Always when I am shopping for something that I want to last I'm frequently scouring the reviews looking for the worst case scenarios and how often they are coming up (asking myself "is it a fluke issue or a common problem"). I will let you know of my experience in response to some of the negative reviews I saw prior to purchasing:
I saw the review complaint about the gel breaking open and making a sticky mess after a month (eventually this can and does happen as it was the reason I needed to get a new mouse pad, but my last gel mouse pad lasted 5+ years (it was also a different brand)). I'm 2 years in to using this one and use my computer a lot with general use and all of the pandemic extra use with "virtual working/learning, staying connected/Zoom madness, virtual appointments, my video gaming life (I'm sure there is around 1000 some odd hours or more in there on gaming alone), of course all of the amazon shopping during the pandemic, internet searching and researching (because thee was a lot we needed to know and understand with what had been going on 2020 through 2022). To this day (Purchased in April of 2020, writing this June of 2022) there have been no issues. The only thing I can see "wrong" is that there is some dehydrated sweat from the hotter days of the summer sticking to the gel pouch, which is to be expected, that really has nothing to do with the quality of the product and everything to do with standard human use after 2+ years (also it can be cleaned with a few drops of water and **gently** rubbing with tissue paper).
Saw the complaint about pain but I only found that after 12 hours of straight use and perhaps not drinking enough water. Pain was mild at best. 1 out of 10 with 10 being most painful (and that is after 12 hours… and really… perhaps at that point you should be taking a break anyways).
Saw the complaint about the mouse pointer to skip in fine movements. Not sure how that happened for them. Perhaps something wrong with the mouse? I use a laser mouse and know that sometimes there are problems when a dust fiber gets stuck between the mouse laser and the pad (which is easily fixed by blowing some canned air at the laser or otherwise removing the dust fiber). I've never had the issue of the "cursor bouncing all over the place" issue reported by another reviewer (unless there was a dust fiber issue). Again… thinking this is perhaps a problem with the mouse they are using(or dust fiber… seriously check that first and perhaps save some money!).
Saw the complaint: "This may have worked great for older mice, but newer mice that use laser tracking won't work with this mousepad." <— I respectfully disagree as I am using a newer mouse with the laser tracking, bought my mouse in 2018…. Did they check for dust fibers? I have no idea if they did. Perhaps thier mouse is not a good mouse? I have seen pointer jumps with a lazer mouse on cloth fabric mousepads and found it to be either a dust fiber or lifting the mouse off the pad when using the mouse. I haven't had mouse pointer jumps on this pad when lifting the mouse like with other mousepads.
Things I agree on:
The split gel pouch **IS** an upside and I find the spot where I get sore in the wrist (the end of the forearm bone on the outer side of the wrist when holding a mouse on the mouse pad during typical use) is not getting as much pressure on it making my wrist hold up better than with my previous gel mouse pad (probably why I can go for 12 hours and not really notice an issue).
The bottom of the mouse pad is not slippery and so it doesn't move around on my smooth desktop. Very helpful for my set up.
The gel pouches do seem to be a bit more firm than previous gel mouse pads I have had but I think with the split gel pouches, any drawbacks that would typically come with firmer gel pouches have been adequately accounted for.
My thoughts:
I think that this is a GREAT product. If for some reason it falls apart quickly consider that it might have been a fluke in the manufacturing. I myself don't wear any bracelets or have any metal or hard plastic or other potentially gel pouch damaging objects coming close or into contact with the gel pouches (I don't put my fingernails into or finger scratch the gel either… you want to take care of those babies because they are the whole reason to get this mouse pad in the first place!).
Hopefully this helps!
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