Speedlink Orios XL RGB Mousemat

"God, it's huge!"

Said the wife when I whipped this baby out of the box.

Rolled up around a cardboard tube to reduce stress on the edges, this mousemat measures roughly 40cm by 91cm, and now covers the lion's share of my desk.

Now what the hell am I doing reviewing a mousemat?

Well, this particular mat is a mousemat on lots of drugs, ladies and germs. Edge lit with RGB LEDs, it now covers my desk and leaves me without the need for a separate mousemat, and means I have an overall silky feel to my desk. Mmmmmm...

OK, let's be honest, it's a water resistant material, maybe neoprene but they don’t actually say anywhere, with a subtle black and grey hex design. Rubber backed, it's non-slip and is solid as a rock on my desk, which isn't smooth as it has a faux woodgrain finish. The mat does feel smooth and slick to the touch although if you rub against the grain you can feel the cloth resist somewhat. Stitched around the edge is a plastic optical fibre, lit centrally by a mini-USB ported power unit, which is minimal, and has a power switch on it for control. You'll need any USB 2.0 or 3.0 port free to power it, and it doesn't have any follow on USB port, which normally I wouldn't expect on something like this anyway, but which could have been neat to run my mouse off, given what it's for.

Hold the power button for three seconds to power off, tap it to power on, and tap to cycle through the light modes; seven colours which you can see below, and a pulse mode which cycles through each colour in a "breathing" effect.

What's a shame is there's no option as far as I can tell to control the lights from the PC. Given Corsair's iCue controls of fans, DDR LEDs, even the lights on my Void headset, it's kind of a pity these RGB mouse mats don't include something like that, but it's not like it was advertised as such, so I'm not docking any points for that.

While it's obvious it's lit only by a pair of LEDs in the power unit, apart from a little more intensity in the length either side of that, the light is consistent all the way round the edge of the mat. The colours are nice and vivid, no pale pastels here, and with the lights off they really do kick out, so should complement any other LED lighting you have on show.

OK, so it looks nice, but is it actually any good? Well, this is tricky to answer.

The material feels really nice to the touch, but for those who are used to hard mouse surfaces, this will take some getting used to. Previously I've used a Razer Sphex polycarbonate mat, which I've grown very used to, and my Logitech G502 skims across it with almost no resistance. On this however, there's definitely resistance, although response is smooth and uninterrupted. Coming rolled up into itself, there's no worry about laying it out flat, although there's a couple of lifts towards the corners it's not noticeable. Being water repellent, it's good at not retaining spills, although a mousemat would normally be bottom of the list of things to panic about over electronic hardware. It really is vast (the XL edition) and with my keyboard and both mice with plenty of space to spare it does make my workspace look tidier and more organised. It does look really quite nice on my desk.
The quality is second to none, the stitching is tight and consistent, although for those who rest their arms on the edge of the desk it might get a little scratchy. The USB cable that comes with it is quite a "loose" one, so should get around any cabling routes you have without a hitch.

This is a solid product, well made, and good looking. On the whole, it simply depends on how happy you are to drop 55 quid on an RGB lit mousemat. After a few days use, I'm liking it, it's smooth and comfortable and just gives that nice edge to my setup, without overdoing it.

If, just in case anyone checks this review out who's looking to release something like this, two suggestions: make it a USB hub, so I can string at least my mouse off it, and give it some software so I can sync it up to other RGB gear.

On the whole, I’m not sure I can justify the £55 asking price, maybe £40 or so would be a better price point personally, but it still does a pretty bang up job for the money.