Logitech MX700 review
The MX700 arrived a few weeks ago in this nice looking box
The nice looking MX700 box
Included in the box was :
- The mouse
- The base station
- Power cable
- 2 Batteries
- USB to PS/2 connector
- A short manual
- The software
My first impression with the mouse was that it felt much lighter compared to my old Microsoft optical mouse. But hey I seemed to forget a little thingie ... You need to put those 2 batteries in the mouse! After that, it felt much heavier than the Microsoft one. But actually, this isn’t so bad, cause it helps to keep the mouse more stable on your pad.
The batteries are empty so you first need to charge them with the base station. Just slide your mouse in the base station and plug the power cable pin in the hole on back of the USB connector. During the charging of the batteries the LED of the mouse blinks green, after 2 to 3 hours the batteries are fully loaded and the LED stops blinking and eventually turns out after a few minutes.
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Now plug in the mouse in your USB or PS/2 port and boot up your PC to install the Logitech Mouseware software. I chose the PS/2 port cause I think that an USB port is just a little bit overkill for just a mouse. The installation of the software is of course piece of cake. (Newer versions of the MouseWare software can be downloaded here )
    
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Now, let's take a closer look at the mouse. The MX700 looks very good and has a total of 7 buttons. It has 2 side buttons (the ‘Convenient internet navigation’ for back and forward browsing in your browser), the usual 2 left and right-clicking buttons on top, a black scroll wheel, above and under the scroll wheel is the ‘Cruise control system’ usable for scrolling in large documents, and under that, you have the ‘Quick switch program selector’.
If you don’t like the pre-assigned functions of the buttons then you can always change the settings in the mouse configuration panel just like I did. I gave the ‘Convenient internet navigation’-system the Mini and Maximalize function just like on my old Microsoft mouse. And as of last there’s a LED on the top, when batteries are low it starts to blink red.
At the back of the mouse you have the 5 rubber feets, the optical camera, and the battery cave.
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| The cruise control system | Quick switch program selector | The Convenient internet navigation |
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Testing
I’m using the MX700 for almost two weeks now and I’m very pleased with it. To be honest, it took me a day or 2 to become familiar with this mouse cause when I first used it I thought ‘What the hell is this? My old mouse is much better!’ but this early opinion changed quickly! After a few hours of usage, I’d started to like it and after 2 days I was fully familiar with this wonderful mouse.
The mouse fits very well in my hand, however, this may sound a bit strange cause I’m left-handed but it feels comfortable (I'm left-handed for mouse usage only, by the way, I write with my right hand. Hehe I know I’m strange ;)
I’ve been testing the MX700 for 2 weeks now on the Speed-Pads and the tracking is very well, only on the clear one it shows some tracking problems. In the past, I really liked my Microsoft optical mouse a lot, and I actually thought that the tracking couldn’t be much improved, but hey this mouse showed me that it was possible.
Also in the past, I was quite skeptical about cordless mice but this unit showed me that it’s much easier to work with a cordless one. It feels much more comfortable to work with cause you never need to look after an annoying cord that gets stuck under a glass or a mobile phone…
I’ve heard some complaints about cordless mice that they would lag and things like that but I didn’t notice any lag during the testing of this mice. It works up to about 10 feet of the base station and the tracking feels just like a mouse with a cord, maybe even better than most other optical mice.
Hell yeah, I could even use my leg as a mouse pad with this mouse!
The only bad thing about cordless mice is that they need batteries. The MX700 uses two AA 1700mAh rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries (you can use others if you want) that are fully loaded in the base station within 2 to 3 hours. Now you’re probably thinking about how long this mouse will work with fully loaded batteries? Well unfortunately only 3-4 days, this is the first cordless mouse that I’ve ever tested so I don’t know how this is with other mice but personally I think 3 days is quite short. It’s very annoying when you’re in the heat of the battle and suddenly you’re mice led starts to blink red and your batteries run out. The best solution for this is to let your mouse charge in the base station every night.
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Added: January 10th 2003
Product reviewed: Logitech MX700
Reviewer: LSDsmurf
Score: 9/10
Page: 2/3