What’s In the Box?
The G700 comes boxed in that familiar, quality Logitech packaging. Inside you’ll discover the G700, gaming receiver, receiver extension cable, charging cable, and some printed documentation. System requirements are, of course, very basic: XP/Vista/7 with an internet connection and a powered USB port, something any gamer should have access to. You can use the mouse just as soon as you plug it in with the charging cable (which makes it a wired USB mouse), or just plug in the tiny wireless receiver into a
powered USB port and give Windows a moment to recognize the new device.
Of course, to make use the thirteen programmable buttons, you will need to get the latest version of Logitech’s SetPoint software. At the time of this writing, the latest version, 6.15, was released about two weeks ago. The installer can automatically check for a newer version, and within seconds you’re all set to begin programming your G700 to suit all of your gaming, and yes, even productivity needs.
Before getting into customizing the mouse, its design, and function, how about some facts from the manufacturer?
Fact Check
No matter how complicated a mouse gets, it’s still a mouse, right? I think most would agree with that, but there are some specifics about the G700 that I should mention:
-13 Programmable Buttons
-Designed primarily for right handed gamers. The core design of the mouse is more so like the Performance MX or MX 1100 than the G500, for example.
-Wireless reporting up to 1,000 times per second. You can configure this to as low as 125/second, but the best (and most resource intensive) setting is 1,000/second. Out of the box, the G700 is set for 500/second.
-On board memory to store up to five profiles, each with their own unique bindings, DPI settings, etc.
-Measures 126x80x46 millimeters and weights just 153 grams, including the single AA rechargeable battery
-Ships in August, MSRP of $99.99.
And now for…
Thoughts On The Design
Well there’s no doubt the G700 looks cool, but it also feels great. Coming off the G500 wired mouse I have been a long time fan of, the G700 is actually noticeably different, and in a good way. While both mice are comfortable, the G700 design fits my right hand grip better. Comfort is important, but the button placement with the G700 is vital. Afterall, what use are thirteen buttons if they aren’t easy to get to? Most of the buttons on the G700 are easily discovered and used by touch. The better part of an hour was about all I needed to really get comfortable with the additional buttons the G700 has on its top and left sides.
Each of the additional buttons has a small imprinted label on them to designate them as G4, G5, G6, and so forth through G11. G1, 2, and 3 are the left, right, and wheel buttons (and these obviously aren’t labeled on the mouse itself). G4 is on the left side, bottom row, closest to your wrist with G7 being the top left most button on this side of the mouse. G8, 9, and 10 are the three buttons accessed with the index finger, while G11 is behind the non-programmable “Gear Shift” button. For G4-G7, there is a nice spot in the middle of these buttons that I found to be sort of my home row for controlling these. It didn’t take long to get to where I could immediately and consistently find and click the button I was looking for in that bunch. The ‘fin’ design that comes off of these buttons lends itself to this, and even more so on the top three buttons.
G8-G10 on the top of the mouse are also highly accessible buttons that are pretty easy to get used to. It’s evident from the pictures that some thought went into the design of these buttons to make them easy to use and distinctive, despite being so close together. As for G11, this is, by default, the Profile Switching button, so it’s not likely to be accessed very often. You can change it to whatever function you would like, but to reach it, I have to either move my thumb from the side of the mouse for an awkward press or remove both my index and middle fingers from the primary buttons to get to it. However, because it’s placed far enough forward, I found that I cannot accidentally press the button, either, which is certainly a good thing.
In my experience so far with the G700, the button placement has been both accessible and functional. Those themes continue with the remainder of the design as well. When I first unboxed the G700, I was surprised at how small the gaming receiver was. It’s literally the diameter of a quarter and only as wide as a typical full-sized USB connector. Once you get it plugged in, you shouldn’t have any need to unplug it under normal circumstances, but if you do, how the heck do you avoid losing that thing? I didn’t have the answer until I glanced over the Getting Started documentation. In it, I discovered that within the battery compartment, there is a special slot made for holding the receiver secure – very cool.
Functionality
Logitech, in my experience over the years with a variety of peripherals, is synonymous with quality. In my days with the G700 so far, that tradition continues. The G700 looks, feels, and functions great. A colleague of mine, much more versed in gaming mice than I, spent some time with it as well. He compared it to his Razer Mamba, Razer Naga, and Steelseries WoW mice. While he found the Mamba to have the best response, the G700 clearly trumped the Naga and Steelseries in terms of comfort, build quality, and functionality. In comparison to my G500, I immediately find the G700 to be more comfortable, at least as responsive, but it still feels a little light to me.
In comparing wireless and wired modes of the G700, I can’t really tell a difference. Even switching between the two, or unplugging and plugging the wireless receiver in during use causes only a very brief outage. The built in battery display will let you know (via a red flashing) when your batter is low and you can configure a button to show you your charge at any time, too. With a 6′ charging cord, it should never be a problem to reach a nearby powered USB port. Similarly, the receiver extension cable provides that extra flexibility should your particular desktop layout cause problems with the wireless connection of the G700. In my testing, I wasn’t able to reproduce a reasonable amount of wireless interference or lag or any such problem to require me to use the extension cable.
I’d like to also make mention of the incredibly smooth scroll wheel of the G700. Presently I use an MX 518 and a G500. The scroll wheels on these mice are fine, but a bit clunky and noisy, basically just general scroll wheels. The G700 has a silent and silky smooth scroll. It also has a left and right click, in addition to the standard ‘down’ click, although that takes a little getting used to.
From a hardware perspective, about the only thing at this relatively early stage of ownership I would change about the G700 is the weight. Were it just a bit heavier I think I would be more comfortable with it, but it’s probably just a matter of time before it feels as completely natural as my other mice.
On the software side of the G700, however, SetPoint and Macro Manager could use at least some visual improvement. Granted, it’s not a big deal that the programs don’t look all that great, because they do function well, but that’s one area of improvement we may have to look forward to. From a resource standpoint, the SetPoint program, running in the background, is presently taking well under 10MB of
RAM and idling at 0% CPU utilization. I haven’t seen any signs of memory leaks or other issues with it since installing it several days ago, all good indications of a good release.
So while I may not be very impressed with the look of the software, it is easy to use and it works well. As with previous Logitech SetPoint releases, a visual guide helps you configure your buttons. You can use any of a variety of built in commands by choosing them in a drop down box, or use the Macro Manager to capture more complicated keystrokes and functions. I liked that the Macro Manager shows you every keystroke and click it captures, and you can delete individual entries as you desire. Using macros in addition to the profiles you can add to your G700 is a huge feature for MMO players, especially those gamers that have more than one character.
Conclusion
Unlike some PC hardware that you can run benchmarks and tests on to get raw numbers that indicate its performance, user interface devices like mice are something that you simple have to try for yourself to truly know whether or not you will like it. With the G700, it didn’t take me long to say goodbye to my previous favorite, the G500. It’s only been about a week, and time will tell what problems may arise that I can’t predict at this time, but, the G700 is off to a great start. Given Logitech’s track record, I don’t expect that to change, but I’m aware that it’s still early in what will hopefully be a several year lifespan for this mouse.
At present, I frankly do not have anything ‘bad’ to say about the G700. If you’re in the market for a highly customizable gaming mouse, the G700 is definitely worth a look.
To the summary…