The first ‘Professional’ mousepad I ever bought was an XtracPad, it was the Xtrac Pro HS. I was looking for something better than the standard cloth, that spongy thing that you get for free all over the place, and I read a few reviews of the XtracPro HS, it sounded good and I figured why not? Since then I have been hooked on XtracPads, I own a few of them actually, most recently the XtracPad Ripper XXL, which is huge,it might be considered a deskpad actually. Xtrac recently sent me for review their Ripper XL, which is a scaled down version of the Ripper XXL, about half the length and three fourths the height. So let’s get on into this review…

XTracPads Ripper XL MousePad v2.0

Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos

Sponsor: XtracPads

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

The XTracPads Ripper XL™ is one of the largest gaming mats available today! Measuring a whopping 14 inches high and 17 3/4 wide, there’s plenty of smooth surface to get your game on. After all, why should you take a chance on running out of mouse surface?

XTracPads Ripper XL™ features:

Whisper quiet cloth surface

Soft and comfortable

Frey resistant edges

Sure Grip rubber backing

HUGE mousing surface

Size does matter. Be the first one on your block to impress your friends with you Big XtracPads Ripper XL™ professional mouse mat!

Specifications;

14″ x 17.75″ x 1/8″ (356mm x 451mm)

Sure Grip rubber backing

Cloth mousing surface

XTracPads Ripper XL™

Designed in the USA

Made in USA

Tested and 100% compatible with the following mice:

Logitech:

-MX300/500/510/518/700/1000 G5 & G7

Microsoft:

-Intellimouse Explorer 3.0/4.0 Laser Mouse 6000

Apple:

-Mighty Mouse

A Better Look at Things

:

First up the packaging, well I have to say the bright red box is a bit too much for me, but that’s just a personal opinion, but it will really attract attention to itself. The box doubles as the Ripper Xls carrier as well for taking to lans etc. I have my doubts about the longevity of a cardboard box, but it seems sturdy enough to make to through a few lans anyway.

Unpacking the Ripper XL we find the pad rolled up and in a plastic bag, along with an XTracPads sticker. Nice touch to throw in a little extra sticker.

The XTrac Ripper XL is large, and those with small desks might not like it. I personally have a huge desk and I love it. The surface material is cloth, but it is a fairly smooth cloth, it offers slight resistance for better control, I like that. I have found that totally smooth mouse pads can be a bit overkill with the mouse just sliding all around, I like a bit of friction between the mouse and the pad.

In the bottom right corner we find the XTrac logo and Ripper XL loge, but that is the only markings on the Ripper XL, it is basically solid black. I have to mention also, that the Ripper XL is machine washable, which is a nice thing to know. The Ripper XL is very thin and does not interfere with moving the mouse.

The back of the Ripper XL is rubber, and it holds it’s place on your desk very well no matter what you are doing with it. My one year old son is now walking and can just see onto my desk and he likes to grab things if he can, he grabbed the Ripper XL and pulled, it slid a bit but didn’t come of the desk, and he applied a bit more force than someone playing a game.

As I mentioned I like XTrac Pads personally, and considering I have been using the Ripper XXL for quite a while now I sort of knew what to expect from its little brother the Ripper XL, and I was right, it is essentially the same pad but just smaller. This is a good thing as I love my Ripper XXL. The Ripper XL is smaller yes, but provides the same quality surface as other XTracPads that I have.

Installation, Testing and Comparison

Installation is fairly easy, just find a space large enough to accommodate the Ripper XL. Easy enough to do for most people, but like I mentioned some with smaller workspaces might find this pad a bit to large, to bad for you I say….

All kidding aside, the Ripper XL is a great mouse pad, it is a pad that can be used by everyone, and everyone that uses it can appreciate it.

I have quite a few mice here that I threw on the Ripper XL to test it out with, they are:

Logitech G5

Logitech G7

Logitech MX1000

Brando Optical Liquid Mouse

Standard Microsoft 3 button ‘ball’ mouse

The G5, G7 and MX1000 have after market feet on them, specifically Corepad Skatez Pro. The other mice just have the stock feet on them.

All of the mice performed very well while playing games and doing my daily activities with the Ripper XL. I went though a day each with the mice of using them to get a good feel for how they work with the Ripper XL.

Lately I’ve been playing Quake4 and Prey in my spare time so all the mice got a nice workout, I wouldn’t recommend playing any of these games with a ball mouse though, I did learn that much very quickly. The Ripper XL performed very well, I have many other mouse pads here, most are hard surface, and the Ripper XL performed like a hard surface pad, but no scratching or scraping noise that some of the plastic pads can make at times, nice and quiet mousing. The Ripper XL is on par with mouse pads that cost equally as much and more.

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Tracking for all mice was excellent, even the ball mouse seemed to be improved by the Ripper XL compared to the standard cheapie mouse pad that it was being used on before.

One way I like to test the tracking ability of a mouse it to count with it, get a picture with lots of small things in a row in it, such as a nice picture of a finned heatsink, I actually used the picture from my review of the Thermalright SI-128 CPU Cooler, lots of fins there. The fins are close together, if you can count all the fins with your mouse, and the pointer lands on each fin then the tracking is pretty good. If the pointer jumps, either your hands, the mouse or the mouse pad are the problem. I found this a nice test to check the detail tracking ability of a mouse, you only mouse the mouse fractions of an inch or centimeter and it should land exactly where you want it if the tracking is good.

The next basic test would be to just move the mouse back and forth quickly across your screen, does the pointer move smoothly across at high speed or stutter or jump from place to place, that could be the mouse or the mouse pad, but when dealing with high end mice we can rule out the mouse as the problem.

Summary:

Well obviously I might seem a bit biased to XTrac but I try not to be biased in my reviews, if it was a bad pad I would have told you so, and I don’t think it is. At the moment I have the Ripper XL, on top of my Ripper XXL in the top right corner, I’ve gotten used to having a pad under my keyboard and arms, it’s much more comfortable. The XTrac Ripper XL is an excellent pad for anyone and everyone one, anyone who uses a mouse for extended periods, including gamers and workers alike should treat themselves to an XTrac Ripper XL v2.0 and see the difference it will make for yourself. I can easily recommend this to anyone with the space for it.

DragonSteelMods gives the XTrac Pads Ripper XL v2.0 a 5 out of 5 score and our Recommended Award as well.

Pros:

-Excellent performance

-On par with pads of similar and higher price

-Works great with all mice and improves some

-Stays in place

Cons:

-Cardboard box carrier….

I would like to thank XTracPads for the chance to review the Ripper XLv2.0.