The Damage
Thirty-five American dollars, retail – meaning you’ll probably be able to find it for cheaper.
The Verdict
An aggressively (m)angled rectangle, Vespula is hard mousepad with two distinct surfaces, one on each side: A “precision” surface, which is textured and bumpy, like the softer side of side of sandpaper, and a speed side, which is smooth, not unlike the glass trackpads on MacBooks. The difference between the two is immediately apparent – when applying the same amount of force to the mouse, it moves half the distance on the precision surface. So, if you’re sniping, the precision side is better, since make more subtle movements by default. If you need zip all over the pad with quickness, the speed side is a better bet.
The large groove cut into the bottom of the pad is for a gel wrist rest, which is a nice idea in theory, but it’s way too tall – no matter how I positioned my chair or wrist, it wasn’t comfortable in the slightest. And I wish there was more mousing area, too.
There’s also no way to dynamically switch between the different surfaces – believe it or not, it’s annoying to flip the pad around mid-gun fight (stupid physics!).
To me, what’s most important about a pad beyond the fact that it works is how it feels, since the micron-level measurements companies bloviate about are beyond all but the most anal of gamers. The Vespula’s a good mousepad. Tracking’s undeniably accurate. But the question of exactly how much more precise Vespula is versus a regular pad for gaming is nearly rendered moot by the fact it offers the very tangible benefit of two very different mousing surfaces that each have a distinct feel. At least one of them, you’re sure to like.
Two mousing surfaces, one pad
Average sized, but more tracking area would be nice
The wrist rest sucks
[Razer]
Martin Olminkhof
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 7:57 AMthis is awfully similar to their “eXactMat” mousepad, it’s wrist rest was also too high/hard to be comfortable
cool kids read blogs
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 8:43 AMAverage sized? It’s bloody huge
Kelsey Brookes
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 12:25 PMI’ve always liked the Razer eXactMat – I have one at every location I compute from, or did, prior to switching to a Wacom tablet.
I found the size fantastic and the fact that it’s a solid chunk of metal made it a much more comfortable and reliable mousing surface. I hated having typical mouse mats curling up and slipping.
Susan
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 6:57 PMGot mine a couple of days ago and have to say the wrist rest (go ahead, try to say that when u r pished) is just right for me (but then my desk is bloody awful, being way to high). What I *do* wish it had, tho, is that they had chopped it up so that you could use it portrait *or* landscape style. With the wrist rest in place you lose about 1/3 of the area of the mat as the a$$ end of the mouse bumps into the rest. I’m using a nice slick Logitech MX518 mouse which has pretty good glide just on an ordinary mousemat so I have to say speedwise I don’t think I have gained a lot with the Vespua. Verdict? 3-1/2 stars.