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Review: Logitech Marathon M705 - AKA, More (Computer) Mouse Madness

Yep, this is another mouse review, and about nine months. I have a tendency to move around a lot with my mind, and I end up dropping them a bit. So my Anker mouse can't really take a drop. The scroll wheel is busted to the point where I have to scroll multiple times to go down once - before it pops back up.


But now, I have this; The Logitech Marathon M705;


@runtcpip varies a little with other opersting systems but you're smart you can figure it out. runtcpip.com #techhelp ♬ original sound - runtcpip

I teach people simple computer stuff over on TikTok.


When I plugged the USB dongle into my MacBook Pro, Apple immediately decided it was a keyboard for reasons unknown. 

I specifically wanted a Mouse with a USB dongle, because I do not like having my Bluetooth on all the time. That is a vector for attack. Then again, everything is a vector for attack, but I just like having a dongle there because my Bluetooth is going to be off 97.54% of the time.

My MacBook needs a Apple USB connector for me to even use it here, so I do understand why people like their Bluetooth mice these days.

Also, I opened the package and things flew everywhere. I looked for the USB dongle for about two minutes before thinking "why don't they just put it in storage in the mouse? ", before I opened it and saw that they had done just that, and I was looking for a piece of paper with a picture of a dongle.


I prefer the Ergonomics style that looks like a handshake, but this one was affordable. Many of the ergonomic mice that are affordable, read, under 30$, are, frankly, drop shipped crap.

This is a good time to discuss how people operate their mice. 


How I Use My Mouse

I use the heel of my hand as a pivot point to maneuver, which can cause wrist pain. Because the scroll wheel broke, I had to maneuver my wrist in an awkward way to the edges of the screen to grasp the scroll bar in school down causing some pain in my upper arm.


How About Those Scroll Balls?

I see some people talk about scroll balls - these are stationary balls on the sides of mice that you kind of use instead of actually moving the mouse. You use your thumb instead. I think that would be good for people who don't play video games on a  console, where you have to use this time to press the face buttons and sometimes analog sticks, but I can definitely see my thumb getting tired doing those motions. 

I did attempt to do something similar by using my thumb to maneuver around with a touchpad on a gaming laptop, and I can see why people would use it it's just using fingers to scroll, instinctively I would use my thumb and my forefinger - that can definitely cause strain with such repetitive motion

Using the Logitech Marathon M705

The scroll wheel is incredibly smooth - if someone can integrate that feeling into the general use of a mouse, I would be all over that. It does feel rather loose, however, and clicking the seventh button behind it causes it to shake.

This mouse will be tested on a Windows 10 Machine.

The Tangle of Software

There are seven customizable buttons. Unfortunately, to use that, we're gonna have to download some proprietary software by the name of Logitech Options. On the plus side, there's Logitec Flow, which means I can move from one of my computers to another ... without switching the dongle? Let's find out.

Apparently, I have something called a 'unifying receiver' connected - perhaps that's the dongle - and I must now go to logiwebconnect.com to do ... whatever - and the website does not work in Firefox. 

To its credit, I will say, I can at least use the mouse out of the box immediately (Could people imagine this in the year 2000, that I would need to download software to 'get value' from a mouse?). This is all superfluous. But if I pay 37$ for a mouse that's my 2nd option, I better get some use out of it.

I open chrome to go to the website, and it does work, but now it says to actually use the program - I need to download options plus.

That may be to use the Flow state, but I'm not invested enough to download a second piece of software to any machine to be able to do that. I know I'd be required to make an account, probably turn on location services - No, that is too much information to use a mouse.

Configuration 

I did find the customization of button menu on the original Options software;

See the blue dot? Look right beneath it. That's a button, but it's a DPI button. 


I had hoped for a bit more customization; Mainly, if I hit the middle button ( - which is apparently the scroll button and not the one behind it - that button does not appear as an option to customize, but it is a button), to perhaps open a new tab with Bing.

Turns out, that is actually an option, and there are a good 30-40 options they give you if you scroll down. You can really run the gamut! Nice!

I can also back up my mouse settings to the cloud. 

About Those Buttons

So I've been counting the buttons on this mouse for a few days now, and always come up with 6, not the 7 the packaging advertises. 

Remember how I said the scroll wheel feels loose in the body of the mouse? 

It's because you can move it from side to side, hence those circles to the left and right in the image above. 

I thought it was customizing the left + right click buttons, but it's to customize what happens when you move the wheel from left to right.



That is very cool, although I wouldn't consider it a 7th button. It's a bit unusual to maneuver and takes some getting used to, but my initial annoyance with set up has quite evaporated - though I still will not be backing up my settings to the cloud - and I've set the wheel to be back and forward, respectively.

There are also forward and back buttons on the side of the mouse It's not as comfortable as the Anker's ergonomic mouse to use these as preset - What can I make those?


I've changed one to mute and the other to play/pause. 

I quickly found myself wondering if it wouldn't make sense to change some configurations. Instead of opening Bing, could I use the wheel down click to refresh the page? But how much do I use refresh?

It turns out Logitech counts 

  • Scroll wheel down
  • Scroll wheel left
  • Scroll wheel right
  • arrow up
  • arrow down
as the customizable buttons. That's still only 5. Then again, the copy has a picture of a 7 on an iconographic mouse, with the words 'Customizable Buttons' beneath it. Nothing about all 7 buttons being customizable. You win this time, corporate copy.

Sometimes, the scroll wheel is not responsive when I move to a new page, and other times it's too responsive; The materials are so light (and easily moveable -- if this didn't have the Logitech brand, would I be as generous with ignoring this?) that the mouse will scroll an extra line or so seconds after I scroll and stop. Yes, there is the Smooth Scrolling feature that can be turned off, and it is, but it still happens. 

Whatever gyroscope within reads the scroll wheel as moving up and down. I can shake the mouse without touching it to a surface and it will scroll.

If this mouse had the Anker's ergonomic design with the Logitech's customizability and resilience, this would be an a+ mouse.

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