Page 2 - A Closer Look
Normally, a mousepad provides an operating surface for a mouse. In this case, the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL has "XXL" in its name, so this is clearly something very large. To this point, we have seen the product picture on the retail box, so we know that it has a standard rectangular shape and is large enough for both the keyboard and mouse to sit upon with extra room to spare. The front side of the mousepad is matte black. The two things popping out visually are a plastic box and a white ROCCAT company logo. This product has RGB LEDs equipped, so there is a plastic enclosure attached to the upper left corner of the mousepad for the USB connector and a lighting effect toggle button. The company name, ROCCAT, is printed on this plastic shell, but it is not backlit. A RGB light guide stitched on the edges of mousepad is connected on both sides of the plastic box. There are electronics inside this enclosure to power and control the RGB lighting via a USB connection. It is worth mentioning the USB cable is braided for better protection.
Upon opening the retail box, one thing I would like to mention about the product is the mousepad is almost odor-free. You probably would not notice anything other than some light rubbery smell without putting your nose really close to the mousepad. As time goes by, this product will eventually be completely odor-free. In terms of dimensions, the reviewed mousepad measures 900mm in width, 400mm in depth, and 3.5mm in thickness. It is a large mousepad, but it is not the largest one reviewed by APH Networks. For comparison, the size of ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL is a little bit smaller than the HyperX Fury S. However, the HyperX Fury S does not have RGB lighting, so I can say the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL is the largest RGB mousepad reviewed by us. If you think the Sense AIMO XXL is too big, you can still get a smaller version from ROCCAT, which measures at 350mm in width, 250mm in depth, and the same 3.5mm thickness.
Normally, there are both pros and cons about soft surface mousepad. The advantage of a soft surface includes good and comfortable control, lower noise, and it can better protect your mouse feet. The disadvantages of soft surface compared to a hard one lies in the lower glide performance, lack of resistance to contamination, and the demand for an even table surface. For the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL, some of the cons of a soft mousepad surface has been addressed. Specifically, thanks to the flexible cloth surface made by the premium material, the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL can provide proper resistance to balance both glide and control performances. On the other hand, the light guide is stitched to the mousepad with a special kind of pattern, so the border area of the mousepad also feels nice. Now, let us take a closer look at the front surface.
In order to thoroughly examine the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL's front surface, a scanner is used instead of camera for both the top and bottom photos. The image resolution of the scanner is set as 600 DPI. The Sense AIMO XXL is composed of a fabric front surface and rubberized base. Therefore, from the top view of the mousepad as shown above, you can see the fabric surface. The flexible cloth-based front surface provides a soft-touch surface to strike a balance between easy glide and precise control. There is no bump or defect I can notice from the surface that may affect the mouse sensor. This product also focuses on providing soft and smooth touching experience, so there is no special coating on the cloth surface to provide resistance to contamination. It is a good idea to regularly clean this product, because a cloth-based front surface can stain more easily.
From the bottom view of the mousepad, you can see the rubberized non-slip backing. Aside from its tire tread-like pattern, there is really not too much to see at the back side. The back with rubberized texture can hold on to your table firmly thanks to its high coefficient of friction. If you touch the rubberized base, you can feel the resistance. The good thing is it has strong gripping power, but the downside is that other dust and dirt particles also easily stick to this. Therefore, it is always important to make sure your table is clean before using the mousepad. If your table is dirty, dust or dirt can be attached to the base of your mousepad such that the gripping performance will be reduced. Thanks to the water resistance nature of rubberized texture, the cleaning of back surface can be as easy as wiping it with a damp cloth.
In order to fully utilize the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL's lighting effects, users have to download ROCCAT Swarm and install it on their computer. The software can recognize all of your ROCCAT products and show them on the interface. As shown in the above screenshot, I have the Sense AIMO XXL connected to my computer, so you can find a mousepad icon with "Sense AIMO Wide" showing on top of the graphical user interface. The ROCCAT Swarm interface for Sense AIMO XXL is to configure the illumination, so you can only find the "Illumination" tab there. To change the RGB LED effects, users can click on the drop down menu on the left side of the interface. The configuration showing in the screenshot is the "AIMO Intelligent Lighting System", which allows all the supporting products to be intelligently tuned and synchronized for lighting effects. Other than the AIMO mode, users can also choose Wave, Fully Lit, Heartbeat, Breathing, and Custom Mode. As the name suggests, Custom Mode allows the users to fully customize the two programmable lighting zones on the ROCCAT Sense AIMO XXL. To allow the users change the RGB lighting effect without using the software, Key Assignment can be used to assign functions of the push button on the plastic box. Configurations like on/off, brightness, color changing speed can all be assigned to the push button. One nice feature about the interface is that all the configurations have a preview on the displayed mousepad. Overall, the software is very straightforward to use.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look
3. Subjective Performance Tests
4. Conclusion
