Overview of gaming mice Glorious Model O and Model O Minus / Overclockers.ua

Fashion is a universal phenomenon. It exists not only in clothes, but in everything that a person does. And why it arises, how it changes and where it suddenly disappears, practically no one can really explain. After the popularity of RGB lighting in gaming mice began to fade, a new trend appeared among peripheral manufacturers about two years ago – honeycomb holes in the body, which “supposedly” make the mouse lighter, allow the palm to “breathe” and look very “cool” (with the latter, by the way, I completely agree). In general, the choice of professionals, recommended by the best esportsmen, etc.

In this case, we had the chance to get acquainted with two versions of Model O mice (in large and small versions) from the first of its kind popularizer of holes – the Glorious brand. Actually, we wanted to consider these mice for a long time, but since then a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and a couple of important improvements have occurred with the devices (in particular, the cable has been upgraded). Yes, the review is a bit late, and those who wanted them for themselves have already purchased them. But better late than never. And since there are technically no other differences between Model O and Model O Minus, except for dimensions and weight, we decided to study them together.

Specifications

Contents of delivery

The packaging of both mice is the same and comes in a cute combination of black and orange. Although we tried to make the box concise in appearance, you can read a lot of useful information about the products on the back of it.

Inside the boxes there are two mouse-shaped plastic tabs that tightly fix them together. Although protection against damage is very conditional.

The set of accompanying waste paper is completely identical and looks rich. Of the useful here, two stickers with a “nice man” and instructions can be noted. The remaining three brochures are promotional in nature.

Appearance

The Glorious Model O, like its smaller copy, has a classic symmetrical shape with lightened body holes. The back of the mouse and partially the back of the LMB and RMB panels are slightly less than completely covered with honeycomb perforation. The advantages are obvious – a stylish look, the palm is well ventilated, the weight of the device is significantly reduced. The disadvantages are also obvious: contamination gets inside more easily, and spilled liquid has every chance of causing a short circuit on the printed circuit board inside. There are different options for painting the top panel and mice in general. In our case, this is a matte black coating that is pleasant to the touch and made of non-marking and tenacious plastic. The panels of the main buttons have minimal play and no free play. They are pressed with medium effort and a distinct savory click. Under them, Chinese Omron switches with the D2FC-F-7N (20M) OF marking and a declared resource of 20 million clicks are installed. The middle button is quieter and tighter. Beneath it, below the resolution switch and the side keys, are Huanos with green bumpers. The resolution selection button is pressed with medium force and works with a muffled click.

The sidewall of the mice is solid. In the area of ​​​​the bend of the case, an LED strip for six backlight elements is built-in. Closer to the stern is an image of a bearded man. Two side buttons are glossy. To press them, a little effort is required, the operation is relatively quiet, there is a power reserve in front of it. The larger mouse is 128mm long and the smaller one is 120mm. By the way, unlike the upper frame, the left side of the device is not durable and sags slightly under strong compression.

The cable enters the mouse body in the middle front, at a sufficient height. At the entry point there is centimeter protection against bending. The scroll wheel is rubberized, tactile notches on it are made in the form of large recesses and are well felt by fingers. Rotation towards itself is almost silent even at high speed. There is a slight crackle on its own. Locking positions are noticeable only if you turn the wheel slowly. The F-Switch 10 mechanism is used here as an encoder. The difference, both in height and width of the front of the mouse, is only 3 mm – 26 mm versus 23 mm and 61 mm versus 58 mm, respectively.

Both mice use a wonderfully soft and flexible paracord cord. Contact cables do not have an additional layer of insulation and instead are covered with a “lace-up” braid on top. Can be used without a holder and feels like a wireless mouse. The cable length is 2 meters, there is a ferrite ring near the connector to eliminate interference, and the USB pad is orange. By the way, the sticker with the serial number is glued to the cord – try not to lose it if you suddenly intend to take advantage of the two-year warranty from the manufacturer. After all, despite the flexibility, it is still unknown how resistant this type of wire is to fractures.

There is nothing particularly remarkable on the right side. At the top, there is also another curved strip of LEDs, and in front of it is a small Glorious inscription. The panel tends to flex inward when pressed hard. So there is nothing to squeeze it!

The stern of the mouse is underestimated almost to the level of the base. The entire back is covered with honeycomb holes. The difference in rear width is again small – 66mm on the larger model and 63mm on the Model O Minus. And the difference in height is less than 2 mm at all.

The symmetrical shape of the Model O makes it comfortable to use with both hands, although the location of the side buttons still hints at priority for right-handers. Both mice feel weightless and perfectly balanced along the axes of symmetry. The weight of a large model is 67 grams, and a smaller one – 58. An interesting fact: the same models with a glossy finish are for some reason 1 gram heavier than matte ones. Model O will appeal to owners of large and medium palms. Model O Minus was created with an eye on people with small hands, probably teenagers. In any case, for the right choice, it is worth trying on both options, because recommendations are one thing, and individual preferences are completely different.

Almost the entire base of the mouse is covered in honeycomb holes, with the Model O Minus having even more perforations. There is a solid panel only in the center, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe optical sensor with infrared illumination PixArt PMW3360. To the right of the sensor window there is a built-in color indicator of the current resolution level. There are four white Teflon legs, they are glued on the corners of the case in front and behind. In terms of gliding, they are just wonderful.

The backlight in mice is built into the scroll wheel and into the side LED strips on the left and right sides, each consisting of six separate elements. It all works like one big backlight zone. There are nine options for lighting effects, inclusive of a constant glow in one color. The backlight can be turned off completely. In principle, I did just that, because through the holes in the back I was systematically blinded by the right rear LED when I looked in his direction. Yes, and there was a feeling that they warm up the body of the mouse. This mouse cannot display pure white. The only informative LED showing the current resolution level was placed on the base. The solution is rather strange.

Functionality

By and large Glorious Model O is ready to work “out of the box” and does not require software for additional configuration. There are four preset resolutions, each of which is indicated by the color of the indicator on the base and is switched by the “DPI” key. Yellow is 400 cpi, blue is 800 cpi, red is 1600 cpi, and green is 3200 cpi. There is also the possibility of setting the backlight without software. The keyboard shortcut “forward” + “MBM” + “DPI” switches the current lighting effect. MMB+DPI+RMB changes the brightness, MMB+DPI+Back changes the speed of the effect, and MMB+DPI+LMB lets you choose one of the seven backlight colors available.

Proprietary software

But if you really want to change something in the “rodent” settings, you will have to download the software from the official website. After installation, it is not permanently active and is forced to start manually. For older mice, you may need to update the firmware before installing the software. There is no localization of the interface, everything is in English. On the first screen of the application, the user gets access to the reassignment of buttons, for which there is a column at the top left with a list of current commands tied to six numbered buttons. To change commands, all mouse buttons and scroll directions, triple click, continuous press, keyboard shortcut, macro and completely disable the button are available to choose from. In addition, there are 12 basic multimedia commands, three options for switching the resolution and fixing the resolution at a given value in the range from 400 to 1300 cpi. A little lower is the button to launch the macro editor. The first tab at the top right allows you to set six sensitivity levels ranging from 400 to 12,000 cpi in 100 cpi increments. The X and Y axes can be adjusted separately. Each level is assigned any color as desired. Profile management is at the bottom left. They can be created, deleted, imported, exported and renamed to your taste. Only one current profile is stored in the mouse memory, but it can be played on any computer without a driver, including those with complex macros.

While not logical, the macro editor only records keystrokes on the keyboard. Pressing the three main mouse buttons, a delay, or another keyboard button can be added later manually. A maximum of 84 commands are placed in one chain, along with delays between button activation and deactivation and intervals between individual presses. Cursor trajectory and scroll direction are not fixed.

The mouse has 13 onboard LEDs (six on the sides and one under the scroll wheel), but it’s all controlled as one common backlight zone. Eight lighting effects are available with the ability to adjust the speed and direction of their playback, color and brightness. The backlight can be turned off completely.

The height of the sensor separation from the surface can be set to 2 or 3 mm. According to my personal feelings, by default it costs much lower. At least at low resolutions, the surface is not readable already at a height of 1 mm.

There were no surprises in terms of polling frequency. You can set the usual 125, 250, 500 or 1000 Hz.

A relatively new setting in the driver is the ability to set latency for the main switches (time to compensate for false positives). Settings are available from 4 to 16 ms, in 2 ms steps. You need to set such a minimum value at which the effect of double pressing on the keys does not appear on the keys when they are single activated.

Ergonomics and testing

Glorious Model O and Glorious Model O Minus mice were tested on the Mionix Alioth M monotonous black fabric mat. Both models lie comfortably in the hand in any type of grip. The mass of mice is not perceptible, either in the first or in the second case, and its distribution along the axes of symmetry is ideal. Model O fits large and medium-sized hands, while O Minus will appeal to owners of small hands. The top panel with holes does not cause any inconvenience. In addition, the matte finish used here is very resistant to dirt. The lanyard cable is perfectly soft and does not interfere with mouse movements at all. The same can be said about the legs – their sliding feels very comfortable. Of the minuses, it is worth noting that the sidewalls, which, with strong compression, collapse into the body. An additional stiffener would not hurt there. However, you can just play with the mouse, and not bend it with all your might.

The work of the main mouse buttons pleases with its clarity, lack of backlash and predictable response. The scroll wheel is smooth and very quiet, with slightly tactile locking positions. The side buttons and the resolution switch did not cause me any complaints either.

I didn’t really like the implementation of the backlight here. There is no decent white color, the LEDs heat up the surface of the mouse, they are partially visible through the holes in the case. It would be quite enough to highlight the scroll wheel, provided that an informative function would be connected to it. On the other hand, massive RGB lighting is still a big factor for juniors when choosing a mouse, and fashion, as we know, is a merciless thing.

The software turned out to be quite simple and there is room for improvement in terms of convenience. But for now, it will do. A positive factor is the full-fledged internal memory of these mice. They actually play given commands without third-party applications and regardless of the operating system.

Both mouse models have an identical PixArt PMW3360 optical sensor. This is the ancestor of a series of ideal gaming sensors. And although there are better options out there today, the 3360 is still more than self-sufficient for any gaming needs, even at the eSports level. It does not break down, has a low separation height, does not have smoothing, acceleration and other parasitic moments in its work. And, yes, it can also operate in the range up to 12,000 cpi, although it is unlikely that anyone will need it.

By the way, these mice are probably the first of many devices tested over the past eight years, who showed absolute results in Mouse Test in terms of accuracy. The range of resolutions in which the sensor has absolutely no deviations is from 400 to 2000 cpi. I recommend sticking to this framework in competitive games.

Results

To be honest, I was rather cool and even skeptical about the Glorious line when I first tried them two years ago. Another small company building the next perfect gaming mouse… How many have there been and where are they now? Yes, it’s just a “hype” and nothing more! However, over time, the mice have improved and now, even if we put aside their unusual appearance, they deserve a score of 10 out of 12 points. Given their relatively low cost, these are solid gaming tools, much more professional than the vast majority of what is currently on sale.

There are no critical flaws in these devices. Of the ones I noticed, it is worth noting only the “soft” body on the sides and the slightly “excessive”, in my opinion, backlighting. Although this is a matter of taste.

The Glorious Model O has much more advantages. Super light body, perfect sensor, perfect cable, decent switches and scroll wheel, two year warranty. A good FPS player doesn’t need more than that. In addition, there is the possibility of an individual choice between the standard large Model O and the smaller Model O Minus, depending on your personal preferences and hand sizes.