Outdoor Research PL-100 Sensor Gloves

Everyone’s adventuring with a smartphone in this day and age. GPS tracking, Instagramming, tweeting, or even just looking at photos of maps, we’ve got our phones close and handy. When winter closes in, phone usage gets a little tricky. Gloves on, gloves off, tap the screen, hands freeze, gloves back on again. The Outdoor Research PL-100 Sensor Gloves make things a little easier.

Breathable and lightweight, the Outdoor Research PL-100 Sensor Gloves function as a glove liner or as standalone gloves. The body is constructed with 100-weight Radiant Fleece with a polyester-conductive yarn blend in the thumb and index finger.

Touchscreen usage is so flawless that I accidentally tried to unlock my phone with TouchID while wearing the gloves. These gloves make it easy to check the time, unlock your phone, snap some photos, and do pretty much everything you could barehanded.

These are best warm on cool days with no breeze; the wind will blow right through these and freeze your fingers off. They don’t fare too well on their own in wet weather, but they do dry fairly quickly.

Silicone grip pads ensure that you’re less likely to drop your phone. Glove clips allow you to find or lose both gloves at once. Contoured wrists ensure a nice and slim fit. At 1.6 oz, these are useful to have in your pack in case cold weather sets in.

I found that these gloves are very trim around my fingers. And I have small hands where (generally) even a small is too big. If you’d like a little more room and a little less Chinese finger trap, I recommend sizing up.

All in all, these do the trick for almost winter mountain weather and mild Bay Area winters. If you live somewhere with real weather, I would pair these with another glove or mitten, cause they’re not too effective against the elements.

Buy the PL-100 Sensor Gloves through Outdoor Research or Amazon for $27.

These were sent to me for review as a part of the #ORInsightLab.

Last updated on December 15, 2017.