostly moving the mouse, you still need some control and stopping power to control things and keep things moving in the right direction.

In terms of the sandpaper grippy type of texture, it’s not very comfortable to use, in my opinion. If you like to rest their forearm or the bottom of your wrist on the pad, then the grippy and stuck feeling is not the most comfortable.

Conclusion & Recommendations

This wraps up my overall thoughts and experiences on the different mouse pads that I tried. Let’s talk about what I would recommend.

So, in a perfect world, I would say that Artisan Zero is probably the number one mouse pad, in my opinion, for most people when it comes to a range of FPS games. It is balanced in glide and control, not too fast, not too slow, and gives most people what they’re after.

The only problem is that most of the time, it is out of stock. It has become trendy as time goes on, and more gamers are using it. Unless you have the discord link for the Artisan stock notification, you’re probably not going to have much luck getting your hands on Artisan Zero.

If you don’t want to mess around with any new stuff, I recommend getting a Logitech G640. It is a bit faster but once broken in, and it’s a very similar aiming experience in terms of glide and control.

It also stays way cleaner, and it’s only half the price of Artisan Pad. The G640 is an excellent option, in my opinion, and has plenty of pros across different games. 

The third and last pad I would recommend is the Artisan Hayate Otsu. If you want something a bit faster without trading off too much control, this is a good option.