Logitech MX 700 Wireless Mouse (930754-0914)

I am primarily a gamer with some photo editing tasks and have been using the Logitech MX700 for more than a year already. So far, I have been very pleased with it. Just recently, I purchased another one to replace my from games tortured old MX700. The silver paint on the body slowly wore off and exposed the boring white surface of the plastic body after only a few months of heavy use.

This review will also contain some comparison with Microsoft's Wireless Intellimouse Explorer (with tilt wheel) since many people are familiar with it.

Shape
The mouse is similar to an oversized, horizontally halved egg and lies quite comfortably in the hand. FYI, my hand size is about a 7 or 8 (medium size with latex gloves). Unfortunately, this mouse is clearly designed solely for right-handed people. The mouse with the included AA batteries bring a good amount of weight to the scale. I can't provide numbers because I don't have a scale handy. To me, it doesn't really feel heavy, but rather luxurious, like you are closing a heavy door of a Mercedes with a nice sound. If you are used to lightweight mice though, this could be a turn-off for you, especially if you are into shooting games.

The side of the mouse shell is rubberized which provides you with a nice grip even in action situations where your hands get sweaty. A well defined, rounded groove on the left side of the mouse allows your thumb to comfortably rest and also to keep your thumb away from the two side buttons.

Buttons and Wheel
The placement of the buttons is well-thought and they are comfortable to reach except for the "Quick Switch Program" button which is located below the lower "Cruise Control" button -- if you have a picture of the mouse, that's the lower of the two buttons that are located below the wheel. Both side buttons (the forward and backward buttons) are so much easier accessible than the ones from Microsoft.

The wheel appears to be a little bit thinner than Microsoft's, but it works well and has a defined, but mild "snap" when turning. One minor drawback: When you are using ACDSee to run through the pictures with the wheel, the wheel action sometimes does not get registered or you get double-action, ie. like turning the wheel twice. This phenomenon happens with some other programs as well.

All buttons including the wheel button respond very well and precisely and give a good tactile feedback. The "click" noises are a little more audible than Microsoft's counterpart and could be a bit annoying for some people. I personally prefer a quiet environment. The earlier MX700 products exhibited even louder clicks than the current versions.

Battery Life
There is indeed a TREMENDOUS difference between the Logitech and MS mice. If you are an avid gamer and play UT2K or Halo for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you will deplete Logitech's rechargeable AA 1600 mAh NiMH batteries in about 1 to 1 1/2 days! The MS mouse seems to last "forever." Even the recharging process overnight might not provide sufficient time to fully recharge the batteries if you are really playing everyday. In other words, keep a set of 2 fully recharged batteries handy for a quick exchange while you are hiding from your enemies ;). I am currently using 2000 mAh NiMH which do not prolong my gaming experience by much. So, the Logitech is definitely a battery drainer!

Battery charger and receiver are combined into one piece. One thing Logitech needs to improve is the recharger: If you do not pay close attention on HOW you insert the mouse into the charger, there will be no proper electric contact and your batteries will not charge! Unfortunately, even if I slowly place the mouse onto the charging station, it often takes me several trials until it recharges. I have the same issue with my second MX700 as well, so this is not an isolated incidence. My piece of advice: Spent a few more seconds to watch the yellow light of the mouse light up which indicates that it is recharging instead of just slamming the mouse into the charger and rush away (like I did at the beginning). Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks of usage, the electric contacts seem to become dirty very easily.

Responsiveness
A lot of people criticize wireless mice for the lag that is caused by the radio transmission technology. I have to admit that there is indeed a minor lag if you are used to wired mice. But after using it for a few days, I start to appreciate the cableless mouse tremendously, especially if your desktop is plastered with CDs, DVDs, empty cans, etc. (*LOL*). Nothing gets knocked down during a wild FPS game -- only the mouse pad could be bigger. I personally think that even for gamers, this is a great device because during a game your tactics, shooting precision, and other hardware components like video card, harddrive, monitor etc. are way more relevant for a victorious outcome than the minor lag caused by the radio transmission. But that's just my opinion. The MX700 offers only two radio channels, so I am not sure how it will perform if several Logitechs are in close proximity to each other as that would be in the case of house LAN parties.

The range of the mouse is very good, and 20 feet distance from the receiver was never a problem. But then, why would you go any further if you can't see any details on your monitor?!?! Even with my 20" LCD it's hard do anything at 20 feet except to watch movies...

Like all optical mice, I recommend a surface that is structured for optimal precision. That means your mouse will have difficulties with glass or extremely reflective surfaces. Even the fine woven pattern of fabric (like my pants ;) is good enough for the optical sensor to respond very well. But if you want optimal gaming experience, you might want to consider getting a mouse pad that is extra-smooth like the "X-Trac" optical mouse pad that I bought at newegg.com. I was positively surprised about the added smoothness during FPS. Of course, you have to keep your mouse pad in a good shape with eg. Pledge and/or add teflon tape under your mouse. But these are fine tuning tips that you can read in other forums and are little bit out of scope for this review.

Driver Software
I only used the basic functions of the software to configure my buttons and never did any fine tuning yet. So you have to read other reviews regarding that topic.

The driver allows you to assign "regular" functions like "double-click," "browse back," "browse forward" and also to do keyboard emulation which proved to be valuable for many games that do not recognize the additional mouse buttons. The assignment of keyboard combinations is also possible like [Control]+[A] which would emulate pressing the control and "A" key in this case.

Update (09/12/2004): The review regarding driver software applies to Logitech's MouseWare v9.79.1 and NOT the SetPoint v2.11. I strongly recommend you do NOT use SetPoint v2.11 -- it is still quite buggy and does not meet my expectations at all! Even simple things like using the "back" and "forward" buttons do not work under Mozilla which was not an issue with the MouseWare versions! Regarding fine tuning, Logitech's website offers the "MouseWare Advanced Settings Utility" (still v1.1.0.1 as of today) for gamers that allows you to change settings for mouse speed, acceleration, track optimization etc. I leave it up to you to try out the Advanced Settings because I have not done so, yet.

Bottom Line
This is a great wireless mouse that I can recommend to "harmless" office users and "savage" harcore gamers. My biggest drawback that I see in this mouse is its incredible hunger for battery power. Logitech should take a look at MS. MS has done very well to extend the battery life of its mice to a level where your primary concern is the number of kills on your score list and not the remaining time until you die because the battery is depleted ;).

FYI: Because of my great experience with the MX700, I actually bought an MX900 mouse (bluetooth) which I CANNOT recommend because of its poor drivers and driver installation. My computer would not recognize the bluetooth device, and after uninstallation, I lost my internet connection and LAN to my other computers!!! So please beware! This review only covers the MX700 specifically.

Update (09/12/2004): With high expectations, I tried the MX1000 laser mouse as well, but with dismaying experience! Therefore, I do not recommend this mouse for gamers either (I returned the mouse to the store)! Please check the Logitech forum for comments since this is a review about the MX700.