i did get kinda lazy halfway modding this because of my studies, but planning to custom cut griptape from large sheets, change the wheel, battery, and make it look slightly more presentable in the future. for now this is fine for a mouse i don't use.
still have many parts of the mouse not swiss cheesed so i could probably bring this down under 80 grams if really needed
Prices are direct from Taobao before taxes. Quick reviews cause I got even more pads coming this month. Lowkey just buying pads for the art at this point
￥139 Nemvira Doll - Flap-close flat packaging with an envelope with bunch of freebies of the art. 490x420mm 3mm Mid Shiny Polyurethane Base. Soft surface, smooth glide with medium/high static friction but much lower dynamic friction. Sadly my pad couldn't sit flat on all sides, likely due to stitching for mid bases. Pad currently in stock on Taobao and they have some brown colour scheme pad coming soon I think. I bought for only the art, but 8/10 if it was fully flat.
￥129 AbyssGaming Crimson Remains - Flat packaging with velcro closure and a nice thick plastic card with the art. 490x420mm 3mm Mid Shiny Polyurethane Base. Silky surface, similar to Raiden's feel due to similar weave. Low static and dynamic friction. No complaints, checks all the boxes for mid hardness speed pads. Pad currently in stock on Taobao on their official store 107Esport. 9.5/10 goated
￥139 Hachiware Yuriel - Double flap-close flat packaging with a plastic card with the art. 490x420mm 3mm Mid Polyurethane Base. Chaotic weave, Matte feeling surface, kind of plasticky actually. Weirdly smooth and muddy at the same time, medium-high static friction and dynamic friction. Pad was actually pretty disappointing, the art looked like it was run through an AI upscaler, and some parts of the mid poron base looked like it was tearing because they stitched the edges so damn tight. Hachiware is pretty known but I'd probably recommend their other pads. 6.5/10 still looks alright on my desk and feels fine to use although doesn't feel great.
￥79 Kean 央/Central - Pull tear tab flat packaging with one shiny rainbow art card and a smaller plastic art card. 490x420mm 5mm Soft Rubber Base. Common cloth pad fuzzy weave, soft fuzzy surface. Medium-high static friction and medium dynamic friction, regular cloth pad things. Base is thicc 5mm (closer to 4.5mm) standard rubber with zigzag anti-slip patterns. Pretty soft and nice to use actually, reminds me of generic desk mats. Kean store doesn't have much sales and the bigass logo isn't that nice. Cheap price, nice art, regular cloth pad experience, its 7.5/10 (because its cheap-er).
￥169 ESPTiger Pioneer Kunlun - Branded paper-belt around full panel flap flat packaging, best packaging in this roundup, with paper card art. 490x420mm 4mm High Density Foam Base. Edgeless design so no edge stitching. Slightly rough texture, called "Irregular pattern Jaquard" by ESPTiger, feels firm and not too rough on the skin. Medium static and dynamic friction, but every movement feels very precise and intentional. Actually really nice to use, especially with the edgeless design. Only slightly worried about how the pad will hold up after several washes but the surface material feels much more durable. Pad is kinda hard to find and isn't even on ESPTiger's website. 9/10 cause ESPTiger makes solid pads, and they finally aren't doing 480x400mm LOL.
￥79.90 Uncle Panda P-Luck Cloth - Pull tear tab flat packaging. 490x420mm 4mm Soft(More like XSoft) Polymer foam base. Lycra fabric, silky smooth surface, with similar Raiden surface weave. Low to medium static and dynamic friction. The base is very soft and rebounds slower than most poron pads, due to it being very porous. This does help when pressing down for stopping power, although I worry about long-term durability with this type of base. Pad is sadly sold out right now, but most of Uncle Panda's pads are great. 8.5/10 feels great plays great but probably won't last long.
finally arrived to replace my 8 year old PC37X for gaming. hopefully it's the last (probably not)
Images since original images were gone : https://imgur.com/a/b0ruWgx
Coming in at ￥88.88 ≈ US$13 before shipping, this is Uncle Panda's latest product on their TaoBao store. This is the SS26 HE, measuring in at 490x420mm with 4mm soft poron base, and is stated to be a neutral pad. This was released alongside the SS26 BE, being the more controlled variant.
It comes in a standard flat-packaged hard cardboard enveloped, with the pad protected by a frosted poly sleeve. It has tear tabs like the Artisan's packaging as well.
From a first look, the colours of the SS26 HE is strikingly similar, with it just being a slightly more vibrant orange, whereas the Zero is slightly more tuned out. The poron base also has visual differences, the SS26 HE base being much shinier than the Artisan's, leading to a better grip on most desk surfaces. The poron on the SS26 HE is also dimpled inwards, essentially being an inverse of the Artisan base.
The pad is advertised as a Soft variant of 4mm, although actually measured around 3.8-3.9mm. During use, the feel of the SS26 HE lands between an Artisan Mid and Soft, leaning more towards the soft spectrum.
The surface weave on the SS26 HE is extremely similar to the Artisan Zero, with near 1:1 pattern and lose thread weaves. The edge stitching on the SS26 HE is also extremely high quality. In regular use, the surface of the Artisan Zero is slightly rougher than the SS26 HE, also meaning that the SS26 HE has a slightly better sleeve compatibility (albeit largely the same as the Zero). The static and dynamic friction of both pads are extremely similar, with the only differences coming from the soft base of the SS26 HE instead of the surface. On some skates, the textural feedback on the Zero Mid is slightly greater than the SS26 HE.
The base and the stitching on the SS26 HE is also very high quality, although it does not match Artisan's. The different textures of the poron base can also be seen here.
Overall, this pad is fantastic. Value, quality and performance wise. It does greatly depend on how cheap shipping China is to you for this pad to be remotely worth it (US$4.5 to ship two pads to me via air freight). As long as you can get this under US$25-30, I'd say its an amazing pad for it's price.
TLDR - High quality Artisan Zero Soft clone at a fraction of its price. Holds mostly the same pros and cons as the actual Artisan Zero. Standard TaoBao shipping price variances for different countries may ruin the cost-effectiveness of the pad.
Few popular mousepads I have and personal speed rankings :
Wallhack SP-005 (92/100), Tekkusai Singularity (86/100), Aqua Control 2 Black (74/100), Heavy Bee P.CHEN (Speed) (71/100) , Artisan Zero Mid (68/100) , Equate Plus v2 (62/100), H-SR-SE ROUGE 2 (47/100), Artisan Type-99 Mid (45/100). For me the Key-83 lands right about 72/100.
Packaging, Build Quality & Feel - Your standard flat-packaged Artisan cardboard envelope with the wavy tear tab. Pad comes out significantly lighter due to my hardness choice being mid, but the fabric, poron, stitching all feel amazing. (As it should for the price of the K83)
Initially, the feel of the surface is quite rough but not abrasive, largely noticeable on the x-axis. It feels much rougher than the Zero, but much less than the AC 2 and slightly more than the EQ+ v2.
The mid poron base does feel much harder on the Key-83 since the fabric is much more tightly weaved. It takes decent pressure to even depress it, and it rebounds back extremely fast.
Speed & Performance - Currently using the Viper V4 Pro with TBTL v2 Half Sized PTFE Skates. The speed is slightly faster than the Zero Mid, with the benefit of a lower x and y axis variance. It is much closer to a speed-hybrid, from its balance largely coming from the texture.
Different skates will offer a much larger spectrum of experiences compared to other cloth pads. The smaller the skate size goes, the more texture feedback you will feel when using the pad. If you choose dots, you can feel a crazy amount of texture on the pad, similar to a Hien or AC2. If you choose full size, it feels something akin to using dots on a Zero Mid.
Combined with the consistent x and y axis, it felt quite similar to using UHMWPE dots on a control Glasspad, just slightly slower.
Comparisons - It truly is quite special, I would compare it to if you were using Titanium U9 Ultra + Control Glass Pad/Resin Pad, Obsidians on AC2. Think of a relatively fast pad you have but add an element of control to it.
Some downsides - The sleeve compatibility is sadly not great, specifically when moving through horizontally. This aspect really made me regret buying XL instead of XXL. This can be slightly mitigated by rotating the pad 90 degrees, but then it makes the sleeve incompatible on the y axis. I do not personally use sleeves too often on cloth pads, but it can be an easy downside for others. Currently tested with a TalonGames GT Seamless Sleeve (Purple) and other nylon + spandex sleeves.
Being a mid base, it is lighter and hence the pad does not adhere too well to my wooden grain desk. It can be slightly fixed by using a damp cloth to wipe the base, but generally I never face any issues with the pad moving in game.
The skate compatibility can also be quite difficult especially if you do not have access to several different type of skates. Although most full size skates will perform just fine.
TLDR - Amazing all-rounder pad for all games. Very consistent, enough speed and control aspects. Surface is rough, incompatible with most sleeves. Some skates will not feel great, but good ones let you have amazing texture feedback.
Formatting might be kinda ass since I don't use post often