Gaming: New Qpad Obsidian Glass Mouse Pad Review 2026

QPAD has made a gorgeously smooth glass pad, here. It won't be for everyone because it's expensive and can take a while to get used to, but for eliminating surface inconsistencies and allowing quick and easy aim, it's wonderful.

PC Gamer's got your back

Our experienced team dedicates many hours to every review, to really get to the heart of what matters most to you. Find out more about how we evaluate games and hardware.

I've always stuck to cloth mouse pads, and given the few plastic hard pads I've tried have never gelled with me, I didn't think I'd ever switch. But the QPAD Obsidian Glass has made me realise there's a whole class of mouse pads out there that I was overlooking, and that's glass ones. Of course, I'd seen them before, but I'd never paid them much mind—and what a fool I was.

My time with the Obsidian Glass has been a joy and has convinced me that the glass pad lifestyle is for me. Which isn't to say that it's an easy lifestyle—far from it, in some ways—but it's worth it if you're into competitive shooters.

First off, what is a glass pad not? Well, it's not cloth, of course. But it's also not plastic, either. When I'd tried hard pads previously, they'd all been plastic ones, and I never found those convincing enough to switch away from cloth, especially when there are luxuriously fast cloth pads like the SteelSeries QCK Performance out there. That's primarily because hard plastic pads tend to wear out and become slow over time, which I find more annoying than when cloth pads slow down over time, as cloth's slow-down never seems as drastic.

Glass pads, on the other hand, don't wear out like that. They offer the speed and smoothness of a plastic pad, but have tons more durability. That's true even if the glass has a coating on top like this QPAD one, as these are bonded to the glass and should take a very long time to wear out, if at all. This surface gives the pad somewhat of a matte texture, thanks to the micro-etchings that help the mouse to track. It also makes moving your mouse a lot more audible, but that's something you should expect from any textured glass pad.

Dimensions: 420 × 420 × 4 mmEdging: Slightly curvedSurface: Hard tempered glass with micro-textured surfaceWeight: 1.5 kgPrice: £100 (UK only)

Getting used to the Obsidian Glass didn't take me anywhere near as long as I thought it would. I was anticipating a solid week or even a month of adjustment before I got used to it, but actually, after just a couple of days and

Source: PC Gamer