Glorious Model O mouse: when lightness rhymes with efficiency

Presentation

Glorious PC Gaming Race is a young American shoot launched in 2014 and which promises to offer very efficient gaming peripherals and accessories at competitive prices. After several products, the firm launches its first mouse, the Model O. Launched at $ 50 ($ 60 for the version with a shiny finish), this RGB wired mouse can be used on all fronts, including a weight of only 67 g. For the rest, the Model O is based on proprietary PTFE G-Skates pads, a Pixart 3360 sensor, Omron switches and comes with a USB cable with an atypical Ascended Cord sheath.

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Ergonomics

Very atypical because of its perforated chassis, the Model O however opts for a fairly conventional shape (128 x 66 x 37, 5 mm), close to that of a certain DeathAdder. Simple and effective, this design has already proven itself with the gaming community. The Glorious PC Gaming Race mouse draws a relatively elongated profile with soft curves and two slightly tiled main buttons. Holey and very thin (the mouse weighs only 67 g), the plastic chassis is of good quality and robust. The finishes are particularly neat; no assembly faults are noticed.

Some might fear that the honeycomb holes will penalize comfort; it is not so. In reality, we end up forgetting them very quickly once the mouse in hand and they provide better ventilation than the “classic” mice. If we put aside the aesthetic considerations, we will still have to see what these holes will give in time, the dust likely to accumulate more easily in the mouse. It will therefore be necessary to be cautious at least and clean it regularly to avoid tedious in-depth maintenance.

The Model O provides very good feelings of comfort, with a simple and intuitive handling. The mouse is obviously very light, with a well distributed weight. This template will be suitable for medium or large hands, for all grips (palm grip, claw grip and finger tip). Smaller hands will be more comfortable in palm grip on this model. That said, Glorious PC Gaming Race has also thought of small hands with the Model O Minus.

Simple and effective, this mouse offers “only” 6 buttons: the two main buttons (left / right), two side buttons on the left side, a central button on the wheel and a button just next to it. Getting started is therefore very intuitive. Each button can be assigned to a particular function in the application (see box at the bottom of this test). The main buttons are based on Omron switches guaranteed for 20 million activations. The placement of all buttons is flawless. The sides are very easy to reach with the thumb, without risk of accidental activation (their sensitivity is less than that of the main buttons, but they are not hard to engage). The middle button under the wheel (assigned by default to change the sensitivity) is neither too far nor too close and activates very easily. Although there is a very slight difference in sound between the main buttons and the side buttons (the noise of the latter sounds a little more “muffled”), the noise generated is contained and the reactivity of the clicks is very good.

The notched wheel is covered with a rubber coating improving the grip of the finger. The notches are well marked, without excess, and easy to engage. This wheel is therefore particularly silent. Only downside, the lack of horizontal scrolling which can be penalizing for some players.

The 0.81 mm thick PTFE pads (baptized G-Skates, even if they are nothing new) perfectly fulfill their office, for a perfectly fluid movement. Even if the mouse works perfectly on a hard surface, a fabric mouse pad is the most suitable here to get the best glide. The USB cable is a little more different from what we are used to seeing. The Ascended Cord, as the manufacturer calls it, is covered with a very light, flattened and flexible braided sheath. It protects the cable very well, but above all it contributes to the excellent feeling of sliding and more generally to the comfort of use. In the blind, it is really difficult to know whether it is a wired or wireless mouse. Connection to the PC is very traditional, via a USB 2.0 or higher port.

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Precision

The Model O uses a Pixart PMW3360 sensor which is certainly not recent, but which has always proved to be extremely efficient on many other models (Rival 700, Gladius II, DM1 Pro S, Siege M04, Kone Aimo…). Its behavior is always exemplary on this Model O. It works on many surfaces, except glass and reflective or shiny surfaces, which really cause it problems. Obviously, you will get the most out of the mouse by using a mouse pad. This sensor supports accelerations up to 50G and works up to a speed of 7.62 m / s. The movements are reproduced with perfect precision (1: 1 ratio) and the information is transmitted every millisecond (response time or polling rate of 1000 Hz). During our test period, combining office automation (with sometimes precision work on retouching software) and video games (FPS, MMORPG, RPG, Action-RPG…), the precision has always been up to our expectations. We did not notice any errors, malfunctions or dropouts. In short, top performance.

The sensitivity of the PMW3360 sensor can increase up to 12,000 dpi: a characteristic that is only indicated to shine on the technical sheet. Most players are content with less than 1,000 dpi, or even less. Basically, the mouse switches between sensitivities 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 dpi, but it is possible to customize the 4 memory locations thanks to the application. The mouse has a light indicator that allows you to see the selected sensitivity “quickly”. Unfortunately, it is far from being really quick to access since it is placed under the mouse; a point that will disturb users who often change their sensitivity during the game. This is absolutely not a handicap for those who keep the same sensitivity. Finally, the detection height (lift-off distance, ie the height from which the sensor stops working) is fixed at 0.7 mm.

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Conclusion

The Model O is a very good surprise. It keeps all its promises and will therefore satisfy demanding players looking for a simple, efficient and, above all, very light mouse. The icing on the cake, its launch price is particularly attractive if we compare it to that of its direct competitors.

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