In 2014, the people behind Glorious PC Gaming Race were fed up with the amount of “low-quality” products saturating the gaming market, so they decided to create a line of cheap, well-made mouse pads that has since expanded into a whole variety of PC peripherals ranging from keyboards to the eagerly-awaited Odin Gaming Mouse, which promises to offer an excellent alternative to some of the more expensive products out on the market.

With its meme-friendly name and… uh… unique logo design and branding, Glorious isn’t a company most people will have heard of. Only in high-performance peripheral circles do I hear talk of their products, but the overwhelming amount of positive feedback there prompted me to explore one of their mousepads for this review.

Basic Specs:

• 99 cm x 28 cm x 3.5mm
• Low friction surface (designed for high DPI)
• Stitched edges
• Rollable cloth
• Rubber base 

Design & Aesthetics

The Glorious Extended remains one of the nicer pads I’ve seen so far in terms of looks. My review sample was the white version, and the clean look combined with the small, unobtrusive black logo and stitched edges meshed together to create an overall impression of quality and simpleness – something I appreciate after years of looking at Razer’s garish mousepad design.

If white isn’t your thing, Glorious also offers black versions as well as a “stealth” edition that hides the logo in the corner if you’re one of those people who absolutely cannot withstand any kind of branding on your products. The logo itself is tiny (much smaller than any other branding I’ve seen before) and printed in the bottom right corner. For some reason, the image always reminds me of a duck…

Performance & Testing

Glorious strives to make their products high quality, and the Extended lives up to its looks as a premium looking pad. It’s marketed at low-DPI gamers who require low friction “speed” surfaces (as opposed to slower, “control-type” surfaces), so the mousepad has been designed to have less initial friction and an easier glide.

Playing CSGO at 800 DPI (and 1 sensitivity), the lack of resistance made large swipes and AWP flicks much easier, and similarly, in Quake Live, movements such as rocket jumps and 180s with the railgun were smoother and required less force.

Unlike other speed pads though (e.g. Artisan Shidenkai), the Glorious Extended still offered enough control for slower movements such as tracking with a lightning gun in Quake. This made gameplay feel steadier and doesn’t sacrifice precision for a buttery-smooth glide.

On to the technical side of things, I never encountered any sensor anomalies using the Glorious, and even finicky sensors such as the ADNS-3310 didn’t lose tracking on its white surface. Testing with the PMW-3360, ADNS-3310 and the Phillips Twin-eye, I couldn’t make any of the three, spin out even at the fastest speeds. There was also no abnormal jitter or noticeable DPI deviations.

The black rubber base has a grippy texture on it that prevents the pad from sliding around. I tested it on a plastic tabletop, tiles and a glass coffee table, and it wasn’t possible to make the pad move with the mouse even when applying huge amounts of force.

Quality

The biggest issues to plague unworthy mousepads are frayed edges, change in glide and deterioration of the mousing surface. Naturally, these were the signs I was looking for during testing, and I was happy to see that Glorious’ overall quality extended to their durability.

The black stitched edges not only add a pleasing aesthetic to the pad, but it also serves the purpose of keeping the edges of the cloth from fraying and separating from the base. The weaving is dense and isn’t showing any sign of fluffing or wear, even from where my arm has been rubbing on it for hours on end.

The rubber surface retains its texture and stayed as grippy throughout testing as in the “out-of-box” condition. For such a low price, Glorious has created a product better than many others of equal or higher price. 

Size

Being an extended pad, the Glorious Extended is much longer than it is tall, and at almost a metre long it is one of the longest extended pads I have ever seen, with the exception of Glorious’ other products. It leaves ample room for a full-sized mechanical keyboard, and though I normally use a 60% sized custom keyboard, I still had plenty of mousing room when using the Corsair K95, which is a true behemoth.

Despite the length, the Extended lacks slightly in terms of height. At only 28cm, I found myself a bit pressed for space, especially in games with large amounts of vertical movement such as Quake Live. If you play Counter-strike and other games with an emphasis on the horizontal axis, you might be happy with the dimensions, but I would suggest you have a look at Glorious’ other mousepads otherwise.

The Glorious Extended is around 3mm thick, which I find is a happy medium between comfort and stability. The mousepad has a bit of give when you press on it with the fingertips, but I was unable to do it with the mouse. This cushions the forearm slightly as well, upping the comfort in comparison to thinner pads like the Steelseries QCK, so I give Glorious bonus points here.

Our Verdict

A great, low-friction glide (combined with good stopping power for control) and uncompromising tracking performance means this is a great pad for all game types. Clean, simple aesthetics and a variety of colour options and styles allow the Extended to fit into any setup, which is a boon for any who are taking looks into account. The extended form factor gives plenty of room for even the biggest keyboards, however, the 28cm width may make large vertical movements feel constrained. An excellent mousepad with unbeatable value for dollar from Glorious – a solid recommendation for most gamers.

Rating: 9/10