Logitech's Forgotten Super-Mouse - Logitech G700s Review
Logitech has a very long and storied history of producing top shelf gaming mice, with the G502 lineage arguably being their most famed. Yet, that line wasn't always Logitech's flagship full-featured ergo mouse - it was actually once second tier to a mouse that was even better in a lot of ways that mattered: the G700s. Logitech forgot all about it. You shouldn't.
As surprising as this may sound; I have never used a Logitech gaming mouse before. Until very recently, I have always solidly been a Razer guy. Back in the day, their more extreme shapes and flashy LEDs had a lot more teenage appeal to me versus the comparatively conservative looking Logitech mice of the era - and I just stuck with them out of pure habit.
I mean, I have nothing against Logitech. I always did like the look of the G500 whenever I saw it in the store with its hammered metallic finish and novel weight cartridge, but next to the instantly recognizable DeathAdder or Naga? It just didn't compare. Logitech clearly brought mature refinement to the table, but Razer brought stupid fun. For a while, that was enough.
| The G700: totally not a Performance MX. |
In large part to Logitech's old low-key approach, the G700 and its subsequent refresh; the G700s are mice that I didn't even know existed until fairly recently. These were mice that were never sold in any of the stores I frequented, and I would've never even clocked the name of them alongside the alphabet soup that is the rest of Logitech's lineup.
The G700 and G700s were positioned as Logitech's flagship wireless gaming mouse, succeeding their first foray into the scene with the earnest but forgettable G7 - which was basically just a G5 with early 2.4 GHz wireless and swappable batteries shoehorned into it. Instead of doing effectively the same thing and just making a wireless G500, Logitech turned the G700 into a whole other animal compared to its wired sibling.
| Source: overclockers.ua |
The G700s is a large, ergo-sculpted mouse that features 2.4 GHz wireless with up to 1000 Hz polling rate over its compact USB receiver with micro-USB wired operation and charging. The mouse has a total of 13 buttons, Logitech's signature unlockable scroll wheel, a laser sensor, five on-board profiles, and it's powered off a single rechargeable AA battery.
Just off those basic specs alone, this is clearly setup to be more of a jack-of-all-trades mouse than the very gamer focused G500 and G500s. It has a lot of buttons, but not nearly enough to be classed as an MMO brick either, while the wireless operation puts it solidly into the frivolous luxury tier for the era.
Just off those basic specs alone, this is clearly setup to be more of a jack-of-all-trades mouse than the very gamer focused G500 and G500s. It has a lot of buttons, but not nearly enough to be classed as an MMO brick either, while the wireless operation puts it solidly into the frivolous luxury tier for the era.
Once you actually hold the thing, this all becomes very apparent.
Visually, the G700s is a bit of a mixed bag. It looks like a roided-out Performance MX dressed up with gamer decals - and I have opinions on that. It's a perfectly handsome looking mouse without the decals as the older G700 demonstrates, so why Logitech felt to need to make the revision scream "GAMING MOUSE" is equal parts baffling and lame. It's the mouse equivalent of putting racing stripes on a BMW M3 - it doesn't need that shit to get the point across.
This mouse is BIG - and I say that as somebody who has frequently used large mice such as the Razer Basilisk V3 Pro and Mad Catz R.A.T. 8+ ADV at my desk. The G700s feels big even compared to those. The shape clearly seems more derived from large productivity mice like the Performance MX with its aggressive, high arched sculpting and pronounced thumb rest compared to the more rounded off, but still dimensionally similar G500 and G500s.
What you get then, is one of the most stupidly comfortable mice I've ever used. The shape of the G700s cradles my hand perfectly and my thumb and index finger can easily reach their respective button clusters without having to curl or shift my hand. The rough textured rubber sides also offer ample grip, so you can really wrench this thing the desk around with some authority. This genuinely feels like a mouse that you can spend hours using with little to no fatigue.
I won't lie though; I can't imagine the massive size of the G700s is going to be all that great for people with smaller than average hands and for claw or fingertip grip users; the shape is out of the question. This is almost exclusively a very luxurious chaise for palm grips.
The G700s is also very heavy, weighing in at a mammoth 151 grams. That really shouldn't come as a major surprise though - it's a multi-button wireless desk commander from the early 2010s, long before anyone ever came to the conclusion that any mouse weighing more than 70 grams was a hate crime. It's definitely not some nimble FPS or MOBA weapon, but it'd be silly to go in expecting that too.
The G700s comes equipped with a cluster of four thumb buttons above the thumb rest, three adjacent to the left mouse button, along with one more plus the unlock button beneath the scroll wheel. Like I mentioned earlier, the button placement is absolutely excellent on this mouse. My fingers fall right in the middle of each cluster without having to shift my entire hand to do so and best of all - they stay the hell out of the way when you're just holding the mouse normally.
That last point has always been one of my common annoyances with button-laden mice in the same class as the G700s. The DPI "clutch" button of the Basilisk V3 Pro has always been this way to me, as have the completely absurd thumb clusters of mice like the Naga or M.M.O. 7. While you can certainly get used to them, the extra buttons always seem to be tacked on in a way that feels more like a compromise than with the actual ergonomics and comfort in mind. Not the case with the G700s. It feels like the button placement was designed tightly in conjunction with the shape and natural placement of the hand, not one after the other.
That last point has always been one of my common annoyances with button-laden mice in the same class as the G700s. The DPI "clutch" button of the Basilisk V3 Pro has always been this way to me, as have the completely absurd thumb clusters of mice like the Naga or M.M.O. 7. While you can certainly get used to them, the extra buttons always seem to be tacked on in a way that feels more like a compromise than with the actual ergonomics and comfort in mind. Not the case with the G700s. It feels like the button placement was designed tightly in conjunction with the shape and natural placement of the hand, not one after the other.
The main buttons of the G700s feel meaty and precise while the secondary buttons don't feel rattly or sloppy either. With that said, the switches themselves are not of some exotic breed. Remember, this is the early-2010s. Things like optical mouse switches didn't even exist yet and nobody knew what the hell a "Kailh" was. These are just plain-Jane, mechanical switches with zero promises of them outlasting the heat death of the universe.
Logitech doesn't exactly have a glowing reputation for mechanical switch reliability in recent years either with the G502 having a wide number of complaints in particular - but I wouldn't be quick to lump the G700s in with anecdotes on a vastly more popular product. No matter how you swing it, this is a decade-plus old mouse that's nearly impossible to buy new. The switches being a little tired is probably to be expected, if we're being completely honest. Thankfully with how prolific mouse modding has become in recent years, sourcing replacements should be far from difficult.
Logitech's locking scroll wheel is arguably the centerpiece when it comes to their premium mouse offerings, and there's a good reason why the design has remained relatively unchanged for so long - it fucking rules. The scroll wheel is mostly made out of metal, resulting in a weighty feel with a heavy detent. That weight translates well into its unlocked free spinning mode, with the wheel carrying a lot of inertia when you give a good flick.
If only it lasted even half as long not plugged in as any of those modern mice.
Power consumption is arguably the G700s' biggest killer. It absolutely drinks through it's rechargeable AA battery within the span of a few hours of active use at 1000 Hz polling rate. Logitech claims that after 4 - 5 hours to fully charge, the mouse gets around 8 - 10 hours of battery life. Even if my existing Eneloop battery wasn't nearly as old as the mouse itself, that's not a great amount of charge. For reference, the Razer Mamba 2012 was rated at 16 hours, which is considerably better and it has the convenience and visual appeal of a dock, which the G700s lacks.
So you're likely going to be spending a not insignificant amount of time using this mouse while it's plugged in with it's durable, but stiff-ass micro USB cable. I would need just get into the habit of plugging this thing in whenever I'm away from the desk.
And I know what you're thinking: a AA battery in a flagship wireless mouse sounds like a massive cop out, and to be fair I thought the same exact thing at first. The reality is actually a lot more smart, and greatly helps compensate for the G700s' otherwise mediocre battery life.
The use of a standard NiMH rechargeable AA instead of a proprietary lithium ion battery pack means you can replace the G700s' power source with damn near anything you want on the fly. Battery is worn out? Toss in a new NiMH AA. Mouse dies and you need juice in a pinch? Alkalines will work - just don't plug the thing in while you're using them. You can even do something like keep charged NiMH batteries on standby and just hot swap them as needed. It may not have comparable capacity to other mice, but it's way more versatile than you'd think.
The use of a standard NiMH rechargeable AA instead of a proprietary lithium ion battery pack means you can replace the G700s' power source with damn near anything you want on the fly. Battery is worn out? Toss in a new NiMH AA. Mouse dies and you need juice in a pinch? Alkalines will work - just don't plug the thing in while you're using them. You can even do something like keep charged NiMH batteries on standby and just hot swap them as needed. It may not have comparable capacity to other mice, but it's way more versatile than you'd think.
As for the software side of things, the G700s uses Logitech Gaming Software (LGS) which is the older customization suite for the older G branded mice. It's fairly basic in terms of features, allowing you to change button mappings, the polling rate, DPI stages, and a few other settings. These can be saved to either five on-board or system-side profiles. System profiles unlock some more capabilities for the mouse such as macros, but the tradeoff is they can't be used if the mouse is plugged into a different system.
LGS really isn't the greatest piece of software. It doesn't require the use of an account and it is lightweight; using only 46.7 MB of memory while it runs in the background, but it's old, buggy, and I find that it had just enough obnoxious bloat crammed to it. The pop-ups are annoying and shit like Discord RGB integration - whatever the hell that is - are completely unnecessary. Older and less annoying versions of the program will run on Windows 11; but I found they have their own slew of issues like the inconsistent saving and loading mouse profiles, including just general instability.
Honestly, if you can tolerate missing out on the more fleshed out remapping and macro tools; you're probably just best off using whatever version of LGS works the most reliably on your system, load up the mouse's on-board memory, and kick the software to the curb.
Even when it does show it's age, the Logitech G700s is still one of the most complete feeling mice that I've ever used. It remains more than a capable performer in the sensor department, packs plenty of buttons and has one of the best scroll wheels in the business, plus it has a surprisingly versatile battery and charging system. That's all before you get to the highly sculpted ergonomic shape and smart placement of all the inputs, which just makes the mouse an absolute pleasure to handle.
But there's also no denying that the G700s is old. The battery life pales in comparison to most modern wireless mice and while the versatility of the AA system definitely helps, it's not a cure-all remedy for its inefficient 2013-era laser sensor. The software is mediocre and like any product over ten years old, things are eventually going to start getting a little tired, especially the rubber coated grip surfaces and the switches. I would not assume even a good-conditioned example of the G700s is going to hold up as well in a few years as something you can buy from the store right now.
The thing is: the mouse hits so damn hard everywhere else that you might not even care about those few shortcomings.
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| The G502X Plus is now Logitech's premiere feature mouse. Source: RTINGS.com |
What truly sucks is that Logitech never even made a real follow up to this mouse when the first G502 released not long after. It's not hard to see why. The G500 and G500s were never that far off from their wireless siblings in terms of actual hardware and once the following G502 got proper wireless with it's Lightspeed model, there really wasn't much reason for the G700s to exist anymore - and the current G502X line is still making that painfully obvious.
But the thing is; while the G502 beats the G700s in terms of spec and comes close enough to matching it in features, it still doesn't have the same button count or the shape. The G502 is undoubtedly an ergo mouse like the G700s too but it's shape is quite a bit more neutral than its aggressively palm contoured older sibling. And as someone who's handled the G502 mice and it's close rivals like the Razer Basilisk quite extensively, that's a real make or break distinction for some users. They do not feel the same.
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| The G604 is about as close as you're going to get to a G700s with a modern sensor and battery life. Source: RTINGS.com |
Yet Logitech did actually deliver a halfway-successor in the form of the G602 and later G604. These mice are arguably even a closer fit to the G700s due to its side button grid and use of AA batteries for power - two in the G602 and one in the G604. While the mice lack the means for wired operation and charging, they make up for it in droves with obscene 240+ hour battery life. The shapes aren't quite the the same as the G700s either, but they are close. These are generally regarded as great mice, even without drawing comparisons to their partial ancestor.
But both mice are now discontinued and not any easier to find in good condition than the G700s - with the G604 in particular having succumbed to some properly absurd scarcity pricing in recent years. Once again, Logitech made a great product that a certain userbase genuinely liked, and decided what they needed instead was nothing at all.
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| Turtle Beach will now sell you a mouse with hot-swap batteries and a freakin' touchscreen bolted into it. Source: Turtle Beach |
But Logitech isn't the only name in this category of mouse anymore. There's now a horde of proper mice out on the market that do pretty damn well what the old Logitech feature bricks once did. Apart from the obvious answers like the Logitech G502X and Razer Basilisk V3, mice like the Glorious Model I, Turtle Beach MC7, and Corsair Ironclaw all have unique - and occasionally cursed interpretations of tackling this ergo-sculpted multi-button niche.
It's just none of them really thread that needle as tightly as the G700s did. Logitech went: "here's a big comfy shape with a proper sensor and lots of buttons that stay out of the way" and that was basically it. Anything beyond that just feels a little too extra for the sake of being extra.
My G700s did a remarkable thing. Most old products I review wind up back in my crate of stuff after I spend a few days evaluating them, maybe even a little longer if they're particularly charming. This mouse did not share that same fate. It's been on my desk for well over a month as of writing and sent what I thought would be my temporarily sidelined Mad Catz M.M.O. 7+ back into it's retail box. It just fit my hand and usage needs unlike any other mouse I've ever used before.
That's not to say the G700s is for everyone - because it's not. I have to feed it a new battery almost every other day just to keep it alive like some stupid Tamagotchi, but beyond that almost everything about this mouse just feels exceptionally right. If only Logitech remembered it existed so others could experience it too.
That's not to say the G700s is for everyone - because it's not. I have to feed it a new battery almost every other day just to keep it alive like some stupid Tamagotchi, but beyond that almost everything about this mouse just feels exceptionally right. If only Logitech remembered it existed so others could experience it too.
What's Good
- Ridiculously comfortable shape.
- Versatile battery charging and replacement system.
- Hefty unlockable scroll wheel.
- Tons of well-placed programmable controls.
What's Crap
- Battery life is not great, especially compared to newer mice.
- LGS is dated, buggy, and occasionally obnoxious.
- Stiff, unbraided cable.
- Long discontinued and not easy to replace.
Verdict
Probably the most comfortable and versatile gaming mouse that Logitech ever made - and they completely forgot about it.
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