Glorious PC Gaming Race Model O- gaming mouse review

Glorious has taken the PC gaming elitist meme and spun it into a successful company. They started by selling mousepads in 2014, since then they’ve expanded and now produce a range of peripherals including keyboards and mice.

We’ve been taking their Glorious Model O- for a spin over the last few days, it retails at around $50. They promise a lot for that price and the company name invites some pretty high standards, so let’s get into it and see whether they live up to their glorious branding.

Glorious Model O- wired gaming mouse

Sensor Pixart® PMW-3360 Sensor

DPI 12,000

Weight 59g/2.08oz

Size (H x W x D) mm 120 x 63 x 36 mm)

Buttons 6

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What’s in the box and setup

• Glorious Model O- gaming mouse
• Glorious PC Gaming Race sticker
• Information card

The Model O- comes in refreshingly minimal packaging. No huge wasteful booklets, no disingenuous letter from the CEO, just the mouse, a sticker, and a small card with a little blurb about the company itself. The box itself is fairly sturdy but there’s a lack of padding for protection in transit. It’s worth noting here that the Model O- is the smaller form factor, you can also get the marginally larger Model O for no additional cost if you have larger hands.

We were provided with the wired variant of the Model O- so the setup was a case of simply plugging the cable in. You can download the optional software to adjust the DPI and lighting, but the mouse’s crucial functions don’t require it. The software in question has a very basic design but it works well enough and is mercifully light on your system unlike some other big manufacturers, looking at you, Corsair, Razer, and SteelSeries.

Design

As is increasingly common with lightweight gaming mice, the Model O- uses a skeletonized shell design to save weight, which results in a very distinct style. The Model O-s shell features a cluster of hexagonal cut-outs which tesselate together nicely and form a grippy sort of pattern. The hexagonal design is marred slightly by the presence of four solid plastic bands, presumably to reinforce the strength of the mouse.

The glossy white color caught our eye instantly, it’s refreshing to have a PC gaming peripheral that isn’t plain black, but the colorway of the Model O- proved a little derisive around the office. Overall we like it but it’s certainly a conspicuous choice, luckily the Model O- comes in Black too, and the glossy finish is an optional extra. If you are amongst the burgeoning community that practices drag clicking, the glossy texture helps as the slightly sticky effect it gives can increase friction. The RGB lighting is well implemented, with a curved diffuse strip on either side and one encircling the mouse wheel, additionally, the open shell design causes additional light to spill out, resulting in a thoroughly illuminated mouse.

Of course, given the brand, we are treated to an illustration of the herculean PC gaming race man on the left-hand side of the mouse. He’s a rather godlike figure, a colleague actually described him as a ‘hairy lumberjack beefcake’. We’ll go with that.

Build quality

Despite the feathery 59g/2.08oz the mouse feels remarkably solid and when subjected to a vigorous shake, no rattles occur, which is impressive given the all-plastic construction. There is very little flex present, which inspires confidence in the product and the buttons are satisfyingly clicky and tactile. The exception is the scroll wheel which has a pretty cheap texture to it, some implementation of tactile grippy rubber would have been good here.

The unremovable USB cable is what Glorious calls ‘ascended’ we aren’t really sure what they mean by that but it’s exceedingly flexible and produces no noticeable drag, which is always a plus for a gaming mouse. The braiding is nice and soft but still feels fairly durable.

The four PTFE skates on the underside were instantly slippy and friction-free out of the box, which was an unexpected treat as many mice tend to need a breaking-in period before they perform optimally. We suspect this is because the PTFE skates are slightly beveled at the edges which is a conscientious design decision. Those people at Glorious know their stuff.

Gaming Performance

This is where the mouse truly has to prove its worth. Everything on the Glorious website angles the Model O- as the best of the best in terms of performance gaming mice. We get hands-on with a lot of gaming mice here at WePC, so it’s up against some pretty stiff competition. Let’s take a closer look.

The Model O- lands squarely in the same camp as the SteelSeries AEROX 3, a lightweight gaming mouse we reviewed recently which boasts an almost identical ambidextrous, skeletonized design. They have similar button layouts and a difference of only 0.07oz/2g in weight. The model O- exceeds the AEROX 3 in terms of gaming performance by a small margin, largely due to the shiny texture providing some rather unorthodox grip advantages.

We were a little unnerved by the shiny texture, assuming it to be slick and ineffective, but after handing it over to one of our resident Counter-Strike nerds he explained the advantageous qualities of the surface finish. Essentially, the smooth texture helps the mouse adhere to the palm of the hand, resulting in a rock-solid grip and a gaming experience where the finish turns a little sticky. It sounds gross, mostly because it kind of is, but if you’re looking for a mouse that is all about the grip performance, we haven’t tested a better one than the Glorious Model O-.

The features aside from the surface finish also impressed us, with decisive, rapid clicks courtesy of the Omron switches, and the aforementioned cheap-feeling scroll wheel clicking solidly as you cycle between weapons. The beveled edges of the skates also feel excellent and distinctly game-ready, producing almost zero friction, and thus providing no impact on your gaming performance. We noticed no lag or other associated dodginess from the Pixart 3360 sensor so you can be confident that it’s your lack of skill that causes the missed headshots, not the mouse. Sorry about that.

Final verdict

The Model O- offers thoughtful design choices and some top-tier gaming performance with a disproportionately low price that makes it one of the best value for money propositions we’ve seen in a gaming mouse.

The glossy texture will definitely turn some off, but luckily it’s available with a matte finish too. There are some downsides, such as the cheap materials used for the scroll wheel and the slightly out-there hairy lumberjack beefcake logo, none of these detract from the gaming experience, however, so the mouse still scores very well. We highly recommend the Model O- for those of you who have tired of spending exorbitant amounts of money on gaming mice, and just want a performance-focused piece of gaming gear at an excellent price.