Glorious Model O 2 wireless

Glorious has always been an interesting company. In the past few years, it's become one of the more impressive PC peripheral makers showcasing cool gear like its modular GMMK 2 keyboards and dope streetwear. Well, it's been a couple of years, and Glorious is taking another shot at its Model O lightweight gaming mice with some meaningful upgrades for the Model O 2. 

The Glorious Model O 2 is an ultra-lightweight gaming mouse that comes in both wireless and wired models, though for review; I'm looking at the Model O 2 wireless.

It comes with the new *sigh* BAMF 2.0 optical sensor with a max DPI of 26K and a max speed of 650 IPS. It's a better upgrade from the Model O, which launched in 2020, in both looks and feel. It's less busy and looks less like a toy. It ditches the honeycomb-style air holes for roundish ones that just sit on the mouse's body and not on half of the mouse buttons, which I imagine would have felt weird clicking a mouse button with little holes on it.

I don't mind the perforated design, but I know plenty of folks where that's an automatic deal breaker.

There are lighting strips on both sides of the mouse, but the Model O 2 has ditched the RGB on the mouse wheel found on its predecessor. It looks much better, especially in black (also available in white).

All the lighting and performance customization is handled through the Glorious Core app. It's fairly easy to set up a custom profile on the mouse. The app is also non-intrusive, which is the best thing about any PC hardware customization software. I'm looking at you, Razer Synapse.

At 68g (the wired Model O 2 is 59g), the wireless Model O 2 feels nice and light in your hand. I've tried it on multiple surfaces like a glass-topped desk and soft/hard mousepads, and it handles well, thanks to the little G-skates feet on the bottom of the mouse. 

This is a great mouse if you play a lot of games that require pixel-perfect accuracy, like a twitch shooter or MOBA. I've been off and on playing a lot of Call of Duty: Warzone and felt comfortable with how the mouse was handled, especially in close quarters when you have to rely on hip firing.

For more pinpoint aiming, I'm still playing Marauders, a sci-fi Tarkov-like game where its gunplay relies on landing headshots from down long corridors. If your game is Valorant or CS: GO, the Model O 2 should feel right at home for you claw-gripping iron sighters. 

The surprising thing about the O 2 wireless is that it only costs $100/£100 ($65 for the wired), which makes it super competitive compared to other wireless gaming rodents like the $150 Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro or the $130 SteelSeries Prime Wireless Pro Series mouse, which are pretty close in specs overall. It's safe to say you're getting high-end performance at more affordable pricing. 

This mouse is not a truly ambidextrous design since the two extra programmable buttons are located on the left side of the mouse, meaning only righties can press them with their thumb. To be fair, this is a cross we lefties have always bared.

A neat carrying case holds all the extra mouse bits. So if you're a competitive gamer who travels to tournaments, you don't have to worry about your lightweight mouse being crushed by all the other crap in your bag.

Another little thing I like is its USB-C charge cable can almost lock itself into place at the top end of the mouse, so even if you make really aggressive mouse swipes, the chances of the cable coming loose are really low.

However, the biggest drawback of the Model O 2 is its inconsistent battery life. Glorious says you can get about 110 hours of life in 2.4GHz mode and over 200 hours in Bluetooth mode, though it was much less than that from my use. In fact, in a week or so, I've had this mouse, and the battery has completely drained twice. 

The always-on RGB lighting and its brightness level affect battery life more than I thought. I reached out to the folks at Glorious, who suggested that I turn off the RGB or set the brightness to 0%. You can set the RGB to turn off after a certain amount of inactivity, but that setting is off by default when you install the software, so be sure to turn it on to conserve battery. To be fair, this might be the reason you don't see much RGB on the best wireless gaming mice. 

Since turning it off, I've noticed a significant difference in battery usage. With the lights off in two days of use, the O 2's battery is around 97%, a huge improvement. It's a bummer since I really like how the RGB looks on the O 2, and I now feel bad turning it on. 

You can use the mouse effectively while wired, but that defeats the purpose of a competitive wireless gaming mouse if it's plugged in. When charging, it takes just a little under two hours for the O 2 wireless mouse to fully charge from 1%.

I've never been a huge fan of the company's old 'Glorious PC Gaming Race' marketing gimmick, but the company and the product have matured. You can tell with the more subdued design and less abrasive branding on the Model O 2 that the focus is more on performance and design, which make this mouse stand out than silly memes. 

For $100, the Glorious Model O2 is an excellent performing wireless gaming mouse for competitive gamers. Weird battery quirks aside, you get a lot of bang for your buck on a mouse that easily competes with its more expensive rivals.