Performance

I have tested both of the mats in various games and with very different mice e.g. Razer Copperhead, Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 (IME 3.0). The Razer Copperhead was updated to firmware version 6.18 which is the newest and includes a lot of bugfixes. I use my IME 3.0 without any drivers because I think that it's the way to get the best performance from it. Under all tests "Mouse-acceleration" and "Increase pointer precision" was turned off. In addition to that both the CPL mousefix and Razor mousefix was used.



I use roughly the same sensitivity in both CS:S and Battlefield 2, but I did try going high sensitivity for a while just to see how well the mat performed.

Only two things really matter when judging a mats' performance and that is friction and tracking.
The friction between mat and mouse feet was really low compared to other hybrid-mats on the market. It isn't quite as low as that of the Func pads, but they have the advantage of being hard plastic mats. Compared to a mat such as the QPAD|CT the NOIDpads are softer, but the gliding performance of the NOIDpads is even better. This is strange because normally a harder pad will have lower friction, but the NOID surface seems to be breaking all the rules.

Tracking was excellent with both the Razer Copperhead and the IME 3.0 (which is my favorite mice). Even on the "Eclipse" which has a lot of dark/blue colors the tracking worked great. This is really nice because it means that the tracking performance of the mat isn't affected by the color of it. Of course there could be some problems with the tracking performance of laser mice if you have an all black surface. This is one of the things you have to keep in mind if you have a laser mouse and want to design your own mouse mat. The tracking performance on both mats was amazing, the cursor/crosshair didn't jump/skip once during the entire time that I tested the mats.

Size

The size of the NOIDpads is adequate for most users/gamers. If you are an extreme low-sensitivity gamer then you should probably get a bigger mat such as the Everglide Titan (Razer Mantis Speed).


As you can see from the pictures above, the NOIDpads are substantially smaller than the Everglide Titan. But even though it's a bit smaller than the Everglide it still is big enough to accommodate most low-sensitivity gamers. The size is perfect for any medium/high sensitivity gamer.