I'm not gonna lie. When I was contacted via Twitter from @artisankai in what appeared to be a spam advertisement for a gaming mouse pad, I was skeptical to say the least. However, perhaps against my better judgment, I decided to give it a go and follow up on it. I visited their Facebook page and found out that I had been contacted on Twitter on behalf of a company called “Grow Up Japan” and that they appeared to be a fairly new company Japanese specializing in PC gaming gear looking to get their name out there. Surprisingly they were willing to ship their one of their “ARTISAN KAI.g3 HEIN” mouse pads free to gamers who would give their honest opinion of it and write a short review if they liked it.
Well, you know how much I like free stuff, so I decided to request one, promising a review after using it for a day or two. They quickly responded asking for my shipping address and promised to send one out to me ASAP. Yesterday, it arrived here in central California, a little less than a week after I requested it. I have been using the mouse pad exclusively since it arrived and these are my initial observations and impressions:
The top surface of the pad is made of textured cloth. It is unlike anything I have felt before. It is fairly rough, which helps with tracking, and yet still allows my trusty Logitech G500 to glide over it effortlessly with very minimal drag.
The middle of the pad consists of a fairly thick layer of stiff foam. The foam provides just enough padding to stay comfortable while being firm enough to support the top surface of the pad.
The bottom surface is made of a rubbery material that does a great job at keeping the mouse pad in one place. It literally seems like the pad is glued to my desk, which is great.
The tracking on my Logitech G500 with this pad has been nothing less than stellar. I have experienced smooth pixel by pixel movement while using this pad and no jitter or jumpiness that I have experienced while using other mouse/mouse pad combinations.
I received the medium sized pad (they also come in small and large) and it measures approximately 12.5x9.75 inches. This is the one thing I do not like about the mouse pad. I am simply used to larger pads and have found that the size of your pad often becomes critical when playing FPS games and bigger is always better.
I am very impressed with the overall look and feel of the mouse pad. Everything about this product screams quality. It just has a very professional look to it that I believe will look great with any hardware setup.
In conclusion, I was quite impressed overall with this mouse pad and I thank the guys from Grow Up Japan for sending it out to me and giving me the opportunity to review it. It will be interesting to see if this promising start-up can make it in the very competitive industry that they have placed themselves in. I definitely look forward to any future products they might release.
Pros:
Great tracking
Low coefficient of friction
Overall look and feel
Grips my desk “like glue”
Cons:
Size
Overall 8.5/10
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