A gaming mousepad can be compared to the tires of a race car if you’re asking us. You can have the fastest car on the circuit with the best driver behind the wheel, but if you slap a pair of old and worn out tires underneath the car you won’t be seeing a lot of wins. The mousepad is a piece of kit that’s often ignored by the more casual gaming audience, but that really shouldn’t be the case. There are many different pads out there, all with different specifications and characteristics, so it’s definitely a good idea to find one that matches your preferences and playing style. You’ll not only increase your personal playing comfort but you’ll also increase your performance. It's been a little over 2 years now since BenQ Zowie released the G-SR-SE deep blue, and while the pad was excellent, it did leave a lot to be desired in regards to its longevity (by way of the surface glide becoming inconsistent after some time) & humidity resistance. While humidity is something that all cloth pads are impacted by to some degree, it seemed like the Zowie pads in particular always had issues with it. What’s noticeable to me is the consistency of this mousepad. The foam feels the same all throughout the pad, and even though this new material is a little bit softer (which is something that I like) I never got the idea that some parts had more give to them than others. This, in combination with the top texture feeling very consistent as well, makes for a mouse surface that feels extremely well-designed and crafted. ZOWIE’s G-SR-SE mousepad has long been a favorite of professional gamers, but it can’t be denied that the pad had some issues in the past. The durability, for example, wasn’t all that, and the G-SR-SE also suffered from humidity issues, leading to an inconsistent feeling pad at times. At first glance, the G-SR-SE Rouge looks just like any other recent G-SR-SE release, but once you place it down on your pad you almost immediately feel the first difference: the foam feels softer. It’s still very uniform across the surface, but it’s quite a lot easier to sink your fingers into the Rouge than into an earlier version. Aside from that, this feels just like your regular ZOWIE G-SR-SE at first glance: same size, same box design, no stitched edges.

Professional shooter gamers might gravitate towards (more controlling) cloth pads, but there are droves of people out there who have a need for speed. If you’re one of those people then you should look at the SkyPAD 3.0. Its smooth surface is just about the fastest you can find out there, and while we certainly wouldn’t recommend this to people who are just finding their footing in the world of gaming mousepads it’s undoubtedly a pad that’s great at what it sets out to do.

Unique stopping power

Something that was noted when this pad was first announced was that there would be a smaller X/Y difference in the glide. As I mentioned earlier, I sadly don’t have a fresh G-SR to compare testing results to, but the X/Y difference on the G-SR II is 14.99%. That’s on the higher side (the average of all the pads I’ve tested so far is 7.5%) but it’s well within the range that I would call reasonable. For reference: the VAXEE PA has a very similar X/Y difference, so if you can handle that then you won’t have any issues with the G-SR II. When designing this new iteration, ZOWIE also made changes to the durability and humidity resistance. To test this, I made parts of the pad a bit moist with a cloth and found that the glide remained pretty similar. I also did this test with an older G-SR-SE and there I felt like the difference between the moist spots and the dry spots was a lot more pronounced. It’s perhaps not the most scientific of tests, but it should give you an idea. It’s still not perfect at handling humidity, but it does perform better than its predecessors.

There isn't stitched edging. In the 3 weeks or so I've been using the pad, I've noticed that there seems to be some very light fraying, but the pad itself does not seem to be coming apart; I did try to pull on it a bit and the string that was already fraying did start to unwrap, but it seems that if you don't intentionally try to mess with the edges, you'll have no issues. Just something I have to point out nonetheless. Definitely one of the more reliable unstitched pads. All in all, the advantages seem clear to us. If you’re even a bit serious about your gaming it’s a great idea to get yourself a nice pad to really complete your setup. The List Zowie has always made a point out of not adding any unnecessary drivel to their products, and although they have released some rather ‘gamer-y’ mousepads in the past the G-SRwould not look out of place in a more formal setting. The pad has stitched edges and is finished with a small stitched on Zowie logo on the side of the pad. That logo does technically interfere with gameplay if you glide your mouse over it, but if it comes to the point that this becomes a problem ingame then you were probably going to get fragged either way, so this is a non-issue really. As mentioned, there have been a few changes to the surface of this new G-SR-SE. If you’re wondering how this feels in comparison to earlier versions, I can be short: it’s a touch faster. Not by a lot, but you do notice it. I live in an area of the US with VERY inconsistent weather, and I can confirm: Zowie delivers on the humidity improvements. Of course, really bad humidity still debilitates this pad, but to that, I say two things. One, it's a cloth pad, so some level of humidity debilitation will always exist. Two, Zowie claimed the humidity resistance would get better, not go away.

Both pads have a glide that’s extremely similar, but the G-SR II is noticeably better at handling humidity and has increased durability over the G-SR I. If you’re considering a G-SR mousepad, I would always recommend the G-SR II over the G-SR I. Conclusion To me, it feels like there’s a bit less static friction, which could make sense given the fact that the surface is now smoother. You can definitely also feel this when you’re just gliding your hand across the mousepad, but it’s still not the smoothest material out there. I know that some people had complaints about the G-SR-SE’s surface irritating their skin after some time, and while I of course can’t speak for everyone I do believe that this change is going to make the pad feel a lot more tolerable to a lot of people out there. The Razer original Razer Gigantus was pretty much a control pad, but with the V2 Razer tried to make it more like the G-SR-SEs of this world. That pad started getting really popular at a certain point and this is Razer’s own take on that type of glide. What you get is a medium speed mousepad with a decent amount of static friction and a lower amount of dynamic friction to allow for easier gliding. With an impressive consistency and all the features of an extremely decent gaming mousepad, this one is a logical inclusion in the top 5 of the most used mousepads. This list is, as we mentioned before, based on what the professionals are using. What you’ll see here is that most pros are using fairly large mouse pads, at least when compared to regular office mats. That’s because the overall sensitivity/ eDPIof pro (shooter) players is way lower than that of most casual gamers. This gives them way more control over their aim and overall just makes for a more consistent and reliable aiming experience when compared to extremely high sensitivities where it’s nearly impossible to make any micro adjustments to the aiming reticle. Even if you feel like you don’t need a large mousepad we would recommend getting one if you have the space for it; it’s always better to have some spare space for your mouse movements than to have to run into the edge of your playing surface in the heat of battle.