Surface

The most important feature of a mouse mat is the surface and how it's constructed. The Ratpadz XT has a medium to rough grained surface that is semi-reflective so it works with laser mice.

As always I have tested the surface and it's performance with a Razer Copperhead and the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0 (IME 3.0).
Since there aren't any colorful graphics on the surface, tracking was excellent with the IME 3.0 since it's a regular optical mouse. The mouse felt responsive on the mat and the friction between mat and mouse feet was at a comfortable minimum. I tried the mat both with the standard mouse feet of the new IME 3.0 and some QPAD Glidz that I had, and to my surprise there wasn't any real difference between gliding with or without high-quality teflon feet mounted.



On the picture above you can see the texture of the mat. I would describe the grain of the mat as medium to rough only judging from the feel of it.

The performance in games both with low and high sensitvity was really good, equal to that of many of the much more expensive rivals on the market, the only negative thing is that it's quite small for even medium sensitvity gamers, so you have to use at least medium sensitvity in order to appreciate this mat while gaming.

Size

The Ratpadz XT is roughly the same size as the QPAD EC-R. Which is way smaller than the large version of the Func F10.S, which is absolutely huge for a hard mat.



Both the GS and the XT are 11.5” (29.2cm) wide x 9.3” (23.6cm) tall. The Ratpadz are quite thick compared to most of the other hard mats I've tried, it measures 0.25" (0.63cm).



As you can see the Ratpadz are almost 0.5cm thicker than the QPAD EC-R, which is one of the thinnest most comfortable hardmats on the market.

Comfort

This mat isn't as comfortable as many of the other competitors on the market because of the extreme thickness. Even though the edges are rolled up it still harms your wrist because of how it forces you to grip the mouse. It feels just like resting your wrist on the edges of a table. The old school durable design definitely hurts the comfort while using this mat. Compared to the other hard mats on the market today this degree of comfort is sub standard and this is quite sad because the surface of the mat is really good.

Durability

When it comes to durability the Ratpadz are unrivaled. These pads can be bent, driven over, reshaped, without damaging the surface. These pads are constructed in such a way that they can withstand almost any type of abuse by the user. When you are reshaping it over the edge of a table you can only bend a little, there isn't any way to break it because of the material used and the amount of it. It's simply the most durable mat on the market.