"The OVER Slide is Nova’s ultimate mouse pad – designed to accompany the Slider X600."

The OVER Slide is Nova’s ultimate mouse pad – designed to accompany the Slider X600. We review this new pad and find out if it really does offer better glide than the other pads on the market.

Nova gaming have been producing mouse pads for over 15 years. We have seen some great products from them in the past and most notably their new gaming mouse the Slider X600. It’s impressive to see such quality from a company that is still fairly young. I’ve been gaming for a long time now and I’ve heard many a gamer recommend Nova gaming pads over at quakenet and also the forums I frequently use with that popular question “Which gaming pad should I buy”. Their reputation for high-quality cutting edge mouse pads is certainly admirable and I look forward to see what Nova introduce in the year 2009.

You might well say that a mouse pad does not give you skill, it comes from a gamer’s talent and the skill is really from the gamer’s reactions and know-how. Well, ok then – try entering a tournament and playing game after game for hours on end with just that crummy old beige ball mouse that you gave to the grandma when she started the early learning course down at the local college. Try using that mouse on a bare desk. You will struggle and you will become frustrated when the mouse spins out of control randomly when it hits uneven parts of the desk and you can’t make those necessary mouse strokes required at the precise moment before getting fragged. Quality mice and pads aid you, they assist you on the killing sprees leaving you with the hard bit – skill. You wouldn’t go into battle with a blunt, rusty old sword and a rotten shield would you? So it is therefore important to arm yourself with the tools for the job it will prove useful when you it the most.

Features

The OVER Slide continues the high-quality standards the Master and Killer 2 gave us earlier on in the year. There have been a few changes however. We now have ‘Ceramic Micro-Balls Inside’ technology helping to deliver the response and performance that you require. The OVER Slide is the largest of the pads available from Nova measuring in at 420×290 inches and offering a whopping 12,000 DPI.

Below is a technical run down of the Nova OVER Slide (Details taken from esportnova.com).

Size: 420×290 in
Thickness: 11 cm

Wide surface
This is Nova Gaming’s largest mouse pad. Designed for “low-sens” gamers, this pad is designed for players that need large movements.

12000 DPI
Zero mouse lag – the OVER SLIDE guarantees zero mouse lag and latency with your optical and laser mice.

A smooth and fluid glide
The perfect compromise for optimal sensitivity. The micro-balls surface insures a perfect glide and even more amazing combined with the ceramic feet of the Slider x 600 mouse.

Ultra responsive
Its micro-mirrors optimize the detection and amplification of the mouse’s infrared and laser beams, and as such provide immediate response time. As a result of this technology, the mouse becomes ultra-responsive and accurate.

Stylish and durable
The micro-cellular foam layer on the back sticks to your desk surface, whatever it is made of (wood, glass, aluminium). Sleek and effective, the OVER SLIDE’s stylish design will stimulate the interests of all players.

Unbeatable glide and accuracy!
An interesting set of features. Most notably the 12K DPI and the mirror technology that allows both laser and infrared mice to take advantage of the surface.




The OVER Slide comes in a stylish cardboard casing. Full of colour and features, giving details of the above features. On the reverse of the casing is a chart of previous pads that Nova has produced, along-side the OVER Slide. A markable improvement over the predecessors – It’s bigger, has almost double the DPI and according to the statistics glides are more fluent.

Inside the out casing is another black cardboard folder, inside is the OVER Slide pad itself. Taking it out it feels thick and smooth. I really like the design Nova have chosen to use here on this pad. It’s neutral yet classy and I think this will go with most hardware on the market – whether it be black or silver. It’s quite obvious from handling the pad, consideration and quality has been a key element. First impressions are promising.



With the mouse now on the desk it really does look the business. The Smooth clear stylish design is such a good combination with the dark peripherals I have sitting on the desk. When I placed the OVER Slide on the desk it grasped the surface extremely well, in fact the pad does not move at all – you have to peel it from the desk to remove it. This is important, you don’t want the pad moving around whilst gaming – it could loose you some crucial points.

The OVER Slide is 11cm thick, this ensures the entire surface is smooth with no sharp bumps to ruin the glide. It feels very durable and you can tell the effort and time along with the workmanship gone into this pad has really paid off. Over on the next page we will see how the OVER Slide performs in the testing stage.

Testing and Conclusion

The testing stage of this review is quite linear. I will be testing how well the surface works with two different mice across 3 different games. This will hopefully allow me to ascertain how versatile the OVER Slide is and which games it favours giving you an insight into the pad performs.

During this test I am going to use the following mice:

Logitech MX-518
Nova Slider X600

The Nova Slider X600 and the OVER Slide are supposed to work hand in hand, complimenting each other. It will be good to see how well the X600 works with the pad and also see how the foreigner – the Logitech MX-518 benefits from using such a pad.

I am going to put the pad through its paces observing and examining it whilst playing the following:

Unreal Tournament 3
Crysis
World of Warcraft

Results

After playing for hours on end over a period of 2-3 days the OVER Slide handled all games excellently. It was very comfortable to use and I encountered no problems whatsoever during the gaming sessions. It quite obviously increases the smoothness and abilities of the mouse which is very encouraging.

Out of the two mice that I tested the X600 seemed to glide better on the OVER Slide than the MX-518. The feet on the X600 seemed to bond with the pad remarkably well, the MX-518 nevertheless still utilized the pad and complimented it nicely.

I also tested the OVER Slide during web browsing and using graphics packages such as Adobe Photoshop and similar to the gaming performance I was not disappointed, the precision and glide was not interrupted at all and the whole testing and usage experience with this pad is nothing but pleasing.



Conclusion

The Nova OVER Slide pad is a work of art, it combines the success of previous gaming pads from Nova and improves on them significantly. It’s great to see that Nova have decided to produce a counterpart for the X600. Both clearly work superbly together and you can confidently buy both with the assurance the Slider X600 and the OVER Slide pad combine well together.

The price tag might scare some away from buying. This is a fare judgement – £25-30 for a mouse pad is a lot of money. But this is a step above the rest, it undoubtedly crushes any other mat I have tested. It is worth mentioning that as seperate purchases the Slider X600 and the OVER Slide total £92.98 but if they are purchased as a bundle both can be had for £78.99. This makes this Nova package even more appealing and affordable.

The micro-ball technology certainly enhances the traction and glide over the standard pad that I compared it to. The 12K DPI proves very practical whilst in the gaming environment. Through and through the OVER Slide pad is one of the best pad’s on the market. Go and get one!

I would like to thank Nova for supplying this pad.