The days of a small, simple, and square mouse pad are all but over. While the big retail stores continue to carry the drab colored swathes of cloth, that may go as far as to splatter your favorite cartoon character across the top, Everglide has been busy making quality pads that any gamer would envy. While the inner workings of the modern day mouse have improved with innovation and technology, the surface of today's gamer mouse pad has been created with textures that would make any NASA engineer proud. Gamers also demand that the bottom of these pads have traits very similar to Velcro, with the ability to bond itself to ANY desktop surface encountered. The pad must be easy to maintain and transport, for the mouse pad is one of many tools that must come together to form the digital combat machine.

     Yes, both pictures above are of the exact same mouse pad! Nothing is safe from an illumination mod!! With a cord that stretches six feet long, The Ray mouse pad will use an existing USB port to draw the power required to illuminate the six LEDs implanted within the pad. The silver crystal color with the metal flake "sparkles" within the surface of the pad have a unique look when the pad is off, but add spectacular brilliance once the pad has juice. The power cord is very thin and has a silver wrap itself inside a clear conduit as not to detract from the appearance. Testing with this pad was a little difficult because I found my gaze wandering away from the screen and down to my mouse pad. Ok, seriously, I had to log a few hours of game play and do some other fine touch mouse movements in order to draw a conclusion.

The Giganta Ray:
9½  inches high
11½ inches wide

     My first round of tests were with the Logitech MX·700 and Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical. I didn't have much faith on the optical systems working well with this mouse pad because of the surface glimmer created when the LEDs are turned on. However, I was very pleasantly surprised! Both optical sensor systems were very accurate and smooth in regards to tracking, on the entire surface of the pad. Just to be sure, I made sure to run the sensor eye directly over the "beams" of LED light on the pads surface to see if I could detect any tracking issues. They both worked at a level of precision that I would call seamless, at both high and low tracking speeds. As far as movement is concerned, the MX·700 was used with no feet enhancements in place. The weight of the mouse compliments the surface of the pad very nicely to produce almost effortless mouse movement, very much like a skating rink. The Microsoft mouse has Mouse Ells fitted to the feet which are designed to reduce friction. Oddly enough, the Microsoft mouse felt as if it required more effort in order to obtain the same tracking patterns. This could be an illusion brought on by the incredibly light weight of the Microsoft mouse itself. The last thing mouse I used was an old Microsoft Intellimouse with the ball sensor pickup. The picks ups are kept very clean as this mouse is stored and used exclusively for the point of mouse pad testing. The surface of The Ray offered enough traction for the ball to work without issue. That makes this pad a PASS for both an Optical or Ball type mouse.

     The last thing to do before moving on is see how well it sticks to a desktop surface. There are Normal desktops, and then there are Waxy, the latter being the most difficult for a mouse pad to stick to. With the special coating put onto the back of The Ray, it was able to stick to every desktop surface I put it on. Likewise, the pad exhibited next to no slipping as forceful movements were made with a mouse. PASS the grab and hold test.