Performance

Testing a mat usually implies the simple process of unpacking the mat and entering a game of one’s liking. With the G-TF it was a little trickier, since Zowie ships them very tightly rolled it took a week of laying on my desk plus two runs with a blow dryer to get the mat to stop curling up.

This mat was tested with the following mice: Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 1.1 (IME 1.1), Razer Lachesis 5600 DPI (Philips Twin-eye sensor), Mionix Naos 5000 (Avago 9500 sensor).

The mat's surface is soft but it does not stretch as easily as that of a SteelSeries QcK type surface. This means that you feel less of a friction lag, however, the effect of this is very small. It makes the mat feel somewhat more precise to use. The base of the mat works quite well but it is not as grippy as the new type of base layer that SteelSeries uses on their 9HD mat which we recently reviewed.

For prolonged gaming sessions the mat was great. You do not notice that the edges are stitched in terms of comfort which is nice. The thickness of the mat is very small as well, meaning that your wrist can relax while gaming.

Zowie claim that the mat is as fast as the ones manufactured in plastic. This claim is not correct. The surface is faster than other good cloth based mats, but falls short of even beating mid-end hybrid mats. That it should be able to compete in terms of speed with its all plastic counterparts is far from the truth.

The mat works well with all types of mice. The surface even works with older optical mice, since a lot of low sensitivity gamers still use IntelliMouse Explorer 1.1 / 3.0, this is essential. Glide wise the mat is more consistent than most of the slightly older Razer cloth mats.

Durability wise this mat is way better than most cloth mats. Since the edges are stitched, fraying will never become an issue, however, the Zowie G-TF is still susceptible to spillage and wear on the mousing surface. The surface seems less prone to wear due to its coating.