Glorious Model O3 review - swappable batteries in an ultralight gaming mouse

Glorious is back with one of the most standout gaming mouse launches this year. Rather than pursuing pure performance and an ultra-light weight, the company has instead focused on making a mouse that never runs out of battery. Thanks to its InfinitePlay hot-swappable battery system, the Glorious Model O3 Wireless can truly maintain non-stop play without resorting to a wire.

What's more, with its battery charging dock and the addition of RGB lighting inside, this Glorious mouse actually feels like it has the substance to back up its premium price, rather than relying on a high price being justified by "peak performance." Is it enough to earn this mouse a spot on our best gaming mouse guide? Read on to find out.

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Specs

Features

The Model O3 Wireless makes quite a mark when it comes to its overall feature list. While the mouse itself isn't festooned with extra buttons, as on the Logitech G502 X Plus or Roccat Kone XP Air, it does at least include an extra DPI button on its top, and there's some RGB lighting flashing away  between the black plates that cover its exterior. It seems surprising to say it, after so many years of seemingly every PC product under the sun having RGB added to it, but having a flagship gaming mouse actually include prominent RGB lighting is something of a novelty.

Flip over the mouse, and you get just a single power/mode button, along with a clear plastic window that shows the inner workings of this mouse's swappable battery system. It's entirely superfluous but a fun addition.

Around the front of the mouse is a USB-C port that can be used to continue gaming via a wired connection and charge the mouse, if needed. Meanwhile, the back is where you slot in the InfinitePlay swappable batteries. These simply push and click into place, with another push inwards releasing the battery to be swapped.

Once the battery is removed, a small internal battery - dubbed the Guardian battery - can power the mouse for up to ten hours. It's thanks to this battery that the Glorious can truly claim that this mouse offers never-ending wireless use. Other than the physical act of swapping the battery, there's no downtime or moments of needing to resort to using a wire.

To facilitate this continuous cycle, the Model O3 includes a battery charging dock. It can charge one battery at a time (two are included), and these slot into the front. Meanwhile, around the back is where you plug in the included USB-A to USB-C cable that connects to your computer, along with the USB-A wireless dongle (the need to do this confused me at first, as I assumed the charging dock was itself a dongle).

On top of the dock, you'll find lights and legends to indicate the battery level of the mouse battery and the battery in the charger. There's also a polling indicator and a DPI indicator. A button on the top can be used to change DPI (tap) or polling rate (long press), or it can be assigned to other functions via Glorious' software, adding a useful set of extra abilities without the need to clutter the mouse itself with more buttons.

Software

Glorious' Core software is used to manage all of the Model O3 Wireless's functions, and it offers a decent selection of settings, though it lacks one feature that some competitors offer.

On the first page of the software, you can set up to three profiles that you can save to the mouse. However, this immediately brings us to a feature lacking in this software, which is the ability for it to recognize your games and automatically assign profiles based on the game. Razer's Synapse does this to great effect, and Logitech G Hub does too. It's not essential for everyone, but it's definitely a nice-to-have feature.

In the Performance section, you can assign up to six different DPI levels, choose the wired and wireless polling rates (up to 8kHz for wireless, up to 1kHz for wired), enable Motion Sync (which synchronizes the polling rate with the sensor rate), change the lift-off distance, adjust debounce time for the switches, and change how long the mouse will wait before going into standby when idle.

The Lighting section lets you choose from a whole host of lighting animations, plus you can alter the brightness and speed of the animation. Turning down the brightness or turning off the lighting completely will help preserve battery life. With this being a symmetrical-shaped mouse, left-handed users can use it and swap the left and right buttons, but the side buttons will likely need to be disabled.

Unsurprisingly, the Key Binding tab is where you adjust key bindings, with all six of the Model O3 Wireless' buttons able to be reprogrammed to perform a different mouse button operation, or all sorts of other keystroke, macro, and multimedia functions.

Finally, the My Dock section is where you can change the function of the single button on the top of the dock. Again, there are all sorts of macros and other types of functions you can assign, as well as normal mouse features.

Notably, the software wasn't working very reliably pre-launch, so some of the features for changing lighting and some other settings weren't working properly. We expect these to be fixed imminently, so we won't let them affect our review score, but you may want to hold fire on a purchase until these fixes have been confirmed - we'll update this review when they are.

Design and comfort

The Glorious Model O3 Wireless is quite the departure from both previous Glorious Model O designs (such as the Model O Eternal) and current mouse design trends. While fairly light, it doesn't really hit ultralight territory and weighs in at 66g when loaded up with a battery, and 61g without. When even a fairly large, ergonomic (though flagship and ultralight) mouse like the Razer Deathadder V4 Pro can hit 55g, the Model O3 is distinctly unremarkable by comparison, at least when it comes to weight.

The design of this mouse is also quite striking. The translucent inner section covered by plates of black plastic is definitely… a choice. If you're a fan of RGB, the prominence of its central strip of lighting will probably resonate, but if you're not so fussed, or you prefer a subtler look - like the strip of lighting that runs around the lower edge of the Razer Basilisk Pro 35K, for instance, it might not be the most appealing. Ultimately, that's down to your preference, though

Crucially, the separated-plate design of the mouse doesn't really affect its comfort and grip. Other than the gap between the left and right buttons and the edges of the mouse - into which I found I could comfortably nestle my ring finger or little finger - you don't really feel the gaps around the RGB plate. In a palm or claw grip, your palm sits behind it, while for a fingertip grip, your fingers don't reach so far back or up as to meet the RGB gaps on the sides.

In terms of overall shape and feel, this is still classic Glorious Model O, in that it's a symmetrical shape that we've generally found offers excellent overall ergonomics. However, the move away from having a mouse filled with holes and the choice of surface finish here feels like a step down in terms of overall grip.

One of the key advantages of hole-filled mice is that the holes help your palm or fingers grip a surface, so with no holes here, that help is gone. Plus, Glorious doesn't appear to have added any sort of grip-aiding coating to the black plastic. There are no thick rubber side pads or soft-touch coating, and in fact, the surface of the plastic is slightly textured. In warmer, sweatier situations, this works reasonably well, but in colder, drier environments, it isn't the grippiest. I found mice with far smoother (i.e. with less of a texture) plastic, such as the Cherry Xtrfy MZ1, provided a better grip in the current colder, drier conditions here.

That's not to say this mouse feels bad, just that for pure lightweight/grippable performance, it isn't competing with the likes of the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 or even the older Model O models.

What's more, as someone who does prefer a lighter mouse, I found I liked using this mouse without a battery. Not only is it lighter, but I found the balance improved slightly too, with a tiny bit less effort required to stop the mouse from feeling like it wants to tip back in your hand. It's not a badly-balanced mouse, but there is a very slight difference there.

Performance

Glorious' latest sensor is packed inside the Model O3 Wireless, and while it only registers a maximum DPI of 30,000 - some distance off the 45,000 DPI that we've seen attached to some recent mice - it's entirely adequate for literally any possible use. What's more, the sensor comes with a 750IPS maximum movement speed and 50G acceleration rating, again ensuring this mouse will keep up with the wildest movements possible from a human arm.

Backing up that sensor is a polling rate of up to 8kHz, with that maximum rate chewing through battery life, but offering the peak performance ideal for use with games running at high frame rates on a monitor with a very high refresh rate.

Meanwhile, under the hood of the left and right buttons are Glorious' latest optical switches, which boast a lifetime of 130 million clicks, and are among the most "normal" feeling optical switches I've used. Many optical mouse switches I've used have a subtly different feel and sound that's a little more hollow than metal-contact switches. These, though, feel and sound great.

Indeed, the overall performance of this mouse is hard to fault, other than the grip levels of the outer surface, as discussed above. It even glides super-smoothly across your mouse pad, thanks to its PTFE feet.

There is one fairly major misstep, though, which is the scroll wheel. Its surface has knurled rubber for grip, but it still somehow feels a touch slippery. The scroll detents also feel a bit indistinct and a touch stiff, with a slow overall scroll speed. I found it didn't inspire confidence, both because my finger would slip slightly and because the detents weren't easy to pick out in the heat of battle. If you're someone who uses the scroll wheel for weapon selection, for instance, I wouldn't recommend this mouse. It's a fairly major slip-up, as far as I'm concerned.

Battery life

True to its big headline feature, the Glorious Model O3 battery really does effectively last forever. While mid-game, it can make for several awkward steps to remove a spent battery from the mouse, remove the spare from the charger, plug the spare into the mouse, and then plug the depleted battery into the charger. However, each of those steps takes just a second or two and can be performed almost without looking.

Moreover, each step can be taken separately without any moment of downtime. If you're caught short having removed a battery from the mouse, but didn't have time to plug in the charged battery, it's no problem - you can still carry on playing.

The only caveat to the continuous play is that if you're caught in a real rush and have to switch between playing with a battery and playing without one, the change in weight could throw off your aim. For most players, I don't think it's going to be enough of a difference, but for pros, I can see them preferring to just have a spare fully charged mouse rather than risk changing the feel of their moneymaker mid-round.

In terms of raw numbers, the InfinitePlay system provides up to 71 hours of total play time, combining the use of one swappable battery and the Guardian battery. Swap the batteries and you'll get another 57 hours of use, which is ample time to recharge the first battery and set yourself up for never-ending use. That rating only counts for running at a 1kHz polling rate, though. Using the maximum 8kHz polling rate drops the time of use for one battery and the Guardian battery to just 14.8 hours, while a total system cycle, using both batteries, will get you 27 hours of use.

In practice, that equates to one battery lasting three or four days when used all day for work and gaming (at 1kHz), with the Guardian battery giving a full ten hours of changeover time. At 8kHz, you're looking at needing to swap batteries every day, if you're using them for eight hours of work and a few hours of gaming every evening. If you're just gaming for a few hours a night, you should get two to four days between swaps at 8kHz and a couple of weeks of use at 1kHz.

Price

The Glorious Model O3 Wireless price is $159.99, making it an expensive gaming mouse, but one that immediately seems like reasonable value compared to some high-end options, thanks to all the extras. The charging dock and two removable batteries, along with the inclusion of RGB lighting on the mouse, are far more features than many competitors can provide.

Alternatives

Verdict

The Glorious Model O3 Wireless delivers on its promise of providing non-stop gaming, thanks to its swappable battery system that's easy to use and doesn't stop performing even when one of its main batteries isn't yet plugged in. The fact that the system is simple enough to use that you can (just about) swap batteries without looking, really elevates its status as a true mid-game, no-downtime solution.

However, the system comes with the compromise of a slightly heavier weight than many competitors. It's still light, but it's some distance off the ultra-light pace of some alternatives. Moreover, the fact that the weight and balance of the mouse shift slightly between using it with a main battery and without one is a change that we can see putting off some gamers looking for a reliable competitive gaming tool.

Then there's the fact that the need to have so little downtime just doesn't feel that essential. If you're running the mouse at 8kHz all the time, its relatively short life per battery means it's useful to have a system that allows for such a quick changeover. However, we wouldn't recommend running a mouse like this at 8kHz all day, every day, as you're just wasting the battery for no good reason. You only need that speed for competitive gaming sessions.

Run the mouse at a more sensible 1kHz polling rate, so that you're getting 30+ hours of life per battery, and the idea of plugging in a mouse for a quick charge every now and then just doesn't seem like a major headache.

As a general point of comparison regarding battery life, swappable-battery gaming headsets have existed for a while, with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless being perhaps the most prominent example, and for these devices, the technology feels more useful for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, headsets tend not to last as long per charge. The Nova Pro Wireless lasts just 20 hours, so a reliable, fast battery swap system is that much more useful. The other factor is overall convenience. Wireless headsets let you get up and walk around your office/gaming space so you can take a call, listen to music, watch a movie, or game from a couch with a controller. Having to plug it in to charge in those situations suddenly tethers you by your head to your desk. Wireless mice do none of those things. You have to be sitting at your desk anyway, so simply having to plug in a cable is far less of an inconvenience.

Finally, there's the biggest elephant in the room for those who are seeking a mouse that never needs to be charged, and that's the existence of Logitech PowerPlay. It's a more expensive setup, with the need to buy an extra $100 wireless charging mouse pad (and as I found in my Logitech PowerPlay 2 review, the mat doesn't work on some metal desks), but once it's set up, you never need to charge your mouse ever again.

Factor in that the scroll wheel doesn't feel very good and the outer casing of the mouse isn't the grippiest I've encountered, and it adds up to this mouse living and dying by its headline battery-swapping feature. If you absolutely love the idea of it, the Glorious Model O3 Wireless executes it brilliantly and offers good value compared to much simpler competing products. As an overall package, though, alternatives offer a lighter design with a better scroll wheel and surface finish, while still having good enough battery life that a once-a-week charge isn't a big deal.

If you're looking for a great keyboard or mouse mat to pair with your choice of mouse, check out our best gaming keyboard and best gaming mouse pad guides.