New Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse

2010/05/02

My old desktop mouse was a Logitech MX Laser. I loved that thing, it fit in my hands just the way a mouse should, it has a nice scroll wheel and a back button (and some others I never used), it just worked. Here's a picture:

Unfortunately, the rubber started to come off it, so I went out to buy a new mouse. I don't like Microsoft mouse, their scrollwheel doesn't feel right, so I was pretty much looking for another Logitech model. It's surprising how hard it is to find a good mouse, but finally I found a Logitech M705 Marathon mouse. The salesman said it goes 3 years with a pair of AA batteries, and that is a feat of engineering I felt I should invest in! In comparison, my old Logitech MX had to be recharged every week. So my new mouse is a Logitech M705 Marathon, this is what it looks like:

I've been using it for about a week, and I can't say I'm terribly happy with it. It just doesn't feel right. First of all, it doesn't fit into my (abnormally large) hands like the old mouse did. But I could get over that. What's more annoying is a design flaw: in order for the back button to register that you have pushed it, you have to apply just enough force to it that you I inadvertadly move the mouse, sometimes the left side even lifts up. But I could get over that. What's really pushing my buttons is the acceleration curve. As we all know, the acceleration curve is as it should be on Windows, and sucks on Macs. Using the mouse is one of the few things I enjoy doing on Windows. That is unless you're using a Logitech M705 Marathon Mouse, which comes with some terrible acceleration curve by default. when you're using this mouse, you don't have to drink and get high to be all over the desktop and constantly overshoot the X to close a damned window. I had to install Logitech's crappy SetPoint driver thing just to get it to behave within reason.

So, overall my verdict to Logitech on the Marathon M705 is a gigantic FAIL!

PS: The heavy scroll wheel is really nice though!

EDIT: Also, the Logitech control panel thing forgets my mouse settings on reboot on Windows XP. Damn you Logitech, damn you!

- Marton Trencseni