Review: Logitech G700s Wireless Gaming Mouse

The refreshed Logitech G700s wireless gaming mouse doesn’t bring much new to the table over its predecessor, but it doesn’t need to; it’s still an outstanding wireless gaming mouse with an extra ‘s’ on its name and a new surface on its backside.

The original Logitech G700 gaming mouse is still a personal favorite, and the G700s continues the tradition.

Comfort

• Ergonomic right-handed. Slightly high arch at its mid-point.
• Flat matte ‘hydrophobic’ plastic top, textured plastic sides

The G700s almost looks like a left-handed mouse at first glance because of the curvature of its sides. Regardless, it’s generally a very comfortable mouse. Personally, I prefer a lower-profile to reduce wrist arch—one of the reasons I like the Mad Catz MMO7—but I can’t say I ever found the G700s to be uncomfortable.

I quite like the G700s’ generous “thumb shelf”, which provides a comfortable resting place for your thumb and puts it within easy reach of the 4 sculpted thumb buttons.

I’ve always been a fan of textured plastic, and while matte plastic isn’t my favorite mouse material, it’s better than glossy plastic. Furthermore, the G700s top is now supposed to be ‘hydrophobic’ to use Logitech’s term. Technically, that would imply that it’s afraid of water, which most sensitive electronics should be, but I’m pretty sure it’s intended to mean moisture-resistant.

Design

• Buttons: 13—4 programmable thumb buttons, 4 programmable top buttons, 3 scroll wheel (middle click+left and right tilt). 1 dedicated scroll-wheel mode switch button
• Cable: Vinyl-sheathed USB charging cable with a form-fitting plug (if you wish to use the mouse wired while charging).
• Sculpted buttons

Aside from MMO-focused gaming mice (including Logitech’s own G600 MMO gaming mouse and the Razer Naga mice), G700s has more extra buttons than just about any mouse. In addition, the G700s features some innovations unique to Logitech mice.

Unlike some gaming mice that just pack on extra buttons without much regard for usability, the buttons on the G700s are all reachable and usable. Better still, Logitech’s unique, sculpted-button design makes differentiating them by feel much easier than it is with typical flat-buttoned mice, which eschew the unsexy, bumpy look for streamlined aesthetics and buttons that can sometimes be difficult to locate and differentiate from one another.

So the G700s sacrifices some aesthetics over function, but that’s how it should be. (Although to be honest, I can’t say that I wouldn’t mind a little LED backlighting on this puppy.)

Features

• Sensor Type: Laser
• DPI (dots-per-inch) setting(s): 200 dpi – 8200, adjustable in 50D PI increments
• Macro capable: yes
• Profiles: Stores up to 5 on the mouse, more on your PC
• Polling Rate: 125/200/250/333/500/1000Hz
• LED Lighting: Minimal; just a dual function DPI/battery level indicator
• Adjustable lift distance: No
• Surface calibration: No
• Adjustable Weight: No (Although you could lighten the G700s if you remove the AA rechargeable battery and use the G700s as a wired mouse.)
• Other features: Dual mode scroll wheel

In addition to the sculpted buttons, another favorite feature specific to Logitech (they’ve patented it) is their dual-mode scroll wheel. With the press of button right behind the scroll wheel, you can change the G700s from click-by-click (gaming/standard) mode to a free-roll mode (think trackball).

Although I’d like a little more stiffness in the scroll wheel’s ‘gaming’ mode, the free roll mode is outstanding (and finger-saving) anytime you need to scroll through long Web pages, documents, etc.

Logitech, like many gaming peripheral makers, has basically united their driver platform for all devices with the Logitech Gaming Software. It’s a slick interface, although not quite as elegant as Razer’s software.

You can store up to 5 DPI settings, create profiles triggered by launching specific games, and of course program simple or complex multi-key macros for each of the extra, programmable buttons. Logitech’s software enables you to record custom timing intervals, no intervals, or standard (the recorded) intervals between keystrokes.

The G700s also gives you the option of storing profiles in the mouse’s onboard memory or the PC—sorry, no cloud-based storage yet.

Battery life seems quite good; and you have plenty of options to ensure the G700s has plenty of gaming juice. First, the G700s will automatically ‘sleep’ when it’s idle. In its ‘power saving’ mode—which reduces the polling rate to 125Hz—the G700 lasted a week or more on a single charge with moderate, daily use. You can also turn the G700s off by flipping a small switch on its underside.

And even if you do run the battery down, you can connect the G700s and run it as a standard wired mouse while it charges.

In addition, the G700s is powered by a single, standard AA Ni-Mh rechargeable battery. If you’ve got an AA battery charger and some extra rechargeable AA batteries, you may never need to worry about running out of juice or connecting the G700s to its charging cable at all.

Overall: 5/5 stars — “Examiner’s Choice”

I was a big fan of the original G700, and that opinion doesn’t change with the G700s. There are a couple minor changes I wouldn’t mind seeing (a lower profile and slightly stiffer scroll wheel)–but you’d still be hard pressed to find a better wireless gaming mouse.