Logitech MX700 Wireless Optical Review

Overall Rating

Ergonomically sound
Excellent Update Speed 120/sec - comparable to a wired optical mouse
Accurate as hell, one of the best for gamers. Second only to the MX510.
Batteries are rechargable in the provided holster/receiver.
It's pretty.
Excellent Build Quality

Reception is limited to ~2 Metres.
You must install MouseWare to gain use of the cruise control buttons
£50 for a mouse is a bit steep, but worth it ultimately.

When I bought my Logitech MX700, I was looking for something special and I wasn't disappointed, having previously used a Chic 1400 Wireless Optical mouse, I can honestly say that it does not even come close to the quality of this fine Logitech product.

Most other wireless optical mice are lucky to achieve 50 updates/second over RF, the clever people at Logitech have outdone themselves this time, the mouse averages 120 updates/sec. over what they call Fast RF, this speed is comparable to its wired counterpart the MX500, and results in exceptionally smooth tracking and motion.

This is a solid mouse, heavier than the MX500, but this was expected as it needs to incorporate the RF transmitter and house two AA batteries, it comes with two 1700mAh NiMH rechargable batteries, and the charger again, is the base station as well.

The base station is a work of art in itself, it has only one lead protruding from the back of it, power is supplied over the same lead as the USB, the USB connector which plugs into your computer has a DC power socket in the top of it, where the charger plugs in.

Power consumption is excellent, lasting 3-5 days on a full charge (during heavy use), perhaps longer under light use, the optical sensor powers down to a lower intensity when not in use, but soon kicks it back up when it detects movement, if not moved for a long period the sensor switches off. A click of the mouse button will wake it up.

The mouse has 5 buttons, the usual left, right, and middle/scroll wheel. Accompanied by Internet navigation back/forward buttons, which can be easily reassigned to just about any system function using the MouseWare provided. It has cruise control buttons, which allow controlled scrolling through long documents without having to keep scrolling the wheel constantly, just hold a cruise control button. Finally the Logitech fast application switching button, which I have never used, due to it A: being in a slightly awkward position, behind the lower cruise control key, and B: it's pointless, I can Alt-TAB much more easily.

Overall it was well worth the £50 I paid for it, and yes I'd buy another if this one ever dies, which I doubt.

Members' Comments onniallfleming's Review

• koshper on 31st Aug 2004

  You mentioned the flash which the mouse emits while placed in the charging cradle, however it does not stop flashing after a while, it slows down to 2 flashes a second. Which becomes v annoying especially if you relax in the same room and there is no way to turn this off, all you can do is leave the mouse out of the cradle which eats up the batteries as it's making contact with a surface, or leave the cradle powered which according to logitech's manual is dangerous!!! How dificult would it have been to just include an off button on the mouse itself! lazy.

• niallfleming on 1st Sep 2004

  The green light on the top? It does turn off in the cradle, when it's finished charging. If you charge it at night then you'll not have a problem will you...