Razer Firefly Hard Gaming Mouse Mat

Serious Windows PC gamers likely ain gaming mice and gaming keyboards (such as the Corsair STRAFE), all in the name of enhancing their gaming experience and getting more frags. Seriously, PC guys honey their frags. Ane gaming peripheral that often goes neglected, though, is the actual mouse pad/mat. I hateful, your mouse technically works on a cheap mouse pad or maybe fifty-fifty a bare desk, right?

Gaming mouse surfaces exercise impact mouse performance, though. San Diego-based accompaniment behemothic Razer offers some gaming mouse mats for different budgets and needs. I of their 2 top mats is the Razer Firefly Hard Gaming Mouse Mat. The Firefly boasts Chroma lighting, a generous xiv x 10-inch size, and a hard surface made specially for gaming – all for sixty bucks. Read our full review with video to find out just what a difference this pricey mouse mat makes!

Size matters

The Razer Firefly measures fourteen x ten inches, placing it in the "Medium" category of mouse surface sizes… They go all the mode up to Actress Big, yikes! This provides equally much horizontal motility range every bit any typical mouse user is ever probable to need, if not a little more. If horizontal real estate comes at a premium in your desk setup, you can, of form, use the mat in a vertical orientation. That still provides all the X-axis room I could want, so it'due south perfect for my setup.

The Firefly is fabricated of difficult plastic though it does have a minor "give" if you bend it. The pinnacle features a micro-textured surface engineered to provide a balance between speed and command play styles. The bottom of the Firefly is coated entirely in textured rubber, ensuring that it won't budge a jot during heavy gaming and/or Windows Central reading sessions.

Feel

I've ever been a fabric mouse pad user, making the Razer Firefly my starting time hard mouse mat (other than a brief stint with the Mario Paint mouse pad as a wee lad). The Firefly's hard surface feels surprisingly different to employ than a soft pad.

This one is engineered partially for speed, and it does have a significant impact on the speed of mouse movement. I used both Razer Mamba TE (review coming soon) and Logitech G500 gaming mice with the Firefly, and both moved noticeably faster than on my previous cheap and soft pad. It'due south like turning up the mouse's DPI without actually irresolute the DPI at all. Gamers who crave quick motility will go exactly that hither.

The actual micro-textured surface provides a couple of benefits. The microscopic crystalline specks used to create the surface actually increase reflectivity to mouse sensors. This boosts the precision of the mouse, making impressively precise movement possible. The surface also feels really good to the impact – way ameliorate than cloth mouse pads I've used.

Another welcome advantage of the Firefly: information technology's super piece of cake to wipe make clean. Pet hair won't stick to it, unlike soft mouse pads.

Razer Firefly and Mamba TE mouse with Windows Fundamental-colored lighting

Lighting

The Razer Firefly'south truthful claim to fame is its Chroma lighting (Razer'due south proper noun for its 16.8 million color spectrum lighting technology). The mat features lighting along its left, right, and front edges, too as a light-up Razer logo on its superlative-right corner. The simply edge without lighting is the back one, which should confront away from the thespian in the default horizontal orientation.

To achieve this lighting, the Firefly must of course describe USB ability. A six-pes braided USB string extends from a raised area at the dorsum of the mat. When plugged in, the Firefly lights up (lighting tin can as well exist disabled in software). When not plugged in, you obviously get no lighting.

To customize the Firefly's lighting, you'll have to apply the downloadable Razer Synapse software. This requires the creation of an online account with Razer (a minor hassle), after which any lighting changes fabricated volition be saved to the user's account on the deject. Synapse is really easy to use, especially for the Firefly due to the relative simplicity of a mouse mat. No wading through multiple tabs to set up your colors hither.

The Firefly offers five lighting effects (plus the option of no lighting), each with varying degrees of customization such every bit effulgence and speed. You can come across them all in activity in our video review. A brief overview:

• Breathing: All of the mat'south lights pulse up and downward in intensity. You lot can't accept ane light pulse a different color than the others, but you can set the lights to alternating between two unlike colors.
• Reactive: This feature requires that you utilise at least ane other Razer Chroma-supported device (a mouse or keyboard) in tandem with the Firefly. When enabled, any keypress or mouse click from the compatible device will cause the Firefly lights to flare up. If y'all want your mouse mat to wink when you fire in a game or whatsoever, the Reactive result will brand it happen.
• Spectrum Cycling: The mat cycles between various colors.
• Static: The Firefly stays lit up with a single color of the user'due south choosing.
• Wave: A series of colors menstruation effectually the edges of the mat.

Razer Firefly rubber-coated lesser side

Minor quibbles

Price bated, merely a few small imperfections fizz up effectually the Firefly's USB cablevision:

The USB cord is non-removable, and then if it ever breaks you'd lose the lighting effects. On the other hand, mouse mats don't get moved effectually a lot – and the cable is braided. It shouldn't suspension for most of us.

Mouse mats don't generally crave USB ports, merely this one does. It would've been prissy of Razer to throw in a USB passthrough or hub to complimentary up a port.

Finally, the cord of a wired mouse can potentially bump up confronting the raised area from which the USB cable extrudes. This doesn't negatively touch on my experience at all, but some users might discover that little bump annoying.

The sexiest mouse mat always to stalk the World

Nobody needs a low-cal-upward mouse mat. As with light up keyboards, controllers, headsets, and other gaming accessories, the lighting in the Razer Firefly is completely for looks. But oh man, those looks! You get five main furnishings and millions of colors to choose from with this mouse mat'southward lighting. All of those effects will dazzle not just the user'southward eyes, merely likewise onlookers. The Reactive option is especially rewarding for gamers who have already bought into other Razer Chroma products.

That fancy lighting might be for showing off, but the Firefly has practical purposes too. It's roomy, has a surface that legitimately enhanced speed, precision, and feel, and it's besides easy to make clean. This one investment, large though information technology is, should essentially last forever. I can't imagine a mouse mat much nicer than the Razer Firefly.

Still, sixty bucks really is a lot for a mouse mat. I'm sure many PC gamers would rather apply some of that scratch towards a nicer mouse, keyboard, or headset. Razer makes a very like mouse mat called the Destructor two which uses the same hard plastic and micro-textured finish as the Firefly. It retails for $xl and rings upwardly at $34 at Amazon, making information technology a keen choice for serious PC gamers who don't care about lighting.

See ont Amazon ($58.99) (opens in new tab)

Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don't hate. Capeesh!

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/razer-firefly-review

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