A List of Downsides to Owning a Glass Mousepad

I have been using a glass mousepad ever since the SkyPad 3.0 came out and in general I would say these are the best pads on the market to own (subjectively my opinion).

However, there are a couple of downsides that often get overlooked or overshadowed by the benefits of a glass pad. These will be in no particular order and will affect some more than others but after spending a very long time on glass pads and trying cloth pads for short periods this is what stood out to me the most. 

Downsides to Owning a Glass Mousepad

1. The first thing that comes to mind is the price of most glass pads being 70-80$ and up. For this amount of money, you can buy a Cordura pad which can last for a couple of years. My MPC450 is still alive and kicking after daily abuse on my wife’s desk and it still feels amazing. You can buy that pad for 15$ at times making it hard to justify such a high price for glass pads.

The thing that looks like it was used as a cat scratching post feels buttery smooth…

2. Skates die on these pads super fast and only feel good for the first couple of days. Even the skates made for glass pads never feel as smooth as on initial use. This is not an issue on cloth/hybrid pads until you mess up those skates real bad.

3. Dust is your number one enemy – no matter how often you wipe one swipe on a hair or dust and your experience is ruined. This is especially true if you have pets like I do. I can wipe my Empress with 3 different types of wipes and in 30 seconds I have to fight the hairs and dust again.

4. These things are impossible to carry around. A normal pad you can roll up (not tightly to ruin it) and carry it around – to work, to your friend’s house, etc. With a glass pad, you need to carry it in its box in a separate bag or something like that because these huge things won’t fit in any of my backpacks. 

5. No sleeve enjoyers hate these pads and many go back to cloth pads simply so they don’t have to wear a sleeve. Some glass pads and surfaces are less prone to sticking but playing on a glass pad without a sleeve is kind of a gamble. 

6. The whole point of a glass pad is that you buy one and you are set to game on it forever. With multiple types of glass pads coming out that concept is simply not viable since you will still want to try at least a couple of them leading to your one-time 100$ investment turning into a monthly 100$ spent on fancy pads. 

7. You have to stay on top of your aiming game if you want to keep using a glass mousepad. With no friction and limited control if you ain’t playing games or aim training you will quickly realize you are whiffing a lot more than on cloth pads.

8. The noise is always there no matter what the surface is and what the skates are. I never understood the claims of a glass pad being silent when no matter the skates I put on there is always noise. For some that is an absolute deal breaker.

9. Limited choices for designs and surfaces on the market since glass pads are a novelty. You have a solid selection of maybe 10 pads and that is it. Compared to cloth pads which you can find in all shapes and sizes with whatever design you prefer, finding a glass pad that you really like might be tough.

10. Depending on where you are in the world getting the specific glass pad you want might be a lot of trouble. Some EU manufacturers are hard to find in the US and vice-versa. This is also amplified by the fact that these are slabs of glass that are annoying to ship, can break, and cost a ton in shipping too. 

TL;DR

Glass pads are amazing and I will probably never end up swapping from one, but thinking these are perfect is far from the truth and I hope my experience will help illustrate that.