Bring back wireless mouse charging mats

As far as gaming peripherals go, I’m a fan of a well-delivered gimmick. The market is so oversaturated with good gamer accessories that many get lost in the crowd without a standout feature. Some gimmicks are just for the headline, like some of those offensively ugly mice (opens in new tab), but solid ideas are often hidden in them. It’s just a shame that sometimes the ridiculous ideas survive while the good ones get lost over time.

The only loss that makes me question humanity is the wireless mouse charging pad. Mouse pads have been around since we needed balls to roll on and have survived by providing smooth and definite surfaces that we can rely on. Not long ago, genius innovators of gaming peripherals realized we could put RGB lights in these things, and some even went a step further to add charging capabilities.

The risky nature of the gimmick makes it all the more gratifying when one of these small details stands out and actually feels like an improvement over the standard form. Wireless mouse charging pads are a prime example of this, a great way to keep mouse weight down and battery life high. So why are RGB illuminated mouse pads still widely available, but none of them can charge my goddamn mouse?

As soon as wireless mouse technology made functional latency a thing of the past, these wireless cursor controllers became my passion. I love not having a cable tow or worrying about where it will fit on my desk and what I might knock over. The only thing I don’t like about wireless mice is having to charge them because I tend to forget. But the companies don’t seem ready to release a new wireless mouse and charging mat solution.

That’s why I still use a Razer Mamba and Firefly Hyperflux (opens in new tab) Combo from what felt like an eternity. The Firefly is the wired mouse pad with RGB lighting that powers the wireless Mamba mouse while in use. This means you always have to use the mouse on the pad and can’t lift it off for too long, but in a way that still feels very natural to me, and I have a mouse that I never have to charge.

At the time, thanks to this design, this was one of the lightest wireless mice you could get at around 90 grams. Razer has just announced a new 49g Viper Mini for 2023 (opens in new tab), which will be the company’s lightest yet. Full size wireless kings (opens in new tab) are currently closer to the 60g mark, and while I’ve enjoyed the lightness of some of them, I still haven’t switched my daily cursor pusher thanks to the convenience of an always-on mouse.

Razer wasn’t the only company to dabble in the charging pad game at one point. I remember drooling over Logitech’s PowerPlay (opens in new tab) Matte, which came out around the same time for the G-series gaming mice. You can still get them, but they cost AU$230 and that’s without a compatible mouse. At the time, I believed the future would be full of excellent mouse pad and wireless mouse combos, but over the past few years, I’ve only heard crickets.

HyperX got me halfway there, at least for a while, with some branded peripherals like the Pulsefire Dart (opens in new tab) with QI wireless charging (opens in new tab). It’s not quite the same, but at least I can just leave them in the right place when I go away and know they’ll probably be charged when I come back later. It also keeps me from needing cables to charge devices that are wireless for a reason.

What’s worse, it feels like every brand lately is ready to release their own mouse mat, often in sizes larger than my desk (opens in new tab), complete with full RGB lighting. These desk covers are usually made of the same rubbery material throughout, offering little difference or even utility. If you make the damn things and go to the trouble of wiring them up to make them glow, then why not use them as a power source for my myriad of wireless things that could all be sitting on top of them?

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