XTrac Mad Dotz and InstaGlide Review

Others/Mice & Keyboards by jmke @ 2005-08-18

If you like your PC rodent to move over your mouse pad as if it were on ice, we have something for you today. Xtrac is a company which specializes itself in bringing the best mousing gear to hardware enthusiasts all over the world.

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InstaGlide & Mad Dotz

If you like your PC rodent to move over your mouse pad as if it were on ice, we have something for you today. Xtrac is a company which specializes itself in bringing the best mousing gear to hardware enthusiasts all over the world.

In their product lineup they have several “accessories” which goal is to improve your mousing experience. In this review we’ll take a closer look at two of these products.

InstaGlide

Madshrimps (c)


The InstaGlide looks like a mini shoe polishing tool; it comes in a small box and consists of a mousse pad which puts a wax-like product on the bottom of your mouse when applied. The difference before/after is quite noticeable, even when you’re using a cheap mouse pad; the higher the quality of the gear you’re using, the better the effect will be. On an MX1000 and MX700 is made the mouse simply fly over any surface you put it on.

Although the InstaGlide product is not toxic for your skin, Xtrac does not encourage you to eat their product, which makes sense of course.

The effect of the InstaGlide wears of after 2-3 days of heavy mouse usage, and it needs to be applied; with about 100 goes in one “box” it will last you quite long. The retail price of the InstaGlide comes at ~€9 which makes it available to even to most budget minded gamers out there. Office users might not get much out of this product as being able to move your mouse over the right email 0.2 seconds faster is not going to make a world of difference.

If you have a badly battered mouse which leaves scratches on your desk when you move and takes tons of effort to do so, then the InstaGlide will not be of much help. Only when combined with the “Mad Dotz” can it do well in such case!


Mad Dotz

Madshrimps (c)


When I opened the package of these Dotz, I just saw 12 of them sitting in a plastic bag, passive, not moving or acting strange at all; maybe they were just waiting to freak out? So maybe in this case, the Mad does not mean “Crazy”, but these plastic stickers did not look “ill tempered” either, so I wonder why they got the name “Mad”…

These plastic dots are placed on the battered mouse feet and should rejuvenate your dying rodent. I selected 2 victims for this plastic surgery, a not so old, but showing some wear Logitech MX700 and a Logitech Mouseman Wheel which is almost ready for a museum. Both subjects were cleaned with a hygienic cleaning cloth, included in the Mad Dotz package.

The MX700 still has its 5 feet but after applying the Mad Dotz I noticed a difference; nothing earth shattering, but a difference nonetheless. Combined with the InstaGlide the MX700 flew once more.

The Mouseman has been pad-less for some time now, the Mad Dotz were placed where previously the Logitech feet had been. The difference here was much more pronounced as the Mad Dotz picked up speed and the Mouseman almost felt as new.

Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)
Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c) Madshrimps (c)


Now as you can see from the pictures above, the installation of the Mad Dotz done by me is far from perfect; as soon as you remove the Dotz from their packaging they tend to curl up quite badly, then there’s the question of stickiness. Although the Dotz will stick to any surface, the glue used is not super-adhesive, meaning that they can come loose if installation was not done 100% correctly. As I saw that my handiwork could resemble that of a three year old, I asked myself the question if either I or the product was flawed.

To find out I contacted Xtrac and asked them if they had experienced similar installation issues with the Mad Dotz. The reply I got was quite informative. The creator and owner of Xtrac lives in the US, and his office is surrounded by a large desert. Compared to rainy Belgium it’s safe to say that we’d have very different humidity levels, which causes the curling of the Mad Dotz. I would suggest small pliers and lots of patience when installing the Dotz on your mouse here in Belgium.

Christopher from Xtrac sent me these photos showing how install the Mad Dotz correctly, and these instructions will be added to the product page shortly he told me.

the Mad Dotz curling issue. You have a good point on this matter actually. The solution to having a perfect install if and when the Mad Dotz curl up is to place the long end of the curl centered with the mouse foot and place it gently ontop of the mouse foot. Once the Mad Dotz are in place, gently uncurl the dot starting with one side and roll it out until that side is attached to your mouse, then work on the other half of the dot.

Madshrimps (c)Madshrimps (c)Madshrimps (c)

After selling thousands upon thousands of Mad Dotz product worldwide we have never had anyone have the problem you are experiencing. Of course this is probably because nobody has ever said anything about it before. Therefore we are going to add these images to our web site and explain that “if you have a problem installing your Mad Dotz product…”. We would like to thank you very much for making us aware that this is a real problem and it needs to be addressed.


With 12 Dotz in one pack there is room for errors and in the end I had both mice up and running with their new Mad feet. At only ~€4 for 12 of these Dotz it’ll be cheaper than replacing your mouse.



Final Thought

In you want to breathe new life into a used up mouse, or want to speed up your current game-mouse than Xtrac has the needed products to make it work.

I'd like to thank Xtrac for the samples.

Questions/Comments: forum thread
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