Computer peripherals have seen plenty of innovations over the last decade. Most high-quality options are great at improving performance, increasing productivity, and adding convenience. Computer peripherals like mice, mouse pads, headsets, and keyboards are better than ever before.
Not only have we seen innovation within such common computer peripherals, but we have also seen completely new products emerge in recent years. Glass skates for your mouse are one such new and innovative computer peripheral.
These are quite simple yet effective products that have gone viral and disrupted the computer peripheral market recently. However, they are still fairly new, and one of the most common questions we get is whether gamers or power users should opt for glass skates or mouse pads.
Whether you should opt for glass skates or mouse pads depends a lot on your personal preferences. However, before answering this question in detail, we must first understand what glass skates are.
What Are Glass Skates?
While most mice have improved a lot over the years, one area that has been slow to improve is the feet of most modern mice, including premium gaming mice. Glass skates fill this gap. Glass skates are essentially feet or "skates" for your mouse that make movements smoother to aim and track better.
Most manufacturers market their glass skates as making your mouse feel like it's hovering over the mouse pad, gaming mouse pad, or underlying surface. This movement is possible because the glass material reduces friction between the surface and the bottom of the mouse.
Glass skates are typically single-use products that are strategically stuck to the bottom of your mouse via the integrated single-use adhesive.
Glass Skates or Mouse Pads?
Mouse pads, especially high-quality gaming mouse pads like the Thasis from MouseOne, are proven computer peripherals for gamers, professionals, and power users. They increase accuracy, precision, stopping power, glide, comfort, and overall performance, especially for gamers who use a gaming mouse.
Sometimes mouse pads are designed for improvements in specific areas, whereas most gaming mouse pads provide an overall better experience. For normal users, high-quality mouse pads can improve mouse feel, glide, base grip, comfort, accuracy, and speed. Mouse pads have several value-added features like wireless charging, RGB lighting, recessed stationary holders, etc.
On the other hand, glass skates provide a single purpose - to improve the smoothness or glide of your mouse. While this can be highly beneficial for some power users and gamers, it is not always an upgrade, especially when you opt for low-quality options.
Most professionals or power users can take advantage of the added smoothness and glide. It allows them to put less effort into their mouse movements, allowing them to retain more energy for longer periods of productivity.
Some gamers can also take advantage, but it depends a lot on their style of gaming. If you play RTS or MOBA games with high sensitivity (DPI) settings, glass skates may be useful for you. However, if you play FPS games, you may not prefer glass skates.
This is because the added smoothness can bring immense changes to your gaming mouse movements, thus throwing you off balance. You will likely have to get used to it before you can work around on whether it improves your gaming performance or not.
This learning curve of glass skates also applies to professionals and power users who are used to their existing mouse movements. Once you know how the frictionless movements feel, you may love it or hate it, and it may or may not improve your experience and performance.
Moreover, there are a few other problems with glass skates (especially low-quality ones) that you may not like. Firstly, glass can break. While glass skates use a stronger glass compound, they can still break if your mouse falls the wrong way.
Secondly, glass skates are pricey for what you get. You pay upwards of $25 for quality options that only improve mouse glide. Compare this to similarly priced mouse pads or gaming mouse pads, and it is easy to see that you get a lot more bang for your buck with a mouse pad.
Lastly, glass skates may seem like a marketing gimmick or a waste of your money, time, and effort if they end up disappointing you by not improving your performance or experience. In contrast, you know exactly what results to expect with a mouse pad.
Some may even say that a mouse pad is an essential computer peripheral, while glass skates are a luxury option. With all that, you can probably decide for yourself if you want to opt for glass skates or mouse pads.
If we had to choose between the two, we would always recommend a mouse pad over glass skates, especially if you don't have a strong preference for either. We know that gaming mouse pads like the Thasis improve gaming performance and productivity for gamers and power users alike.
However, glass skates are not as straightforward, and you need to try one before you can decide if it suits you. The problem is that they have a single-use adhesive to stick to your mouse.
Why Choose?
Glass skates and mouse pads are not mutually exclusive. You don't necessarily have to choose between them. First, you can get yourself a nice mouse pad like the Thasis. Then, look into investing in glass skates for your mouse.
Most professionals and gamers who use glass skates often pair them with a high-quality gaming mouse pad. This pairing gives them a better movement for competitive play. If you like how they both feel and perform together, you may just improve your overall experience.
