I've seen a lot of positive comments about the Puretrack Talent here and on [H]ardForum lately. Looks a lot like a Steelseries QcK Mass, but the "machine washable" comment on their site draws my attention. After a few years of use with only the occasional half hearted wipe-down my old Razer Goliathus is pretty nasty, and fraying at the edges besides. I keep it in my laptop back "just in case" but it rarely gets use anymore.
Recently I've been switching between a Steelseries QcK Mass and a ARTISAN HIEN Hard L Samurai. I also own the aforementioned Razer Goliathus and a RatPadz XT. The Goliathus is worn out and was never anything special, the RatPadz hurts my wrist and rarely gets much use -- I've found I generally don't care for hard pads.
I use a Razer Lachesis (original version) and Razer Mamba (original version) -- both laser mice, which can have problems with some surfaces. I don't have any issues with inconsistent tracking or jumping with any of the above pads.
The QcK Mass and HIEN Hard L are very different pads -- the QcK Mass is very thick and squishy, with fairly good glide. It's a little smaller than the Hien Hard L, but both are downright gigantic compared with the Goliathus, so I still feel like I'll never run out of space. I may adjust to this but I doubt it'll ever be a case of not having enough space -- we're talking 12"x12" or larger here. The QcK Mass is really just an extra thick high quality cloth pad; I feel it's a little overpriced, but for the $18 shipped I got it from Amazon not completely unreasonable.
The HIEN Hard L is not your typical pad. It is a 'soft' pad, not hard plastic, metal, or glass, but it has a stiff foam layer that makes the surface feel much more like a hard pad while maintaining some give. The surface is not flat but textured. Once the mouse is moving a bit the glide is similar to "control" surfaces from companies like Razer, but stops are much more sudden and precise than most pads. This takes some getting used to but proves very useful once you adjust. I was concerned this might lead to premature wear of the mouse feet, but after reading a few reviews and opinions of other owners it doesn't seem this will be an issue. I got my HIEN Hard L for $28 shipped, 30% off of normal price, from Amazon. I would have preferred black to navy blue, but that was the only color on sale in the Hard finish and L size. Black commands a considerable premium over other colors for these pads it seems.
