For 6 years I used the "legendary best mouse of all time" Logitech MX Revolution. (It is so good that, years after it ceased production, a few unopened boxes appear for sale at ridiculous prices of hundreds of Pounds/euro/Dollars: a caveat is that their aged batteries, main issue of this model, are unlikely to perform.). After some years the MX battery started failing. It is not easy to get a replacement battery and to dismantle the unit and change it. Even worse, problems develop whereby the replaced battery after a short while starts having troubles and hardly recharges at all. The solution is to bang the unit flat against a table: after a while this manoeuvre is needed daily and eventually the unit breaks down. It was high time to ditch the old MX.



After much searching, I found that this was the recommended replacement and bought it from Amazon. Shape, size and weight are very similar indeed. After 4 days of use, this is my review:



CONS (all minor):



1. WHEEL MODE: The fast "inertia-wheel" in the MX Revolution had an electronic device that, if the user decided to activate it, shifted automatically from "clicking" to "free", or else this was done manually by the wheel button. In the G700s the automatic device is no more: a dedicated button located immediately below the wheel does the trick. Admittedly, a minor issue.



2. WHEEL BUTTON AND DOUBLE-CLICK: The wheel button is as before very hard to press (and many users claim that this strong spring fails after a while). This is a pity, because a common use for it is for double-clicking. There was a solution in the MX Revolution: using for double-click the Search button, located below the wheel where now is the non-programmable wheel-shift button. (Double-clicking with the Profiles button is not practical if you need manual profile switching, and besides this button is much nearer to the palm of the hand and requires curving the middle finger a lot: this is OK when changing programs, but not for a frequent action such as double-clicking).



PROS:



3. DPI: The MX Revolution had a 800dpi (dots per inch) resolution. Mouse speed change was software-controlled. The G700s has a variable resolution from 200 to a remarkable 8200dpi. These change the pointer's speed. The way you change the dpi is very convenient: for every profile you can set between 1 and 5 different resolutions. You move between them using two dedicated up-down-shaped index buttons. This is very practical for photo editing where you may need occasionally a very slow pointer movement for precision work. (If for a particular use you do not wish to change resolutions, you can program the buttons for any other action)



4. BATTERY TYPE: The MX Revolution had a rechargeable battery which, after its lifespan was gone (5-6 years) was (a) difficult to replace requiring disassembly, (b) expensive and (c) difficult to find and no longer available after some years. The G700s uses a common AA rechargeable NiMH battery. If need be, you can have outside the mouse a recharged spare ready to use, and if the battery in the mouse goes it is very easy and inexpensive to replace it.



5. RECHARGER: The MX Revolution recharged the battery by placing the unit in a cradle (wired to a charger plugged to the mains). Thus, while recharging you could not use the unit: a serious hindrance. The G700s recharges its battery by means of a special USB cable (this requires a 2nd USB port, a 1st USB port being used, as with the MX, for the wireless receiver). To require a 2nd USB port (ideally not in a USB hub) is a minor issue, but it has the huge advantage that this USB recharging cable doubles as data cable: while the mouse recharges the battery, the wireless is automatically disconnected and the mouse becomes wired. In other words, if the battery runs low you just plug the cable and keep using the mouse: a great advantage over the MX Revolution.



6. COATING: The MX Revolution had an upper glossy coating and lateral rubber surfaces. They both became easily soiled and were difficult to clean. Now the upper glossy coating is dirt-repellent, and the sides have a texturised finish that allows a very firm grip. It really feels better.



7. WIRELESS RANGE: The MX Revolution exhibited a minimal "wireless lag", fractions of second between mouse action and effect on the PC, and the wireless range was a few meters. The G700s exhibits no wireless lag at all and the unit has a 10m range (thus with suitably large mouse arrows and back-forward buttons it can double as a remote control in slide projection).



NEUTRAL:



8. BATTERY ECONOMY: The MX Revolution's battery, when new, lasted a few days. We cannot expect this in the G700s if you use it for intensive gaming with high DPI: users (see other reviews here) have reported that if so the battery will hardly last a full day of use. However, most users only run action games a small proportion of their time at the PC, and they do not care if the mouse is slow to respond after minutes of not being use: if so they can set the unit to "Power Save" mode and it will easily last for 4 days. Anyway, with the new recharging-while-using system the battery duration is no longer a problem.



9. PROFILE ASSIGNMENT: The MX Revolution used the SetPoint software, where one could assign every button different actions according to which program is running in the active Windows window. Thus you go, say, from a Internet browser window, where two thumb buttons perform "back" "forward" to a Picture editor window, and the same buttons automatically perform "zoom out" and "zoom in". The G700s uses instead the Logitech Gaming Software (LGS) where something similar can be performed setting the mouse to "Game Detection Mode", which detects which applications have been launched. Some users are not happy with this and prefer the "On-Board Memory" mode, where the Profiles (up to 5) are stored in the mouse and you cycle among them manually with a specific button (2nd one below the wheel): if you press it the 3 lights (green for battery test) glow orange showing the profile in use with a very intuitive coding (1: --X, 2: -XX, 3: XXX, 4: XX-, 5: X--) . I am happy with 3 profiles: 1 for general use, 2 for picture editing and drawing and 3 for flight simulators.



10. THUMB WHEEL VS BUTTONS: The MX Revolution had 2 thumb buttons and, below them, a thumb wheel which actually performed as three buttons: these were not practical for anything that required a fast reaction. The G700s has dispensed with the thumb wheel and there are instead 2 further thumb buttons below the original ones. This feels more practical. Problem is, now all the 4 thumb buttons have a very feeble soft low-feedback click.



I have read complaints about long-term duration of this unit and will post here any significant change. For the time being, however, I am very happy with this mouse and find it a very worthy successor of the good-ol' MX Revolution.



Joe C. Di Veroli, Rep. Ireland