I've been using an SX for about a year. There is a silicone coating which makes the surface super smooth and this is the part that wears off really fast. You do get a silicone cloth with your SX but it will only restore half of the smoothness.

I just cleaned and scrubbed the surface hard with water to remove the silicone coat. Result is an entirely new sort of surface. You still get a much smoooooooother surface than most other mousepads but you also get the ability to do those 'sudden stops' with your mouse.

Give it a shot if you're ready to spend some $.

Oh and do order mousefeet for whatever mouse you use.

Is it possible that noone else has it ?

can't really tell about the fact that it wears off, but the stock silicon layer was so thick that it made all my optical mice skip. And still after i washed the pad.
Otherwise, the pad was like sooooooo faster than the icemat. Hard to control a thing on it.
But it seems like everybody had problems with the layer wearing off and thus i wouldn't recommand the pad.

a friend of mine has one, i used it a few times and didn't care for it
after the coating wears off, it makes this odd scraping sound
just weirds me out

If you use a mouse with red led optical, go Icemat instead. Most durable pad ever made (unless you try to break it on purpose). It has similar surface to the steelseries metal pads, just slightly smoother and faster.

I second this. I've had my icemat (2nd ed black) for at least 3 years and it the only mousepad I've owned that hasn't worn out its surface.

I also have the ultimat, which is teflon coated on some sort of metal. I read reviews on it, even from tomshardware, about how great it was. I swear, I played one night of 3 hrs of quake and the coating lasted just that long. At the end of 3hrs it felt more like the pad was coated with nylon. It was good while it lasted.

Corey, If you want a durable hard surface, get the icemat.

If you want the best performing hard surface, try func or xray pads (just that they don't last long).

To be honest, I've found that plastic pads produce more responsive tracking and performance from my mice.

Bump

any new reviews, is it still good after top layer wears off ?

Maybe u can use a silicon spray on it after the layers wears off?

if consistency and durability is what you're after, just get the icemat you won't be disappointed

but if you want a momentary, but perfect mix of glide and control get a func archetype or steelseries S&S and equip your mouse with hyperglides

True, but controlling the icemat on very precise moves is actually very hard compared to other pads. For tracking/moving it'll do fine. Just my experience (tested multiple pads).

I believe I have a great control over my mouse with an Icemat. If I try a cloth pad for a while though, Icemat will feel uncontrollable but after some time it gets back to normal. My point is, it's about getting used to it.