What's the best surface for a magic mouse?

I have experimented with mouse pads for many years. Mouse pads with a cloth surface are execrable: they have high levels of friction, making mouse use tiresome and slow. So I have tried lots of non-mouse surfaces. Brushed metal surfaces work well -- the underside of a MacBook works beautifully. Shiny metal surfaces, though, can cause skipping. I haven't tried this yet, but I suspect that you could get some aluminum sheet from a hardware store and sand it with fine sandpaper -- say, 600 -- and get a good surface; but this might add to the friction. I have also tried a piece of black shiny tile, and that worked pretty well, too.

However, my greatest success was with a thin sheet of transparent plastic. Now, I have tried all sorts of transparent stuff, and it never works -- but this stuff is only 0.020" inches thick, and I glued it to a foam rubber pad, and it works beautifully. The mouse glides across it easily; it has the lowest coefficient of static friction of anything. Yet another transparent plastic sheet just 0.040" thick refuses to work. I wanted to make a good mouse pad for a friend, but I just couldn't find that thin plastic sheeting anywhere. And even thinner stuff, like sheet protectors for paper documents, doesn't work, either. Maybe this stuff I'm using is magic.

I have been experimenting with polished corian but so far it doesn't seem to offer much advantage.

That's a good-looking product; I might give it a try. I was quite surprised by the results of another experiment: I tried a glossy smooth black ceramic floor tile, 12" x 12", and it works perfectly, very smooth with no skipping. Its only flaw is the difficulty of cutting it down to size to fit the desk top.

@ErasmusFrog,

thank you for detailed info - my thoughts on the Apple Magic mouse - the hard rubber bars touching the surface produce too much friction for a regular tabletop for very comfortable use >8 hrs daily. I found out that thin plastic pads like Razer's that get glued to the table work better than the table surface itself since mouse just glides over it more easily than on the table itself.

https://www.razer.com/eu-en/gaming-mouse-mats/razer-sphex-v3

Anything but a clear glass table top.

I've got a box full of old pads. As long as the lens area was kept clean, and the pads weren't overly dirty, they all worked equally well.

I use my Magic Mouse on the smooth gray surface of my Anthro computer desk. Also, use a damp paper towel on the runners beneath the Magic Mouse as they tend to eventually collect stuff from even clean looking table tops, and that detritus can impede smooth mouse operation.

Marble is the best surface I have found. Smooth, fast, no friction, and great tracking. Those stylish marble kitchen tables or cafe tables are the best I have found. In a pinch? Cut out the side of a cereal box and use the glossy printed side up. Works well. My 2000 Optical Microsoft USB Mouse works on almost any surface, but it is corded so can use a blinding amount of LED light. The Magic Mouse is battery powered, so I think it uses much less light, making it much more picky about the surface used. If it is really acting up, recharge it!

I use a mouse mat with the new gen of Magic Mouse, I have found that functioning better

I've always used mouse pads but, try mousing on a plain white sheet of paper. If it works normally, then it's the table surface. If not, try cleaning the lens on the bottom of the mouse.

Yes, I'm not DIY kinda person so no ceramic tiles for me - too thick to be used as-is comfortably :D but yes, glossy smooth black seems good way to go - the smoother the better.