Razer will sell you a $100 piece of glass and call it a mousepad

Razer, the company that invented the RGB-infused “gaming” drink coaster, is no stranger to flamboyant designs. And it’s no stranger to charging a lot more for those designs than pretty much anyone else can get away with. So here we are: While glass mousepads have been a thing for a few years for those PC users who require aesthetics over functionality, Razer’s making one now. It’s called the Atlas, and it’s a hundred freakin’ dollars.

Compared to some of the other bombastic products in Razer’s catalog, like a soundbar that will scan for your head position or a headset with interchangeable animal ears, it’s surprisingly tame. The Atlas is a 450-by-400 millimeter (17.72 x 15.75 inches) pane of tempered glass, set onto a rubber base that gives it a gunmetal look. It’s super-smooth and hard — duh, it’s glass! — but a slightly frosted etching pattern means it works great for optical mice. As opposed to regular transparent glass, which, you know, doesn’t.

No Chroma lighting, no wireless mouse charging. It’s just a sheet of glass and some rubber with a Razer logo etched into it. The company kindly requests that you don’t use the Atlas to start fires like a magnifying glass, or use it as a gigantic sunshade, or smash someone’s skull with it. (No really, all three of those things are contra-indicated on Razer’s spec page for the Atlas!) The fact that the company specifically tells you not to use the mousepad as a blunt weapon indicates that they’re confident the tempered glass will last a while.

Razer

Even so, a hundred bucks is pretty ridiculous. Similar unbranded designs will run you about twenty dollars on Amazon, as will a glass cutting board of approximately the same size. I recommend buying the latter and gluing a regular mousepad cloth to the bottom — at least then you can also use it to chop up veggies.

Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer