Steelseries 9HD Hard Gaming Mousepad for the PRO's

Author: Toni 'HaoKi' Siik Published: 13.12.2009 Manufacturer: Steelseries Product Group: Mousepads In English Suomeksi

Use

The 9HD was tested daily for some time, just get the proper feel for the product. The mousepad in question replaced my SX and S&S mousepads, both of which I've used for the last few years, depending on the mouse that I've used.

The first major difference in the use if the fact that the 9HD feels a lot smoother than the S&S. This really is not that big of a surprise as, that's pretty much what'd you'd expect from a finer textured surface. Being a fan of moderately fast gliding mousepads, the 9HD seemed to be a perfect match.

The 9HD really is not one of the biggest mousepads on the market, but it seems to be big enough for most users. Eventhough I play games at some ridiculously low sensitivities (0.8 ingame in CS:S), I never ran out of space. Granted I lift the mouse quite a lot, but that's due to the fact that I like keeping the mouse centered on the pad in just about every situation. I've used some larger mousepads earlier, but I've always found myself using only a fraction of the space available.

Gaming

While gaming I use large movements frequently due to the low sens settings I used, so the tracking properties of the mousepad and mice play a critical role for me. I'm glad to report that with the combination of mice, which I've used on this mousepad, it worked fine with all of them. The mousepad was tested for example with, Logitechs G9, the Steelseries Ikari mice, and the Roccat Kone. All of the mice worked well, with the consideration that the Ikari Optical seemed less prone to false tracking. Unfortunately I didn't have any nice ball-mice to test the mousepad with, so we'll have to take Steelseries word on their compatibilty .

 

Desktop

For desktop use the mousepad continues its good performance. It's nice and fast with good accuracy. The low profile of the mousepad also improves its comfort as there's really no sharp edge that'll grind your wrist while working.

 

Durability

The durability of the mousepad was tested by dragging it along to a couple of LAN-events with me, and sure enough I got some battle scars on it. The surface seems a bit more prone to scratching that the harder S&S, but luckily the scratches where more of a cosmetic-problem than an actual one. Due to the hard plastic core, the mousepad is fairly easy to transport from one place to another as it's not that easy to bend and kink as some of the other mousepads which I've used in the past. Sure, if you manage to bend the 9HD, it probably won't survive like some of the fabric pads, but it's one of the trade-offs which you'll have to make with choosing a hard mousepad.

Conclusion PROS  Smooth and fast surface Good rubber surface on bottom Good tracking properties Low profile Reasonable price CONS  Scratchs fairly easily Could be even bigger Gold Award! Sure enough Steelseries has made a nice successor to the S&S, one of my favourite mousepads of all time. The tweaks which have been done on the mousepad have been in the right direction, and it's nice to see that atleast sometimes, companies manage to improve on old favorites. If your in the market for a new hard plastic mousepad, I recommend you give the 9HD a try. Like always when talking about products, where user preference has a major influence, it'll never hurt if you can try a couple products out before making the choice. That way you'll know what your getting. Nevertheless, if you've been long time fan of hard and fact mousepads, the 9HD shouldn't disappoint.

Additional Information

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