Since Renzo put in a bit more than two cents I guess I could as well
Have to leave some stuff out cos you can't get them (anymore). There is a world of difference between pads, slicks and mice feet when it comes to gliding and friction, the perfect feeling is also quite personal so you might wanna shop around a bit (slicks being the cheapest thing to change and try out).
Icemat (1st edition) - glass, semi rough surface
As Renzo, I also felt this is one of the nicest surfaces I've tried (with ice slicks), BUT
- quite high, not so good for the wrist, 2nd edition is a bit better from what I understand
- very noisy, you either get used to it or don't - not good for those who might have a significant other trying to sleep at the same time :p
- very sensitive to dirt / sweat / shit - feeling on the pad would change within a day and I found myself washing it daily to keep it nice
-- maybe if you let it get more dirty you wouldn't notice as much, but then it's not as nice a surface anymore :/
- good tracking
Ditched due to dirt problem
q-pad high sens (original) - soft base, hardcoated semi rough
- very good tracking
- good, nice feeling friction
- wore over years and started feeling inconsistant
Ditched due to small size + wear
q-pad ct 4mm medium - soft base, hardcoated smooth
- most comfortable surface ever
- coulda had better bottom, so light that wouldn't stay in one place while playing
- tracking didn't feel that sharp
- very smooth sliding with q-pad slicks
Ditched due to tracking
I recommend this pad for less sensitive gaming / workfUnc 1030 Archetype MBR - dual-sided hard plastic with aluminum frame
- The frame is the hotness and the feet so good that it never slides (weight also helps
- rough side one of the most accurate feeling surfaces I've tried, if not the most
- ^ good tracking
- good friction, doesn't feel slippery but smooth
- rough side starts to develop bald patches which effect tracking
-- this was a big problem for me, both g5 and g9 started having tracking problems in quick turns where the sensor went from rough to bald to rough
- smooth side doesn't feel that great and the tracking there seems a bit fuzzy, or maybe it's the friction / sliding feel
- bigger than the original 1030, but still might be too small for some
- quite expensive with the MBR frame
Ditched due to bald spots, but
I recommend this pad for QWq-pad ec-r - hard plastic semi rough
- kinda like the rough side of fUnc, but not really
- thin, good shape
- not such a nice glide, tracking felt good, not great
- very good sticky base
Ditched to use at work, dunno why I even bought this
Ultimat breathe - soft cloth, rough surface
- packaging sucks ass, the pad still had a big bump on one side after two weeks (some have actually cut their pad to get rid of this
- really sluggish feel, can't talk about gliding and tracking feels off
Ditched after 10min, DO NOT BUY HIS PAD
Current:
SteelPad S&S - hard plastic, lightly rough
I bought this due to Renzo and Fucu's recommendation and the virgin ride with s&s + g5 + steel slicks was incredible, just effortless gliding and still very solid tracking
- thin, nice feeling surface
- sticky bottom could be better, but still very adequete
- excellent tracking
- almost perfect size for medium sens
BUT
Due to its surface, S&S with the steel slicks is very sensitive to any kind of microscopic crumbs / dirt you might have on there
- what this means is that especially with g5 (big feet) you will feel every nanocrumb on the pad and feel like your going over sand or something rough
- these miniscule crumbs are sometimes really hard to clean without washing separately and get really annoying during game if you can't find it on the feet or get it off the pad by swiping your hand
- This is not just me, a lot of ppl complain about this feature on esr and other forums :/
- Ofc this can be helped by not eating near the computer at all and keeping the area extra clean
My solution was the lazy man's way: take off the steel slicks from g5, use the smaller feet slicks meant for mx518 on g9 and mx518. The smaller feet don't get as annoying and therefore they could work quite well with g5, even though they don't match the feet at all, but who cares
With all that said, I still
recommend this pad for QW