Logitech G700s Review

• Manufacturer: Logitech
• Model: G700s
• Website: http://gaming.logitech.com/en-gb/product/g700s-rechargable-wireless-gaming-mouse
• RRP: £81 (as of time of review)

For review here I have one of the latest gaming mice from Logitech, the G700s model. Equipped with both wired and wireless functionality this mouse aims to suit all environments, additionally with its 13 programmable buttons it should be perfect for all from FPS to MMO gamers.

Logitech are one of the largest peripheral and computer accessory manufacturers and sellers in the world. They have been providing quality products in all price brackets for as long as I can remember and are certainly one of the first manufacturers that come to mind.

Without further ado we’ll begin looking at the mouse and see how it fairs in a review!

Specifications

The packaging of the mouse is quite simple, managing to look eye catching with its design but whilst keeping an overall minimalist design. On various sides of the box you’ll find the entire product specifications listed in many different languages.

Next, we open the front door of the box, inside you see a feature which isn’t present in all mouse packaging but I definitely feel is a requirement if buying in store as it allows you to get a rough feel for the mouse without actually taking it out. A fantastic idea that has been well executed by Logitech.

To unbox the mouse all that is needed is to cut the seal after opening the door and literally pull it out. After pulling the mouse out of the box there is a isosceles triangle shaped box inside housing the mouse and accessories. To open the box you need to slide out various bits of intuitive cardboard, overall it can be unboxed incredibly fast, which is a small bonus I guess.

After unpacking the box you’ll find various things including:

• 1 x G700s Mouse
• 1 x USB dongle for wireless use
• 1 x USB cable for wired use
• 1 x USB cable for added length on the wireless dongle
• 1 x Manual
• 1 x Warranty Information

I’m disappointed to see the lack of weights included with this mouse as its one of the customization options I do enjoy on mice; also the lack of braiding on the cables was a little disappointing. Otherwise everything included is exactly what you’d expect to receive.

Next we take a closer look at the mouse itself – the first thing I notice is that it’s got a very large profile being significantly bigger than my current day-to-day mouse the G9X, with the extra space Logitech seem to have made the shape more ergonomic giving a better shape within your palm.

Aesthetically the mouse looks “OK”, neither being particularly ugly to look at nor giving any form of wow factor. Compared to a mouse such as the SteelSeries Sensei it genuinely won’t be winning any awards for looks. But at the end of the day, do you buy a mouse for looks or functionality?

The design on the mouse isn’t just for show either; the black lines are actually slightly raised to give extra grip when using the mouse. On the lower parts of the mouse the surface is completely textured made up of tiny little bumps to help with grip, I found this to be very comfortable during use.

The G700 comes equipped with many fully customizable buttons coming to a total of 11 including left and right click. For me personally having experience in being in a high end guild on World of Warcraft I can honestly say that I would not need any additional buttons to bind to various spells and abilities.

On the underside of the mouse you can see that there are 4 large pads which come into contact with the mouse, in this particular case the pads are designed to give as little friction as possible.  Also on the bottom is an on/off switch.

The software offered by Logitech is very basic but includes every feature which I can think of, even offering a macro recorder which rivals even Roccats offerings.

When loading up the software you’ll see that the starting page is effectively divided into three zones, one to pick the mouse, second to cycle between pages and finally a toggle between onboard memory and software profiles.

The first part we’ll look at is the mouse selector, this feature is relatively self-explanatory as it allows you to pick the mouse you want to configure, and in this case you’ll see the Logitech G9X and G700s.

Next we’ll look at the settings offered by having the toggle switch set to on-board. The on-board mode only allows for more basic profile options and customizations including: DPI with 5 levels, polling rate, full button customization including macros, power mode and finally 5 individual profiles housing all of the settings listed.

Finally, we’ll look at the settings offered by the software based profiles. The functionality has been increased quite dramatically in several different areas. The first one of note is the DPI shift which changes the DPI when a modifier is pressed, unfortunately this does not seem to be bindable to a keyboard. Next up we have the ability to separate the sensitivity of both X and Y axis as opposed to only both with the hardware settings, the final option is one to enable or disable mouse acceleration.

The next part I want to look at is expanded profile and button customization available with software profiles. The first thing to note is that the software supports profiles being loaded based on individual applications being loaded, for example you could have a low sensitivity profile for when you load up World of Warcraft and with the locking button you can make sure it doesn’t change with the game running.

Another feature is being able print profiles, when I first thought this I wondered why you would need to do that, but rather than printing to a physical printer it creates a HTML document which you open within your browser. What you’ll see will look something like what is below:

Profile: Default Profile

This is great for people who want to share what settings they use with others who don’t necessarily use a Logitech mouse. For friends with a Logitech mouse you should be able to use the import/export tool to share profiles or even back them up in case something goes wrong.

Finally there are plenty of settings within the actual software settings cog wheel.

Overall quite a good set of options and tools all within a very user friendly design, it’s a little bit disappointing to see the software and hardware profiles being so different but it’s also more than understandable. Personally I have little need for the extras which are offered by the software profiles and as I tend to move my mouse to different setups often the hardware profiles are perfect for that as it makes my own customized mouse one hundred per cent plug and play as opposed to plug, configure and play.

As far as I’m concerned there are three main points which dictate how a mouse performs being: shape, weight, sensor and, in this case wireless too.

Overall the shape of the mouse is fantastic, it’s definitely the best shaped mouse I’ve ever used fitting my hand perfectly in every regard, this makes browsing and gaming a significantly better experience for me, on the side of shape the buttons on the mouse are also shaped to give the best feel in each individual area.

Next up is the weight of the mouse, for me the weight makes a big impact on what particular purpose I’m using the mouse for. For example I prefer a lighter mouse for browsing, heavy for FPS and a medium weight for RTS games. The G700s was disappointing in this regard due to its lack of weight customization overall. However on a good note the mouse was of a medium weight which turned it into sort of a jack of all trades and master of none, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you aren’t a proactive weight changer like I am.

The sensor, arguably one of the most important things about a mouses performance, with a DPI ranging from 200 to 8200 there is certainly a lot of choice for the best DPI for each situation. The mouse was very responsive at every single DPI I used, the mouse overall felt a lot smoother to use than my G9X which is a very highly regarded mouse.

Finally the wireless performance, in the past I’ve been part of the group who have not used wireless mice based on principal alone. However when using this mouse wirelessly I was certainly impressed as to me it felt no less responsive than wired – and if a wireless mouse feels the same as a wired it must be doing its job very well. The battery life in regards to the wireless is rather good due to the inclusion of an Eneloop battery by Sanyo, these are very premium batteries often used due to their very small power loss over time, also because it is AA it means the battery is 100% replaceable.

Overall the performance was very good especially due to some features such as the ability to switch preset profiles in game at the push of a button (by default its set to the first button underneath the mousewheel) which was a godsend. Additionally the on the fly DPI control from within a specific profile was incredibly useful, for example when sniping I was able to reduce to sensitivity for more accurate fire when playing Counter Strike: GO. Ergonomically my performance was increased significantly, but on the sensor side of things little to no difference was observed other than being able to set my DPI higher.

Being a long standing Logitech peripheral user I was very excited when I learned that I would be getting this mouse in for review. After much extensive testing over various different applications and uses I found this mouse to be very good in many different areas, as per normal there was some pitfalls but are they justified?

The software which Logitech included for use with this mouse is very good, I experienced no bugs or glitches when using it and everything functioned as it should. The features included in this software were very comprehensive as I can’t think of an option missing. A nice touch was the user interface which wasn’t remotely over done like some of the other ones on the market.

I can’t really express enough how much I enjoy using this mouse; it feels superior in almost every single way compared to my now aging G9X mouse. The shape of the mouse is phenomenal, it fits my hand perfectly. The touch of making each individual button tailored in shape was very welcome and made a bigger difference than I could have every imagined it to.

The price of the mouse is one of the biggest let downs coming in at £81, I imagine most of the extra expense is due to the fact that it is a wireless and wired mouse as opposed to a traditional hard wired cable. When compared to other wireless gaming mice such as the Razer Mamba the price is relatively competitive which makes the price being high entirely subjective. Perhaps if Logitech were to release a hard wired version this would solve the pricing issues I’m having.

Overall I have to say that this is one of the best mice I’ve had the pleasure to use, ranging from the comfort to the actual performance there is but a single real fault I have and that is the lack of weight adjustment, it seems bizarre that this option is available on the G500s but not on this one, the only explanation I can think of is that the wireless assembly takes up a lot more space internally.

Even though it the mouse lacks a few features, it also gains many, and after all there is only so much you can put inside a mouse before you start losing other features. For the fantastic performance that the G700s was able to offer me I am giving it an Editor’s Choice award.

Thanks to Logitech for providing this review sample and I hope see more great products from them in the future.

[ratings”]