I've been hit with the brainwave of making a case for my computer out of all the mousemats that I've collected over the last few months. The Steelpad would make up one side and the top, the Speedpad would be the front as its plastic would be easiest to cut through, and then the Icemat would make a nice side panel. The DKT pad could go inside to help damp the sound. But this new Ricochet 2.52 pad from Everglide, well it would suffer the inglorious distinction of having provided the feet for this new case. I don't really like it at all, but its bendy plastic material could be easily turned into some nice curvy supports.

Its looks good enough, a nice charcoal kind of colour with some light printed styling on either side. One surface is very smooth, best used for those frantic shooters, while the other side is a little rougher and is therefore better suited to the more sedate mouse movements of RPGs, RTSs and good old Windows. The first, and frankly biggest problem with this product lies with the little foam feet which amply decorate three of the edges on both sides of the mat. Unfortunately, because one edge of the mat has no support and that end is where your wrist lies and hence takes most of the weight this mat sags in the middle. A new experience for me when using a mousemat, and one that seems incredible if you've just shelled out £27.99 for the thing. Now this doesn't make the mat completely useless, but seeing as the whole thing is marketed as a precision piece of equipment it doesn't do very well for it to warp. You could remove the feet from one side so it sat flat, but seeing as that would pretty much force you to use one side only the whole selling point of the Ricochet would be negated (well apart from the 2.52 aspect). This seems like a serious design flaw to me, an opinion held by my flatmates when I brought the stupidity of it to their attention. And that's not the only immediately noticeable problem.

As I've said there's one edge which is free of the feet for your wrist, and when the mat is arranged like so, the lettering on the mat is upside down. I would hope that this is not the way it's meant to be and is a problem isolated to my particular pad, but again it comes across as very sloppy work. However, the bend of the mat does mean that the point where the wrist comes into contact with the edge of mat is even lower down, making it a comfortable mat to use. An unintentional plus mark there. Also in its favour is the durable material of the base onto which the two surfaces are adhered. It may be bendy but it's a tough bugger and would probably last a long time. Which is more then can be said for those troublesome little feet. It's also a good size, coming in with dimensions of 29x30cm for the surfaces and 30x24 for the outer surface. And it is extremely thin, 2.52mm to be exact. You can also choose between getting it in red, white or the black I've looked at here.

The surfaces themselves are fine. The smooth one gives a nice ride but its accuracy was below that of some of other rodent runs I've looked at. There's a slight feeling of resistance when pushing the mouse along but it's a little more then what's necessary to give the user tactile feedback and can occasionally seem to hinder the natural flow of the mouse. The other side is a good solid surface for non-intensive use. But if you want a pad like that you can buy something perfectly good for a fiver from World. The more precise surface is let down by those serious design flaws. If the mat could be redesigned to forgo the little feet for a strip of resistant material that goes round the three edges AND lies flush with the rest of the surface then I'd have to take another look. As it is I just can't recommend the Ricochet as a precision pad or a fancy day-to-day mat. It's an interesting idea that has been badly thought out and badly implemented. Give someone else your money, there are plenty of good products out there, this just ain't one of them.

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By Sam Gibson