Alright everyone, here it is – the moment we have all been waiting for. We’ve waited too long, but it has finally arrived. I’ve been waking up each night from restless sleep shaking with anticipation. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you (drumroll please) – a mousepad review.
Sarcasm aside, a good mousepad can make small differences in your style of play and accuracy. While I have never reviewed a mouse pad before, I can say having a mouse pad versus not having one makes gaming much more enjoyable and comfortable – particularly when I use a wrist rest. Roccat’s Sense Aimo XXL mouse pad packs a few great features that will further bring your gaming station to life.
Roccat offers three different sizes of their gaming mouse pad, I tested the largest (XXL) pad which is a full-on gaming mat. The pad is flexible with an RGB light running along the outside that is Aimo compatible (meaning you can control and sync the mat’s RGB lights with other Roccat Aimo devices) and delivers additional lighting to my gaming setup. The underside of the mat grips ridiculously well to my desk, though measuring in at 900mm wide and a 400mm height, it does take up a lot of space.
More ambient lighting is always a good thing in my book. The lighting on the outside of the mat looks gorgeous, and I really notice using a black gaming mat underneath my RGB enhanced mouse and keyboard make for a brilliant and rich contrast in color. I don’t tend to use two distinct colors on the outside of the mat, but there are two programmable zones for different color options at the same time.
Aimo is Roccat’s “intelligent lighting system” that interacts with your PC usage and gaming habits. I use the Swarm software that’s included to make on-the-fly adjustments to the lighting depending on my preference. I typically just let the Aimo system automatically adjust the colors. This setting changes the colors of all of my devices to match and truly gives some beautiful, rich color combinations.
I recently discovered “Talk FX” within the software as well. Talk FX tries to take in-game circumstances and translate them into ambient enhancement. Poisoned? Your mouse or mouse pad may start glowing green if all is working flawlessly. Low on health? Red flashing may occur. The idea is rich, however, Talk FX didn’t seem to respond to all games I play. Hopefully, Roccat will improve this as time goes on because the idea is fun, but I’m not sure how much I truly notice when my eyes are focused on the screen.
There are certainly a lot of positives to take away from the Roccat Sense Aimo mouse pad, but I think we all know that gaming devices are a magnet for dust and debris floating in the air. The larger the mouse pad, the larger the problem here. Pet hair in particular loves to cling to the pad, and I did have to clean it a few times. I can’t stand having a lot of dust in the area so I may clean more than the average gamer.
Having the three size options allows you to decide what is best for you. I purchased a smaller pad for a family member for Christmas as his space simply doesn’t allow for a mat style. My only other complaint is one I make frequently about most devices. If you want the RGB lighting, expect another wire to run across your desk. I’m not sure why these devices aren’t built for wireless transmission as they just provide lighting, but I’m sure it saves on the cost of production.
All in all, if you need a mouse pad for any other reason than gaming and the “cool” factor, go buy a cheap mouse pad. If you are looking to spice up your gaming station, look no further – particularly if you have other Roccat products. Seeing them interact together is truly gorgeous. Happy gaming!
