Product Reviews

Product Reviews

In Brief

You won’t find a more comfortable, accurate, or responsive mouse. Thanks to new technology that greatly increases its ability to "see" (just like more megapixels in a digital camera yields better images), the Logitech MX700 could be the last mouse you’ll ever need. As for the mouse that came with your PC, you might want to use it as a door stop.


Price

$69.95

Logitech
Fremont, Calif.

Competition

Logitech may be the first name in mice, but the company is by no means alone. Of course there’s Microsoft, but Belkin and Kensington also are in this market.


Key Specs

4Resolution: 800 dpi

4Speed: 40" per sec. max.

4Image processing:
4.7 megapixels per sec. max.

4Acceleration: 10g max.

 

 

Input Devices

Logitech Cordless MX700 Mouse

Rating:

By Joel Shore

February 25, 2004

Most people can’t be bothered replacing the mouse that came with their PC. They think it’s good enough. They’d be wrong.

Logitech’s MX700 mouse is about the coolest you’ll ever use. First, it’s cordless. That means no more wire to get caught on the keyboard, or speakers. If you’ve never used a cordless mouse, prepare to be set free. Second, this baby doesn’t eat a steady diet of AA alkaline batteries. It’s much better than that: the MX700 is rechargeable. So forget about buying batteries by the trainload.

So what to do with your old mouse? Hang it from next year’s Christmas tree as an ornament. That’s about all it’s probably good for anyway.

The base unit serves three purposes. It’s the receiver that connects to the PC and receives the signals transmitted by the mouse. It’s a handy storage garage. And its where you place the mouse nightly to recharge its internal batteries. Each charge cycle lasts for weeks, but park it here nightly and you’ll never run out of power.

The MX700 is great on several different fronts.

First, it’s wireless. If you’ve never used a cordless mouse before, you have no idea what you’re missing. The cord on my old mouse used to get tangled, on speakers, underneath my desk, on stuff I’d have lying beside my monitor, and more. I was constantly pulling on the stuck cord to free it up and create some slack. What a pain! And even when the cord wasn’t caught on something, it just always seemed to be in the way. No more.

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Second, is the pleasure of rechargeable batteries. My first cordless mouse (also from Logitech) ran on two AA batteries. Even though I was told that they should last for weeks, I was replacing the batteries weekly. It wasn’t pretty and it was getting very expensive. That’s not the case with the MX700. As long as I remember to park it in the recharging station every night, I don’t run out of power.

The stylish base station connects to an available USB port on your PC. With the included adapter, you can plug it into the round PS/2 mouse port instead.

Third, is the phenomenal accuracy and response of the MX700. There’s never any lag between moving the mouse and seeing the cursor move on the screen. Engineered for advanced precision and control, the MX700 mouse incorporates a new benchmark in optical performance called the MX Optical Engine. A revolutionary 800 dpi sensor captures 5.3 megapixels every second to give you instant response to even your fastest movements. That’s 800 dots per inch, a significantly higher resolution than the 600 dpi laser printer you have sitting in your office.

Performance is boosted again with Fast RF (radio frequency) technology, that gives you the responsiveness of a corded connection, but without a cord. In other words, there’s no lag between your hand movement and the corresponding cursor movement on the screen.

We could go on and on about the advanced technology that Logitech has built into its cordless MX700 mouse. But do you really care about any of that? Nah. What’s important is that the MX700 is comfortable, cordless, accurate, and responsive. Whether you’re Web surfing, navigating a financial spreadsheet, or playing some cool new game, you won’t find a better pointing device.<

 
Yeas & Nays

Yea:

4Look ma, no cord!

4Rechargeable unit means no more batteries to buy

4Very comfortable

4Extra buttons for navigation shortcuts

4Looks cool
 

Nay:

4How about pushing on each side of the scroll wheel to move horizontally?

 
In The Box

Mouse
User guide
Recharging station
Software CD
USB-to-PS/2 adapter

Warranty card
 

MX Optical Engine

Logitech’s MX Optical Engine is a huge leap forward in optical power, precision, and performance. Here’s why:

4Imaging Power
The MX Optical Engine captures 4.7 megapixels of information per second, 60% more than competing mice. That’s significant because when more image data is captured and analyzed each second, more data is available to determine motion, increasing the mouse’s ability to track on difficult surfaces or during quick movements.

4Sensor Size
A mouse’s sensor needs to “see” small surface details to track motion. More detail captured means more data for calculating movement. The MX Optical Engine captures images 80% larger than other mice, contributing to smooth, fluid tracking on difficult surfaces, such as wood or other surfaces with repetitive patterns.

4Optical Path
Another factor that determines how well an optical mouse performs is the quality of the images it captures. Since the lens is just a fraction of an inch above the tracking surface, and the actual size of the images is tiny, even slight manufacturing variations can result in blurry images that degrade tracking.

   

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