Kinesis Gaming XL Mousepad Review

Human Made

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Penned by Austin Carroll

Austin Carroll is a writer and web designer from Eugene, Oregon. He's been at HGG for five years and maintains an active role designing and develop... Read more

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

Mouse pads are the black sheep of the gaming accessory world. They’re often viewed as an afterthought, and manufacturers crank ‘em out in droves. But mouse pads are critical to a functional setup, as they provide a responsive surface for your mouse, protection for your desk, and all-around style for your battlestation.

My opinion? Mouse pads deserve better.

That’s why I’m so excited to bring you this review on the Kinesis XL Gaming Mouse Pad. When I got my hands on Kinesis’ new pad, I was curious to see what this company does differently.

Unboxing

Carefully, I pulled the XL out of its simple black & blue packaging, unrolled it across my desk, and laid it flat. Before me was the largest mouse pad I’d ever seen. Intrigued, I crept in for a closer look.

From up close, the design concept is clear. The XL boasts a matte black aesthetic that’s as minimal as it gets. The only contrast is found in the lower right hand corner, where the Kinesis Logo pops out in solid white.

Performance

In terms of performance-oriented specs, this mouse pad rocks a fast-glide surface for snappy movements and trickshots. It seemed to get along just fine with my Tecware Torque mouse. And the bottom features an textured non-slip rubber that kept the mouse pad rooted during my testing.

So far so good. But, I knew I had to try it out in-game. So I jumped into a match of Fortnite to put it to the test.

I did enjoy having plenty of extra mouse swiping real estate. At 31.5” x 15.8” this is a pretty massive mouse mat and it provides enough space to place a full size keyboard and mouse on it. If you’re using Kinesis’ Freestyle Edge Keyboard, however, you’ll need to push the right module out of the way to have enough room without things feeling cramped. Building structures, jumping around, and spinning 180 degrees was no problem even at a relatively low DPI setting.

The responsiveness was an improvement over my old mouse pad. Aiming across the map felt more precise with the sniper rifle. I think Kinesis marketing this mouse pad as eSports grade isn’t farfetched, the fast-glide surface didn’t let me down. The 5mm thick (about 1/5 inch) neoprene gave me enough padding to rest my wrists and hands, but isn’t quite a substitute for a sturdy wrist rest.

The Kinesis XL Mouse Pad’s all-black aesthetics complemented by the white Kinesis Logo is… generic. It features just one shade of black, and the anti-fray stitching adds nothing to the design. While I absolutely love minimalism, the XL is overwhelmingly boring. It doesn’t do the mouse pad’s performance justice.

As for the stitching? The edges of the mouse pad are both seamless and anti-fray. Kinesis promises years of durability and to me it looks like it could deliver on that promise. The only thing I wasn’t really fond of appearance-wise was that the stitching is also black, and it blends in with the rest of the pad.

Related Reading

• Best Gaming Mousepads
• Kinesis Freestyle Edge Keyboard Review
• Kinesis Vektor RGB Gaming Mouse Review
• Best Mouse for Fortnite