The surface feels very much like a cross between a 150 or 220 grit sandpaper and a glossy desk finish.  Sound confusing enough?  Good, because I really can't describe it all that well; which is why there are plenty of photos.  The surface grit is very fine, which gives the pads their 8000dpi sensitivity, but at the same time, it's so smooth that any mouse I used glided across it with ease.  Here's now Nova describes it:

• Optical/Laser Mouse - 8000 DPI- Arbitrary droplet and saturation in micro-mirrors encrusted into the material ensure precise detection and amplification of the light signal of all optical/laser mice, surpassing proper characteristics of the mouse.
• Glide - Perfect solution for optimum sensitiveness. Pyramid-shaped surface structure allows the 80% economy of necessary movements. Micro-pyramids spaced at 0.4mm.

Encrusted micro-mirrors?  Micro-pyramids 0.4mm apart?  These are not run-of-the-mill specs for a mouse pad here, folks.

The Killer and Winner are flexible

A closeup of the surface

I was honestly expecting that a surface this fine would eventually either: a. wear down, or b. become "clogged" with dirt/debris.  I can say, however, that since receiving the Killer and Winner two weeks ago, the surface has yet to become any less responsive, or develop any "smooth spots."  Of course, two weeks can hardly be representative of a wear-and-tear trial, especially for hardcore gamers, who thrash on their products with great regularity.  I do, however, play, on average, 45 minutes of CS:S per day, so I hope this observation will satisfy the skeptical.

The Killer and Winner with a Logitech wheelmouse

The backs of the packages

Is the Winner smaller?  Yes.  Significantly so, especially if you're looking at it with an eye for FPS gaming.  This is the reason why Nova is marketing it towards the strategy game/RPG crowd.  Looking at the Winner, though, you shouldn't limit yourself to simply gaming applications.  My wife uses our laptop at the kitchen table pretty much every evening, for the majority of the evening.  She has used our Logitech V450 on the table cloth to this point; mostly because of the limited space on the table.  When I got the Winner, one look at it, & I knew where it would fit perfectly.

When I told her to try it out for a week or so, she was clearly hesitant.  Once she compared using it to simply using the table cloth, though...  The V450's laser picks up the difference between the two surfaces like night & day.  As opposed to having to lift & move the mouse to reach her destination on the screen, her movements have declined to minute hand movements.  One flick will throw the pointer all the way across the laptop's screen with no effort.  She's actually had to learn to adjust to the drastic increase in sensitivity.  Needless to say, I haven't heard anything about her giving it back to me and it's still resting happily on the kitchen table.

To this point, Nova has really only penetrated the Euro market.  As you can see from the right-hand column of their website, there are plenty of reviews for their products, but none are from the North American market.  Both Nova and Medusa-USA are betting that with continued exposure, this trend will change.  After using both the Killer and Winner for two weeks, I'd certainly bet the same.

Thanks again to the guys at Medusa-USA for providing us with a couple of great products to review.