Date: May 5th, 2004
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Head Editor & Hardware Reviewer)
Product was donated by: Corepad & Icemat
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PRODUCT COMPOSITION

Black Icemat 2

Price: $47.50 + Shipping
Material: Frosted Glass
Dimensions: 250mm x 300mm

The Black Icemat 2 comes in a rather attractive branded box complete with precut styrofoam protection. The review sample was shipped from the head office in Europe and arrived in my home in Canada intact. Although glass is rather tough, proper packaging is a must.

Also included is a strip of teflon tape called padsurfer which can be cut into sections to fit perfectly on your mouse feet. With careful measurements, you can easily get 3 or 4 complete applications out of this one strip.

The Black Icemat 2 is exactly like the original Black Icemat (Review: HERE) other than it is 44% bigger. The surface is finely textured and very smooth and the overall thickness is 5mm. The pad is kept in place through the use of 6 small rubber feet (three on the top and three on the bottom).

Corepad

Price: US$35.25 + Shipping
Material: Glass
Dimensions: 220mm x 280mm

The Corepad came in a generic cardboard folded box which again allowed the mousepad to be shipped from Europe to my door without any breakage. The retail version box will have an attractive cover much like the Icemat.

What first caught my eye when opening the package was a rather stiff foam pad. This pad is meant to be an ergonomic wrist support. One thing I would have liked to have seen is some sort of temporary adhesion (soft rubber?) to keep the support in place at all times. In most cases it did stick in place rather nicely, but after some extended use, an adjustment is needed to put it back in place.

The Corepad also came with the exact same strip of teflon tape as the Icemat. Only difference is that Corepad didn't brand it and just called it Teflon tape.

The actual mousepad is slightly smaller than the Icemat and is rather attractive. The surface is textured via a fine lattice fencing over a 5mm thick pane of clear glass. The pad is kept in place via four small rubber feet.

With the wrist support in place, you have a rather attractive and ergonomic gaming surface.