A while back a Danish company released to the market a fairly 'odd' product, the Steelpad 4S. A mouse mat made of solid metal was not normal at all; most of us were quite content with our Ikea fabric pads and those few among us who considered themselves hardcore gamers might have imported a ratpad from the [H]. Since then the market for "pro" mousing surfaces has grown immensely and a considerable number of competing products are available. The big boys in the game are, to my eyes at least, Everglide, Ratpadz and of course Steelpad (who also produce the Icemat range, whether under a different company name or just product name I am not sure).

The Steelpad 4S is still the flagship product, and a sexy beast it is. There's nothing quite like a cool slab of aluminium to get a geek hot under the collar (that and the latest issue of "Nuts" magazine, how I hate people who read that...) and the performance of the pad certainly kept up with its lush appearance. So what's this, the Steelpad 4D, offer differently and, most importantly, is it even better? Well my good friends, let us take a gander and see if we can't just work that out.

The main difference that first strikes (although not the only big difference, more on that soon) is the price of the 4D. Usually I don't talk about product cost until near the end of the review but in this case I'm making a break from the norm. The biggest shortfall of the 4S was, and is, undoubtedly the fairly high price. Granted it's a well crafted product, does it's job superbly well, and is afterall precision cut from a chunk of metal. But it's still a mouse mat (pad, whatever) and back when it was released I seem to remember it cost in the the region of £35-40. Now the price is, according to the Steelpad website, 40 euros which equates to about £27 as I write this. Still not cheap I'm sure you'll agree. This undoubtedly lost Steelpad a large chunk of the potential market which is why I think the 4D was a masterful idea. The 4D costs, again from steelpad.com, 20 euros or about £13. If it can perform similarly well to it's big metal brother then it has to be a winner. So, can it? Patience young padawan.

The 4D comes in an attractive slimline package just big enough to house it. No big box or padding like it's cousin the Icemat, but then this product should be hardy enough to protect itself. I know it's of no bearing whatsoever but I do rather like the box art. The entire range of products has lovely packaging, it's just a shame we don't see any of it in our local CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet (an ode to [M] if anyone recognises it) stores (yet).

The 4D is of almost identical dimensions and shape as the 4S pad (the difference only being at most 1mm or so). The pad measures approximately 290x250mm at it's longest parts, as you can see there is a cutout at the bottom/front of the pad presumably crafted with the wrist in mind. I find myself resting my wrist on the pad itself, but the design does seem sensible and looks good. Now to the shocker... the pad is made of plastic. That's right, the "Steel"pad 4D is actually made of 1mm thick plastic coupled with a rubber mat base to prevent slippage. Before you hit alt-f4 in disgust, fret not. The construction is just as high a quality as the aluminium (see, it's still not a "Steel"pad really) 4S and the surface is lovely. What's more, the 4D is actually two mats in one since it has followed the recent trend of dual surfaced reversible mats - a smooth side and a rougher side. What's more, rather than sticking feet to both sides (a poor solution, employed by most of the competitors) the 4D has a separate rubber mat to mate the pad to the table or desk it sits on.

You might think this method might lead to the mat slipping but in fact it works very well indeed. The rubber mat was obviously well designed since it does it's job perfectly - the pad is very secure and is very difficult indeed to push across my desk.

Use of the smooth or rough side is really down to personal preference. General consensus seems to be that the rough side of pads like this is better for gaming and I am inclined to agree. Since I started using the mat I have settled into using the rougher side all the time, the smooth side doesn't offer the resistance that I like from the rough side. It is suggested that 'net browsing and similar tasks are more suited to the smooth side - perhaps for thos in offices constantly whizzing the mouse around their documents this would be true. Switching is a simple task of removing the rubber mat (peeling it off, since it tacks quite well to the pad) and slapping it onto the other side (or alternatively lying it on the desk and placing the pad on top).

Also included with the 4D, running with Steelpad's tradition, is a strip of the "padsurfer" teflon tape. This stuff sticks to the bottom of your mouse, over the feet, and helps it glide slickly over the pad. It is an essential part of the product - the tape improves the performance hugely. I just managed to cover the feet of two microsoft mice, with no excess... it might be nice to see a bit more of this tape bundled with the product but at least you can buy extra strips of it at a fairly cheap price should you ever need more.

Two mice covered with the supplied tape

So we've pretty much covered all aspects of the Steelpad 4D. Is it as good as the more expensive 4S model? Well yes I feel it certainly lives up to it's older brother in terms of performance and with a price tag of half the 4S it's much more impressive in that respect. In terms of looks and style it lags being the 4S... I rather like the feel of the cold metal, and it's just that much cooler (not temperature-wise..) than the plastic 4D pad. The Steelpad 4D is certainly worthy of the description "performance gaming surface" as it gives the mouse a wonderfully slick smooth movement. A friend of mine who uses a Ratpadz mat tried out my MS Explorer 4 on the Steelpad 4D and was stunned by how smoothly the mouse flowed (helped by the fact that the Explorer 4 is a very lightweight mouse). At 20 euros it's very hard not to recommend anyone vaguely interested in having a better mouse mat get one of these. I've not seen them for sale at UK stores for such a low price (£13) but why not order direct from the steelpad website?

The Steelpad 4D is, as our mutual friend the 3dGameMan would say, a "kickass product". Steelpad should take a nice slice of the market by undercutting their best competition - their own alternative products. Go get one.

Well made
Cheap (relatively)
Dual surfaces
Grippy
Included teflon tape
It's not steel (or aluminium)
More teflon tape would be nice
Cheaper than others, but it's still over a tenner for a mouse mat

Related:
Steelpad.com