Razer’s New Ultra-Glowy Mouse Pad Is Excessive in the Best Way

Say what you want about gaming gear’s absolute obsession with RGB lighting on every desktop, keyboard, and laptop, but at least they’re consistent. We’ve gotten used to gaming setups awash in the glow of RGB lighting, but good old boy Razer has come out with a new extra-colorful mouse pad called the Firefly V2 Pro, a $100 pad that we realize finally completes the trinity of at-hand RGB gaming gear. You know what, to hell with the haters. Gaming gear is greater when it glows.

It’s enough to make Ikea’s new gamer collection look like your grandmother’s worn-down colonial-style home in comparison. Razer’s $100 mouse pad (yes, that’s damn costly for a home plate to put your mouse) is a fully edge-to-edge LED backlit pad. Razer told Gizmodo there are 15 different lighting zones for whatever rainbow effects you want. The Razer Chroma app controls those lighting effects. You’d be familiar with Chroma if you’ve used any of Razer’s desktops or laptops, like the recent 2024 Razer Blade 16.

There’s a USB Type-A and a USB-C port in the back. One’s meant to power the lighting effect, while the other could run or charge your mouse. We’ve yet to get our hands on it, but the Razer promises the frosted upper surface will have little friction for easy mouse movement.

We’ve had RGB lighting on mouse mats before, though most other companies only offer strip lighting around a blank void where your mouse goes. Some DIYers have shown you can even make your own RGB mouse pad with some material, LEDs, and a plastic cutting board. So, if you want your mouse pad to fit in with your rainbow-accented keyboard and mouse, you can now do so if you really care about the look. After all, you don’t need to look down to see where your mouse is at all times, so why would anybody care?

Because it’s not just made for you, the user, but it’s also there for anybody else who walks in on your setup that you’re trying to impress. You might get a kick out of your glowy RGB lighting strips inside and around your desktop, like a gamer’s all-year Christmas tree, but inevitably, the allure fades. It’s more important that your monitor is bright, beautiful, and fast enough to handle the games you want to play. Your mouse and keyboard must have the right feel for your daily needs, maybe even Razer’s hot-swappable mechanical keyboard.

The glow helps you get into the headspace for a deep gaming session. It’s you in a dark room surrounded by a soft glow, but there will be diminishing returns on your gamer’s high after the first few hours. No, the RGB glow is there to announce that you’re in gamer mode to anybody looking on. If you’re trying to emphasize your setup as a status symbol, you might as well go all the way.