DuckLab Dots Skates Review: Orange, Blue, White, Green, Black

What they all share

All five colors use the same shape. They're fairly tall skates: the nominal height is the standard 0.8 mm, but the rounding starts earlier than usual, so they look and feel thicker. The rounding itself is top-notch, and they don't catch on soft or xsoft pads at all. The profile is interesting: a rounded edge that flattens into a plateau on top. They have a foam layer and are pretty quiet on glass. Every color except black is PTFE. Black is UPE. Apart from black, the colors are very similar and the differences are minimal. To actually tell them apart I had to mount different skates on mice of identical weight and run A/B tests. Blind, they're hard to distinguish.

What I care about: for me, the priority is control, meaning micro-adjustments. On some fast skates you can feel the crosshair skip pixels because the gap between static and dynamic friction is too big. I judge every skate from that angle first, but speed, smoothness and edge rounding matter a lot to me too.

Orange

Smooth PTFE skates, though not as buttery as something like UWS Silver Fox. Low static friction and fast (low) dynamic friction, so micro-adjustments are good for this speed class. Overall: solid, smooth, fast skates with decent micro.

Blue

Slightly slower than orange, but not by much. They have more static friction than orange. The glide feels similar and is just as buttery as the rest of the lineup. Because of the extra static, micro-adjustments under pressure are a bit worse.

White

Standard PTFE. Speed is on par with blue and orange, but they have even more static friction, which gives them the worst micro in the lineup.

Green

These are a bit different. They're slower than blue, orange and white, though only by about 5–10%. They're also the smoothest of the bunch and do the best job of smoothing out the pad's texture. Lower static friction. Overall a balanced skate with a very smooth glide.

Black

A completely different skate, made of UPE. The slowest in the lineup, roughly half the speed of the others. They also have the best balance between static and dynamic friction: the transition from static to dynamic is about as seamless as it gets in terms of resistance, so micro-adjustments are absolutely maxed out. Smoothness is on par with the rest of the lineup, with a bit of pad texture coming through. Best micro, slow, and they should last longer than the others thanks to the UPE material.

How I'd group them

Best micro — Black Perfect for tactical shooters. My personal pick.

Balanced — Green Balanced, fairly fast without being too fast, good micro, smooth glide. I'd recommend them for fast target-switching games like BF, CoD, Wardogs.

Speed — Blue, Orange, White Overall very, very similar: buttery, fast, a bit too much static friction, and they let the pad texture through. There are differences between them, but they're minimal. I'd go with orange, since it has the least static friction in this group and therefore the best micro.

Verdict

For 100 UAH (2$) per 20 pcs, these are S-tier skates. My recommendations: orange for speed, green for balance, black for control and top-tier micro. 100% worth buying. Honestly, grab all of them and find your own favorite!