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The 3M company has a product called 3M™ Precise™ Mouse Pad with Repositionable Adhesive Backing and Battery Saving Design, MP200PS that claims to:

Battery saving design extends battery life of wireless mice up to 50%†

Precise™ surface enhances the precision of optical mice at fast speeds

However, the † footnoting symbol is not resolved on that page, so it is unclear what the fine print is.

Does this mouse pad really give you up to 50% longer battery life? If so, does it have to do with the pattern on the board, or is it just that the surface is light and reflective? If only color, would any light mouse pad have that effect? Does the pattern on the surface just help with tracking precision?

I see another claiming up to 75%? Do they have products with different performance, or just competing marketing claims for the same technology? Perhaps their attorneys told them to back down to 50% in their claims in the U.S., but leave it alone outside U.S.?

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WilliamKF
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    The footnoting symbol does resolve (in the bulleted list itself), probably not in the place you expected: *These products draw less current than darker mousing surfaces, which results in extended battery life*. That suggest its reflectivity does the trick. –  Feb 23 '16 at 20:36
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    Unless the mouse adapts its LED brightness to get just enough response, the surface shouldn't matter. If the mouse does adapt, even a white sheet of paper should fare better than a black mouse pad. The only thing that could beat a white surface would be some kind of a retro reflective surface. – John Dvorak Feb 23 '16 at 20:55
  • That being said, this gadget does look like it could be some kind of a retro reflective surface. I'll still stick to wired mice, though. – John Dvorak Feb 23 '16 at 21:00
  • The footnote from http://solutions.3mnz.co.nz/wps/portal/3M/en_NZ/ANZ_Ergo/Home/Products/MousePad/ states "...Our lab testing has shown that these surfaces draw less current and thus offer 75% more battery life. The lab tests were done using mice from the leading manufacturers in the marketplace (Microsoft and Logitech) in conjunction with batteries from the leading battery manufacturers in the US (Energizer, Duracell and Rayovac). Our battery saving mousing surfaces feature the 3M micro-textured technology used to make 3M™ Precise™ Optical Mousing Surfaces." – davidgo Mar 02 '16 at 23:27

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