Asus has had their fair share of touching into everything PC gaming. With the Taiwanese company manufacturing PC components to PC peripherals, the company has found themselves in an excellent spot catering gamers with everything Asus. Recently Asus sent over the Scabbard to us for a review and let me tell you, its a premium mousemat for sure. But is it really worth it, especially for its $49 price tag? That’s something you’ll find out in the rest of our review.
For a price of $49 on Amazon US, the Asus Scabbard is priced in the upper range of the mousepad market catering gamers who love to cover their desk with a premium large-sized mousepad. Due to the behaviour and demand for better and bigger gaming mousepads increasing, Asus has dived into the niche to cater these enthusiastic gamers. Hours of playing online competitively definitely builds up a lot of strain.
01 | Design and Quality
Asus’s Scabbard is Asus’s enthusiast-catering mousepad. Featuring a desk-sized surface at 900mm x 400mm the Scabbard is more than enough for most users. The upper surface of the mousepad utilizes Cordura’s silky Lite fabric that’s splash-proof and is expected to last users for more than a few years. As expected for the price, the Scabbard comes with anti-fray stitched edges along its edges to allow the mousepad to retain its durability after a few years.
Taking a closer look at the materials, Asus definitely chose some of the best materials for the Scabbard. In a partnership with Cordura, a company very well-known for their excellent work in fabrics and textiles, we could be assured that the quality of the fabric used on the Scabbard is no slouch.
Overall, the mousepad looks exquisite with its silky surface along with minimal, yet classy ROG logos. Asus added the cherry on top by making the letters “Scabbard” glow-in-the-dark adding towards the aesthetics of the mousepad. Overall, the mousepad looks excellent and should cater gamers very well in the aesthetics and design department.
02 | User Experience and Gaming
The Asus Scabbard definitely comes with a lot of claims, and without a doubt, it works excellently. Due to its 2mm thickness, the mousepad doesn’t feel to be too thin or thick.
In general use, as expected the mousepad works well with my Razer Basilisk, and it should with many other optical and laser mice alike. Gliding your mouse across the mousepad is simply delightful. Navigating through Windows and getting work done is pretty normal and is what we would expect with many mousepads.
However, during gaming, we didn’t really enjoy the mousepad with a competitive title such as CS:GO. The surface on the Scabbard is simply too slippery interfering with our aim. In a competitive title such as CS:GO it is important that your aim remains consistent. In the case of the Scabbard I think the absence of a control variant of the Scabbard is simply a shame I would like to be turned around in the near future considering the gem Asus has on their hands. In other non-competitive titles, I think the mousepad should be an excellent pair with your mouse and would perform admirably for years to come.
03 | Conclusion
Being assured that the mousepad wouldn’t pickup on stains as easily simply keep me assured that this is a mousepad where I would know that my money is well-spent. Despite the premium that Asus is adding here, the mousepad itself does serve its purpose well. And considering that there are other mousepads that perform as well as the Scabbard for a lower price doesn’t bother me considering that its ticking all of the necessary boxes. Afterall, this isn’t a mousepad that you would really want to go bananas for, but hey, if you could afford it and really love what Asus is bringing to the table here with the Scabbard, its an excellent mousepad for non-competitive gamers.
For a price tag of $49 in the US, I think its a great choice if you don’t mind the price. However, if pricing is your concern, there’s some excellent options out there that you may want to look into especially if you are a competitive gamer.
Overall, an excellent mousepad indeed.
