Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse

When I first aquired the logitech MX700 I was at a crossroads in thinking whether this mouse would actually be any good. With working in the IT area I heard opinions and people whinging about wireless mice and their unexplained ability to "ruin" your gaming fun just at that crucial point when your just about to aim the mouse at an opponents head and WHOOSH the cursor goes all over the place due to some beknown reason. Another analogy that probably can sum this up is if your doing some rather precise photo-editting and trying to edit out the grey hairs in a photograph before emailing, just as you click the mouse moves sporadically across the image thus ruining most of your handy work and forcing you to use the "undo" feature.

Well Fear not. I can safely say that this mouse has none of the benign features associated with the older wireless mice, and after roughly 30 minutes you'll be getting used to using this mouse like theres no tomorrow. Here is the breakdown of the mouse review in general ;

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When you first get the mouse its very well sealed in a plastic style "see-through" casing with the charger/docking station and mouse visable. I did however have an issue actually OPENING the packaging to get into the mouse and docking station and also to read the manual and aquire access to the CD-ROM for installation. This is both a good and bad thing as you will know if its already been opened. In the end I resorted to the good old tried and tested "knife" technique to actally open the packaging. The actual package you get with the mouse is okay - theres not too much to really say as you get the usual items such as Driver disc, small startup manual, warranty information and of course the hardware. Also bundled with the logitech MX700 is a set of AA batteries that are required to power the mouses optical parts, the transmitter and also the buttons and operation in general.

INSTALLATION

The mouse is actually a breeze to install. The docking station can be connected to either USB or PS/2 and has a small connector on the back of the USB plug and this is where the power adaptor connects to power the docking station. Windows XP did not require any drivers to be install and found the mouse as soon as windows was loaded. If the mouse did not find the docking station on the boot up there is a small button labelled "connect" on the underside of the mouse and this is for searching all the frequencies it can use for the dock. Most of the time you may not actally need to do this apart from just the once, or if there is any interference from other wireless devices such as other mice etc.

EASE OF USE

Well a mouse is a mouse ain't it I hear you all ask. Sorry but that is far from the true. When you first use the MX700 is can be a little awe insipring as there are 8 buttons on the mouse. 2 are just above and below the scroll wheel and these are for "turbo" scrolling as I have adequately named it where you press the bottom one and it flies down a large document or webpage to the bottom. The one on the actual top of the mouse below the scroll wheel and "turbo" buttons is assigned the role of ALT+TAB in windows, so in essence it is a great idea but with windows being windows wouldn't it have been better to assign it as CTRL+ALT+DEL? Anyway, the two buttons under the thumb are generally used in windows for the task of going backwards and fowards in folder navigation and also web browsing. people with large hands might find these too easy to press and will find themselves cursing their big thumbs over and over again when catching these buttons.

Ergonomically, this is a mouse design for right-handed people only. All you lefties in the world will feel even more alienated now as this is a mouse totally not designed for you lot (oops - I've just lost 1 in 10 readers...ahh well you can't please them all I suppose).

Weight-wise, when I first installed the mouse I was humming and arring as towards the possibility that this is actually "too heavy" but within 30 minutes of use and playing the mouse seems perfectly weighted and balanced for everyday use. Logitech in their literature say that this mouse runs at a higher optical resolution than their competitors (read microsoft) and I tend to agree after using both. The mouse does feel somewhat more accurate when in windows flying through the mp3 lists and also copy and dragging files all over the place and after a while you will notice this if you are a gamer. As with all optical mice, this device works best on a non reflective matt surface thats free from grime and dirt.

Recharging is an absolute bliss. When not in use simply place the mouse into the dock and the green LED on top of the mouse will flash. On first use it is recommended to leave the mouse charging overnight to make sure you get the batteries fully charged and once this is done you then just simply add it to the dock when not in use so it can trickle charge them and top them back up. I have found that even after 4 days of "forgetting" to dock the mouse the batteries still show as "good" status in the logitech software control panel.

Now for the minor flaws with this mouse. I cannot say whether its the mouse or Half-life 2 but occasionally the mouse "forgot" the binds to certain buttons in the game, where a quick restart of the game usually fixed this issue. One work around I have heard to work is to actually install the Mouse software from microsoft but rumours have it that this affects the resolution of the optical innards. If you use the logitech software, then be aware of a process on your system thats installed with this software called "backweb-8876480.exe". This is not SPYWARE or a VIRUS of any sort. In general this is the Logitech Desktop Messenger that checks for automatic updates to the drivers.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, this was a sound investment to replace my wired mouse. With ease of use and good range on the wireless (over 10 meters), excellent responsiveness and long battery life this is an ideal investment for the SoHo user, general user or infact the avid gamer. This mouse would really appeal to all. The only real improvement they could make on this is to offer a range of colours other than Silver and black as not all PC's are to that colour scheme. The only real mouse better than this one is the MX900 which has bluetooth support

This mouse can be found at the usual suspects and prices are around approximately 40 Pounds.