Replacing my Logitech M705. Options?

So I've owned my Logitech M705 for about four years with no complaint. The battery life is phenomenal, it feels responsive and I have a mouse-pad I always use so tracking isn't an issue. But through use and age, it's started getting hiccups.

Specifically, it sometimes double clicks instead of single and dragging doesn't work dependably (sometimes a single click). This is annoying in general but especially in games where it uses items I'm moving, or consumes two instead of one. So I think it's time to replace.

I'm looking for a mouse that is:

• Wireless
• Under $60
• Has at least 5 buttons
• Has at least 3700 dpi

I do use this mouse for gaming, primarily League of Legends and a few others. I don't need a full MMO mouse like the Naga with tons of buttons or buttons which can execute macros.

To be honest, I'm tempted to just buy a new version of what I have but I don't really know what's out there.

 

There was a time when Logitech's mice could be counted on to last forever. Sadly that time is long gone, but funnily enough they are still the first name in quality mice. The M705 Marathon mouse was released 3 and a half years ago and there has been no replacement since. Your best bet is to just buy another one of the same mouse, or to increase your budget and buy a Performance MX mouse for $73. Not that the Performance MX is any better, it just has a few more bells and whistles, although the battery life is shorter.

 

Short answer: Just buy another Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse, and move on.

I've played around with a LOT of mice (probably 15+ mice in a period of 12 months). The Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse is the only wireless mouse I recommend to people, for multiple reasons:

• Battery life. Most wireless mice are terrible with battery life... especially with high-end gaming-grade wireless mice that have high USB polling rates and DPI sensitivity. Gaming-grade wireless mice tend to have short battery life (12-36 hours) between recharges. The way I look at it, if you need to dock / plug in your mouse every 1-3 days to keep it charged, you don't really have a wireless mouse.
  
  As you know, the battery life on the Logitech M705 Marathon mouse lasts nearly forever (3+ years on 2xAA alkaline batteries). I'd actually recommend you buy a new Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse and put 2x AA Lithium batteries in there instead for weight reasons (I'll explain more later). Using that, your mouse should have a battery life of 5-6 years. It is highly likely that your mouse hardware will fail again, before you ever need to change the batteries. THAT is what I consider to be a wireless mouse.
  
• Price under $60 - check. It's $35 on Amazon.com, and is eligible for Amazon Prime shipping. Can't beat that.
  
• Has at least 5 buttons - Check
  
• Has at least 3700dpi - Nope. But DPI is overrated. This mouse is set at 1000dpi on its optical sensor. That is "good enough" considering all of the other benefits you're getting with the mouse, and the drawbacks you would incur if you were to get higher-DPI wireless mice.
  
  A "gaming-grade" mouse that can do 5700dpi - 8600dpi. But you're actually going to configure that mouse's DPI to somewhere in the 800dpi - 1600dpi range, depending on your preference. All of that extra DPI that the mouse is capable of is useless beyond a certain point (usually 800 - 1600dpi). Mouse manufacturers post their high-DPI numbers, because they prey on the uneducated mentality of "bigger number must automatically mean better." You can think of large DPI numbers like the megapixels rating on a digital camera. Once you get to a certain point (usually 8MP), the megapixel resolution of your digital camera is going to be "good enough" for anything you're going to do with it. You should not automatically assume that a 12MP camera is superior to a 10.1MP camera, simply because of the bigger number.
  
• Weight. The Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse happens to have one of the most configurable weight & balance profiles you can find on wireless mice. Most "gaming-grade" wireless mice tend to be heavy (due to the rechargeable batteries), with strange balance/drag profiles due to the design of the mouse.
  
  A naked Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse weighs 88g, slightly forward-balanced.
  Using 1x AA Aklaline battery in battery slot #1 (closest to center) changes weight to 111g, slightly rear-balanced and rear-drag.
  Using 2x AA Alkaline batteries changes weight to 134g, heavily rear-balanced and high rear-drag.
  Using 2x AA Lithium batteries changes weight to 117g, slightly rear-balanced, with balanced drag profile.
  
  This is why I recommend putting 2x AA Lithium batteries in a Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse. In addition to the ridiculous 5-6 years of battery life it gives you, it also changes the weight / balance profile of the mouse to a highly-desirable center-balanced weight and friction (drag).

More than you ever wanted to know about a $35 wireless mouse, eh? :thumbsup:

On a related note, if you decide to go wired mouse, get a Logitech G400. It is by far the best wired mouse you can buy. Price is no object for me when buying computer peripherals, and I've literally returned / sold / given away mice that cost $80 - $130, just so that I could use a $40 Logitech G400 instead. I find the optical sensor (and the movement prediction) to be far superior to any of the 5000dpi - 8600dpi laser sensors found in more expensive mice.

 

That... was just the best answer ever.

My list of must-haves was based on my M705. I'm not sure where I saw the 3700 dpi, but I agree I don't need more than what the M705 is already packing. I don't even have the sensitivity turned all the way up.

And I understand your point of "good enough." I made the same argument to my mom when I bought her a new computer. She was worried about the cost, but I told her for her basic needs (web browsing, word processing) the most basic configurations would be good enough. She wouldn't see the difference between a $500 notebook vs a $1000 notebook (although I did spring for a SSD, that she did notice).

I'll also echo your point of charging a mouse every couple of days isn't wireless. This was the main reason I posted on this forum. When I started looking into "new" wireless mice, they all had ridiculously short battery life, excessive buttons, and configuration options I don't need (ie macros). One button = one keypress. SetPoint lets me do this just fine and configure for each of my games. The price tags were daunting and I didn't actually see them as an upgrade. I admit, I was getting suckered by dpi numbers, but they weren't a dealmaker/breaker for me.

All in all, a phenomenal post and quite informative.The weight/battery I couldn't find on professional review sites and further reinforced my love for the NBR community.

I've decided to first look into repairing my current mouse (it could just be dirt accumulation) and then into buying a new one with Lithium batteries. I may pass this one off to my mother for her new computer =).

 

My take, on the short battery life, of Logitech's wireless Performance MX mouse, and also Logitech's wireless G700 mouse, is that they provide noticeably better tracking, than any other wireless mouse that I've used.

Logitech addresses the short battery life by including the best re-chargeable AA battery (Eneloop by Sanyo, but Sony and 1 other also compete with new/better re-chargeable batteries) and the ability of the mouse to re-charge the battery when the USB cable is attached.

 

Correct. But the Logitech G700 is a gaming-grade mouse, with a battery life that lasts around 1-3 days on "gaming-level" performance (high DPI settings and high USB polling rates).
A Logitech Performance MX mouse lasts about 1.5 to 2.0 weeks before you need to charge it.

Charging for both mice occurs via microUSB cable, which still allows you to use the mouse while charging.

But as I argued before... a mouse that you constantly have to think about charging (or spends a great deal of its lifetime sitting on a charger / charger cable) really ins't a wireless mouse. It is a wired mouse, that happens to be able to be used in a wireless mode occasionally.

 

Thanks for that distinction. FWIW I just got my Logitech Performance MX mouse today, but I've had my Logitech G700 for a month.

By my own recent experience the latest/best rechargeable AA batteries changes that. But you do want to get at least 4 more rechargeable AA batteries.

Sanyo and Sony and Rayovac Hybrid seem to be the leaders with the latest/best rechargeable AA batteries.

 

Hi :hi2:

I've been always a huge fan of Logitech since i got my AcerMate Desktop PC 20 years ago , but when my 5 months old G7 died on me like 4 years ago and my MX518 was all crappy i decided to try something else, right now i am using a Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 which is not bad at all, it takes a while to get used to since it is not as curvy or round as logitech's are but so far so god, i've been using it for about a year right now and still looking good, uses a single AAA that depending on its use it could last even 3 to 4 months.

Hope i helped with your decision.

Regards.

 

That mouse has been out of production for a long time.

 

OMG Really? :O

That's the crap of living in south america xD. I recently moved to spain. Thanks for the tip man

 

Please see this before proceed
Logitech Marathon Mouse M705 repair - YouTube