Logitec G7 WIRELESS LAZER MOUSE REVIEW

Ok so I just got my mouse today and have been messing with it for about 2 1/2 hours straight... This mouse is godly awsome with only 2 dissapointing features and I'm being as brutal as possible here...

1. the lazer is not visible to the human eye (outside the normal visible light spectrum or just not bright)... I thought I might be able to get a secondary use out of it like a lazer pointer but oh well....

2. only the middle button can be setup as the application switch button... (I would have liked one of the DPI switching buttons to be able to be programed for application switching just because that's how my mx510 was set up but oh well...)


3. that's it... there are no other serious imperfections I have discovered so far... but if i find more I will add them here..


Wireless + battery observations
I did a simple wireless test to see how far away I could get and the results are 20+ feet plus through a wall and I still was able to control the computer... (why anybody would want to be 20+ feet away I have no clue)...

The battery isn't half bad weight wise and after install the mouse still feels lighter than a MX700 which uses 2AA's.. There is a little display on the mouse which indicates the charge of the battery... this indicator phazes (in green) out every few seconds and the current dpi setting phazes in in orange and a few seconds later phazes back to the battery indicator.

BUTTONS

The g7 actually has the exact same number of buttons as a mx510... The difference is that the top cruise control and the foreward button have been replaced with the side scrolling buttons... and I will elaborate on this more later in the software section but you can pretty much program any button to do anything... The buttons themselves are placed very egronomicly like the mx510 and (this is kinda hard to describe) make very nice "clicks" when pressed (you know the button has been pressed)... the only thing I forsee as any possible problem is when you go to press straight down on the scroll wheel you sometimes get a right or left tilt instead but that's just because I'm not used to a tilt wheel.


also of note is a power button to turn your mouse on and off on the bottom of the mouse which is really handy if you are a notebook traveler like myself...

"set point" SOFTWARE

I would like to say that running the mouse without this software is just plain stupid... The software turns this mouse into a lean mean fraggin machine...

The feature of this software that really impressed me was the ability to have the mousebuttons do different actions while running different programs (for instance I have the tilt wheel configured to open and close tabs in firefox)... and in media player the same tiltwheel controls the volume of my music.

pic of main page of set point software


some various settings I have been playing with the past few hours...

{a special note that I don't have much use for switching dpi on the fly so I have remapped those keys to other more useful things...}

media player
left click = left click
right click = right click
middle click = play/pause (ctrl p)
back button = stop (ctrl s)
+ DPI = previous song (ctrl b)
- DPI = next song (ctrl f)
left/right scroll wheel tilt = volume (F9/F10)

firefox
left click = left click
right click = right click
middle click = switch applications
back button = back
+ DPI = scroll up
- DPI = scroll down
left/right scroll wheel tilt = close/open tabs (crtl w/ctrl t)

the thing to remember though is that theese buttons only work while the intended program is in focous... For example if you diden't set up a specific profile for media player and just used "all programs" to control the music it woulden't work because in most other programs (ctrl p) means "print" while in media player it means "play" there is however a generic key combination used by multimedia keyboards that means play no matter what program you are using... (if anybody has an idea of what the special universal play, pause, mute, volume, next track , previous track button key combinations are I would much appreciate it...

now for gaming...

I haven't gotten to test out the gaming aspect much but it is fully programmable and customizable to each and every game so I don't see anything that could be a problem.


[other interesting things]
The wireless transmitter resembles a small cruiser micro flash drive and can be plugged into the battery charger or the laptop it's self. I have the battery charger plugged into a usb hub that I just have sitting around that isn't hooked up to a computer... the charger just uses the usb power from the powered usb hub to charge up the battery. This saves me from taking the charger with me everywhere since I am using my mouse with my laptop.

this mouse is just awsome... if you excues me, right now I am going to try it out on some games... (i'm gonna set up the tilt scroll wheel for looking around corrners

pictures of mouse?

They should have interchangable face plates, I don't really like the green on it.

Is laser mouses really better then optical mouses? The box says its like 1000x more precise or something,

I can't find my camera... where is that stupid thing...
I will make a link to logitech's 3d tour which should give you a good nuff idea... basically it looks like an mx500 with a Greenish black hue with silver color scheem and 2 buttons are relocated to the tilt wheel.. it definatelly appears black unless there is light shining on it then you can see a glint of dark sparckly green... I actually like the color... I was expecting a sucky teal color but this is so much nicer... This mouse looks more "professional" than "gamer" color scheme...

color sucks but i'm seeing what people think of it's price. i know the copperhead is expensive but it rocks.

-1cem4n

nice review, I want that mouse

I thought it was out in more than one color? Maybe I am wrong. I use the MX900 which is good for everything ive used it for so far. Im not much of a fragging machine so I doubt I need 2000dpi just yet. Nice review tho.

JT

They're all green, but it looked much darker in person than it appears in pics.

darksparkz said:

They should have interchangable face plates, I don't really like the green on it.

Is laser mouses really better then optical mouses? The box says its like 1000x more precise or something,

Click to expand...

laser mice work better on surfaces that appear uniform to regular mice. the problem is a few mouse pads (icemat rev2 i think is the main one with problems) don't work with the laser mice. in a mouse, there is a camera, and then something to light up the surface. the laser allows for a clearer image.

see page 2 here http://www.logitech.com/lang/pdf/laser_techbrief-04.pdf

and fyi, the laser is infared. if you have a digital camera, you should be able to take a picture of it.

OZZLO,

Let me know how your G7 works for gaming. I tried the MX1000 and it was precise enough but didn't fit my hand well. I was going to get the G5 because I liked the feel of it and I am afraid a wireless mouse won't respond as quick as a wired one.

How does your G7 wireless respond compared to your MX510 wired mouse?

My G5 should be here in the next day or two i hope

My MediaPlay has an invisible lazer and i like how it doesn't shine everywhere when i click a button.

I don't like how there is only one thumb button though

The Logitech MX700 (and presumably the G7) use a different engine and it responds just as well as a corded mouse. They're one of the only ones that do that I'm aware of. I've been wanting to get one, but I'm waiting for Logitech to add it to their partner store (which has things for roughly half of MSRP). They do have the corded G5 mouse for $35 which is nice, but I would prefer the cordless if I could.

Is it big and heavy? I have a huge hand and I don't really like any mouse but the mx1000 that I messed with at best buy. Are there even bigger mouses out there?

The Logitech MX700 (and presumably the G7) use a different engine and it responds just as well as a corded mouse.

Click to expand...

Well maybe I should try the G7 if it really does respond just as well as a corded one.
The MX1000 seemed to thick and short for my comfort.

Now I just have to decide how much I want to spend on a dumb mouse. G5 or G7 I guess.

Avatar28 said:

I've been wanting to get one, but I'm waiting for Logitech to add it to their partner store (which has things for roughly half of MSRP). They do have the corded G5 mouse for $35 which is nice, but I would prefer the cordless if I could.

Click to expand...

what? where?

zip22 said:

what? where?

Click to expand...

You have to worked for one of their "partner" companies. Basically a company that sells their stuff. In my case, I work for Dell so we get in on the program. If you think you work for a company that might apply to, ask around and see if you can find out anything or see if you can talk to your Logitech rep next time you see them.

I just got this mouse today as well. I love it and it seems to be more percise than my mx510. I briefly tested it out in CS:S and seemed to be catching more head shots than I was with my mx510 and the control is much better and more percise. One thing that has to be factored in is that I also changed out my mousepad from my RatPadz, which long time ago lost its slickness, to a fUNC 1030 pad. I haven't tried it out on a faster game yet like Q4 MP, but so far I really like this mouse.

BTW, I am going through the Setpoint software and was wondering if there is an option to put the mouse into standby when It's not in use. My battery was at 3 bars when I left for class about 5 hours ago and when I returned it is now down to one bar. It's still going on the same battery, but thank goodness for the second battery. (BTW I never owned a wireless mouse before so I have no idea what the battery life on these things are suppose to be, but 5 hours of inactivity shouldn't have taken my batter down to 1 bar from 3 at the lowest DPI setting, I would think.)