Glorious' long-running Model O series expanded again in 2025 with the Model O Eternal, a cheaper, lighter version of the beloved original that ranked as one of the best gaming mice of its day. I had high hopes: it's a properly lightweight (55g) budget mouse with solid specs, bright customizable RGB and an excellent reputation, all for $40/£35 – or cheaper if you shop around.
It has, thankfully, lived up to those expectations, and is now my go-to recommendation for anyone on a budget looking for one of the best lightweight mice to use in a fingertip-style grip.
But it's not perfect and it won't suit everyone. Let me explain.
Design and Shape
The Model O Eternal's honeycomb holes on its top and bottom are divisive. I don't like them – I particularly dislike how those holes stretch and distort towards the base which, combined with the RGB lighting strips, make the mouse look messy to my eyes.
But the point of them is to cut weight. It's just 55g, and the haphazard looks are therefore worth it: this is one of the lightest mice on the market. Very few budget mice get below 60g, and it feels wonderfully nippy when I'm whipping it around my mousepad. The mouse feet are almost alarmingly tiny but that didn't affect the glide, and it slid as elegantly as the many high-end mice I've tested over the past year.
I was worried that its holes would irritate my palm, but I couldn't even feel them. I wouldn't recommend it in palm grip – I'll explain why in a second – but I could use this mouse for several hours at a time without it feeling uncomfortable. Its coating is less grippy than most mice, but it never slipped or shifted in my hand.
Despite the design and weight, this mouse is not flimsy. Over the years, some Glorious users have reported problems with build quality and sturdiness with other models, but the mouse I tested felt solid. I squeezed it and pushed it harder than you ever would while using it, and it didn't so much as creak. There is, of course, an inherent delicacy to having holes all over the mouse and you'll need to be careful not to spill anything inside, but the actual shell won't let you down (and a couple of blasts of compressed air will be enough to remove any dust).
I also love its main mouse clicks and scroll wheel. The buttons are responsive, easy to spam, and they sound satisfyingly crisp without being too loud. The scroll wheel feels genuinely luxurious – I usually prefer stiffer wheels but I loved how smooth this felt. Its large ridges make it more tactile than most wheels, and you get a definite bump between each increment. I'd be happy if this was on a mouse three times the price.
So far, so overwhelmingly good. But there are two things I don't like.
First, the side buttons. Their shiny coating has no grip, there's zero gap between them, and they are smaller than they have any business being – far smaller than, for example, the side buttons on the ultra-compact Logitech Pro X Superlight 2c I recently reviewed. I misclicked, or missed a click, far more often than I usually do.
Those buttons also put me off using palm grip entirely. The actual body of the mouse feels lovely in my palm, but hitting the back side button with your thumb becomes impossible. It feels like Glorious have shot themselves in the foot here. Fingertip and claw grip felt comfy, with fingertip slightly easier because of the way your index and pinky fingers sit on the right of the mouse.
And the other misstep is the cable. It's not the worst I've tried, but it kinks very easily and constantly concertinas together. It never affected me in game, but having it bunch up on my desk and mousemat in a seemingly unavoidable way was annoying.
Still, for me to have so few complaints about a mouse this inexpensive is an excellent sign.
Performance and Gaming
I tested the Model O Eternal in a wide variety of genres. I played Arc Raiders and Counter-Strike 2 to test its flicks, button spamming and aiming consistency, Hades 2 for its precision, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for something slower.
Its sensor lags behind medium and high-end mice when it comes to maximum DPI (12K), max tracking speed (300 inches per second), and max acceleration (35G), but, as I constantly find myself writing, those numbers are partly marketing material. The key questions are whether it feels good and whether it tracks your movements accurately and consistently.
In all the games I played, it's a resounding yes. I felt I could fully trust the Model O Eternal to do what I wanted. I noticed no skips, hitches, or other errors in its tracking, and no issues with any of its button clicks – save for the occasional side button fumble.
Its lightness made me enjoy careening back and forth across my mousepad in hectic shooters, and it's smooth enough for more placid games, too.
Its polling rate – the number of times it reports its position to your computer – caps at 1,000Hz. Many mid- and high-end mice will go beyond that to 2,000Hz, 4,000Hz, or 8,000Hz, which should give you a smoother, more responsive ride. I can feel a difference between 1,000Hz and 4,000Hz, but it's small, and going up to 8,000Hz does nothing for me.
All that's to say: 1,000Hz is absolutely fine for most people, including some pro FPS players. If you're used to higher polling rate, or you want to try higher, you'll have to spend more money. For the price 1,000Hz is what you can expect, and the Model O Eternal performs as well as any other mouse at this price.
Software and RGB
Glorious' Core lacks some of features I've come to expect, such as adjusting the lift-off distance and scroll wheel speed, but if all you want is to tweak the polling rate, sensitivity, and DPI increments, it will feel intuitive. It's neatly laid out and simple to use, with no distractions.
Glorious Core is also where you personalize the RGB of this mouse. Two strips down the side are bright and because of the holes in the design, the light seeps all through the body of the mouse, fully saturating it. The result is a satisfying wash of color beneath your hand.
You can pick between nine lightning presets, and I enjoyed the variety. There's the usual gentler options, such as breathing and an always-on single color, as well as whackier modes including a "rave" option that gives me a headache. If you like RGB, you're well catered for.
Samuel is a freelance reporter and editor specializing in longform journalism and hardware reviews. You can read his work at his website.
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