Glorious has always been an interesting company. Over the past few years, it has become one of the more impressive PC peripheral manufacturers, showcasing cool gear like the modular GMMK 2 keyboard and dope streetwear (opens in new tab). Now, years later, Glorious is giving the lightweight Model O gaming mouse another shot and making some meaningful upgrades for the Model O 2.

The Glorious Model O 2 is an ultra-lightweight gaming mouse, available in wireless and wired models.

It has a new *sigh* BAMF 2.0 optical sensor, a max DPI of 26K, and a max speed of 650 IPS. it's an upgrade in both looks and usability from the Model O (open in new tab) that was released in 2020. It is less crowded and looks less like a toy. The honeycomb-style air holes have been eliminated, replaced by rounded ones on the body of the mouse instead of half of the mouse buttons.

I don't mind the perforated design, but I know many people for whom it is an automatic deal-breaker.

There are lighting strips on both sides of the mouse, but the Model O 2 does away with the RGB mouse wheel that the previous model had. It looks better, especially in black (also available in white).

All lighting and performance customization is done through the Glorious Core app. It is fairly easy to set up custom profiles for the mouse. Also, the app is unobtrusive, making it the best customization software for PC hardware, which Razer Synapse is.

At 68g (59g for the wired Model O 2), the wireless Model O 2 feels light in the hand. I tried it on multiple surfaces, including a glass-topped desk and soft/hard mouse pads, and it operated well thanks to the little G-Skate feet on the bottom of the mouse.

If you play a lot of games that require pixel-perfect accuracy, like twitch shooters or MOBAs, this is a great mouse; I've played Call of Duty: Warzone many times and the mouse handles comfortably, especially with hipfire. I feel comfortable with the mouse, especially in close quarters combat where I have to rely on hip fire.

For more pinpoint aiming, I play Marauders, which is like sci-fi Tarkov. If your game is Valorant or CS: GO, the Model O 2 should feel right at home for you, clawing and iron-sighting.

The amazing thing about the O 2 wireless is that it only costs $100/£100 ($65 for wired), which is less than the $150 Razer DeathAdder V3 (opens in new tab) Pro and $130 SteelSeries Prime Wireless Pro Series mouse (opens in new tab) are ultra-competitive compared to other wireless gaming rodents, with specs that are pretty close overall. It's safe to say that you can get high-end performance at a more affordable price.

This mouse is not a true ambidextrous design, as the two programmable buttons are on the left side of the mouse and can only be thumb-pressed by right-handers. To be fair, this is a cross that we lefties have always carried.

A neat carrying case holds all the extra parts of the mouse. Competitive gamers who enter tournaments don't have to worry about their lightweight mouse getting crushed by all the other crap in their bag.

Another little thing I like is that the USB-C charging cable can be almost secured at the top of the mouse.

The Model O 2's biggest drawback, however, is its inconsistent battery life; Glorious says it will last about 110 hours in 2.4GHz mode and over 200 hours in Bluetooth mode, but it was much shorter than that in my use. In fact, in the week or so I've had this mouse, the battery has completely drained on two occasions.

The always-on RGB lighting and its brightness level affects battery life more than we thought. we contacted Glorious staff and they suggested turning off RGB or setting the brightness to 0%. RGB can be set to turn off after a certain amount of inactivity but it is off by default when the software is installed, so be sure to turn it on to save battery power. To be fair, this may be why you don't see RGB on the best wireless gaming mice very often (opens in new tab).

After turning the lights off, I noticed a huge difference in battery usage: after 2 days of use with the lights off, the O 2's battery is about 97%, which is a huge improvement I really liked the look of the RGB on the O 2, and now I feel bad turning it on!

Wired.

While you can still use the mouse effectively with wired, staying plugged in defeats the purpose of a competitive wireless gaming mouse. For charging, it takes less than 2 hours for the O 2 wireless mouse to go from 1% to fully charged.

While I was never a big fan of the company's old "glorified PC gaming race" marketing gimmick, the company and its products have matured; the Model O 2's more modest design and less abrasive brand name make this mouse stand out from the silly memes Performance and design emphasis.

At $100, the Glorious Model O2 is a wireless gaming mouse with excellent performance for competitive gamers. Aside from the odd battery quirk, it's a mouse that can easily compete with more expensive rivals and gain a lot of bang for its buck.