This mat deserves a lot of praise, but none for the price. At € 34.99 the 9HD will put a serious hole in your pocket, but also a mighty smile on your face. In general this mat excels at almost any task, and the only real "problem" with it is that it could be a bit bigger to accommodate low sensitivity gamers. Besides the size issue some gamers might be put off by the fact that it is a hard mat and will make your mouse rumble lightly when you move it across the mat and provide little dampening when you drop the mouse on the mat while resetting its position on the mat. Comfort wise this mat is just as brilliant as the old slim S&S mat because it is so thin it does not upset your wrist.
There is no doubt about it the 9HD will set the benchmark for future hard mats performance wise, perhaps no so much design wise. The design is definitely the not the 9HD's force, the small logos do not really do anything for the looks of it in my opinion.