I admit it; I have many computer mice. And it’s not just because I’m browsing them. Between travel, multiple computers, gaming, and my living room, I have an interest in multiple mice that cater to different needs.
One of these needs is portability. Sure, it’s easy enough to find a wireless and lightweight mouse, but it often comes with limited comfort and/or cut-down features.
At first glance, the Logitech G705 Wireless Mouse, announced at the end of July, seemed too small to hold real power or support anything but small hands. But a few hours of using the peripheral showed me that there’s more to this tiny mouse than meets the eye.
Confusing installation
The Logitech G705 comes with a 2.4GHz USB-A dongle (as well as a wireless extender and cable), or you can connect via Bluetooth LE. Logitech includes both because it markets it as gaming-friendly and claims the dongle delivers just 1ms latency with a 1000Hz polling rate compared to Bluetooth, which limits the mouse’s polling rate to 133Hz. Since I was getting ready for a work day, I decided to use Bluetooth, which should also improve battery life, but it wasn’t that easy at first.
Some wireless mice that support both dongle and Bluetooth connectivity have a physical switch to switch between the two wireless modes, or an indicator light to show which mode you’re in. On the underside of the G705, there is only a power switch and a purple button with a mysterious character of two squares and two arrows, as well as an indicator light blue (dongle connection) or dark blue (Bluetooth). For some, the color difference may not be strong enough for easy reading.
Even more confusing, the included Logitech instructions don’t mention that you have to press a button to switch between dongle or Bluetooth mode, or even that the indicator light comes in two (slightly) different colors.
For some time, which I hate to admit, I tried to connect a mouse via bluetooth while it was in dongle mode. I had to use the mouse support page to figure it out.
Swapping RGB for additional software
If you thought visiting a website to figure out how to switch between wireless modes was annoying, the next part will piss you off even more.
Like many gaming-focused peripherals, the G705 has many features, such as programmable buttons and DPI setting (for more information on DPI and other mouse jargon, see our guide to PC mouse terms), available through software. If you’re happy with the way the mouse is programmed and the three pre-set DPI settings (you can change them out of the box with the button south of the scroll wheel), you can do without Logitech’s G Hub app, but then there’s no way to get rid of the RGB.
Three RGB zones run along the edge of the mouse, and most of them are covered when I use the mouse. RGB is a controversial topic for PC. LEDs can be gaudy, or worse, intrusive, and difficult to turn off or adjust.
But in such a wireless portable device, battery life is a bigger issue. The G705 could be a multi-device accessory as it only weighs 0.19 pounds and is so small. But having to download G Hub on every device in order to use it without RGB (assuming the app is supported) makes the transition that much more painful.
Logitech claims the mouse can last up to 40 hours with RGB lighting on, but doesn’t specify the brightness level or effect used. When I left RGB at maximum brightness for two hours, the mouse’s battery indicator in the app showed 90 percent.