There are mousepads. And then there’s the new Razer Gigantus, which is … well, gigantic.
I’ve owned various Razer mousepads for quite literally over a decade. The first mousepad I picked up was a giant black and green clothpad in the late ’00s. Most people I knew around the Counter-Strike and PC Call of Duty scenes were all using cloth pads in the day, since they didn’t damage your mouse feet and were a lot easier to transport. (You could get mousepads with harder, rougher surfaces, but they were smaller. And if you were travelling interstate or internationally for competitions, the tin cases the harder mousepads came in always set off the X-Ray scanner at the airport, sending you straight to the security checkpoint.)
That first cloth pad lasted longer than most of my PCs. After a few years of constant usage and God knows how many spills, I bought the first iteration of the Razer Goliathus. It’s a flat, black cloth pad with no texturing, unlike the original speed/control cloth pads Razer released. It’s a simple flat surface, with soft fabric supported by a about a thumbnail’s worth of rubber.
It’s what most people think of when they think of a gaming mousepad. It’s also the only memory I have left of a time in my life when I spent a month playing Counter-Strike in Brunei — but that’s a story for another day.
Anyway, I’ve taken that mousepad with me ever since. And while I’ve occasionally trialled other surfaces, I’ve always gone back to the original Goliathus. So when Razer sent me an email saying that the Gigantus was being refreshed — it’s basically the Goliathus, but bigger — I figured I’d check it out.
Because hey, I have a lot of history with this surface. We’ve been through a lot together. And the new Gigantus even lets you customise it with your gamer name, which is cool.
There’s just one small thing: Razer didn’t really mention just how big the new Gigantus is.
Like, take a look at this shit.
This is the biggest iteration of the Gigantus V2, which ships in four separate sizes. The 3XL pictured here is 1.2 metres long, which is longer than some bath towels I have in my house. It’s almost the full length of the cheap arse Bunnings table that’s housing my home PC.
Genuinely, no human being alive needs a mousepad this big. Fortunately, the Gigantus V2 comes in other sizes:
- M (360 x 275 x 3mm) for $19.90
- L (450 x 400 x 3mm) for $28.90
- XXL (940 x 410 x 4mm) for $55.90
- 3XL (1,200 x 550 x 4mm) for $92.90
If you want to add your own name to the mat, it’ll cost an extra $US10 through Razer Customs. Update: Razer has advised that the name customisation is currently only available in the US, and not to Australians. You could still get it, but you’d have to forward it on from the US, which might be a bit pricey.
It’s hard to see your name on the 3XL version, however.
Of course, if you’re just getting the medium or large versions — the size most people buy — the visibility’s less of an issue. If you’re ordering for yourself, this is what the customisation options look like:
As a mousepad, the Gigantus V2 is very, very similar to the Goliathus of old. It’s a thicker cloth pad than Razer’s more recent offerings, with about 4mm of thick, texturised green rubber on the bottom. The top surface is kind of a blend between a soft cloth pad with the friction of a harder surface. If you’ve ever used Logitech’s gaming mouse pads, it’s very similar to that, although Razer’s new Gigantus has a thicker rubber base.
I prefer the extra padding. It feels a bit better under your wrist when you’re doing large flick shots in Valorant or arena shooters. The only real negative is that there’s no seam around the outside of the mousepad — like the Goliathus Speed — so the edges of the Gigantus V2 will start to fray pretty quickly.
But to be honest, if you want a mousepad that’s one point two metres frickking long, you’re not going to be looking at the edges of your mousemat that often. And freying isn’t really a problem with the regular sizes. Hell, my original Goliathus has freying on the edges, but it’s still older than most gaming websites.
If you want a mouse mat that’s large enough to take a shower with, there’s more info on the official Razer page. The surface is great, but if you don’t mind, I need to find a sharp pair of scissors.
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