Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 700

Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 700
by Logitech

List Price: ~~$99.95~~
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Category: CE
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Customers in the UK, Buy this product at amazon.co.uk for British Pounds

Digital Photo Product Details

Manufacturer: Logitech
Audio: English (Original Language)
Platform: Windows XP
Model: 967418-0403
Color: Black
Product features:

Ultra-flat profile with Zero-Degree Tilt
Unique keyboard controls
The cordless optical mouse features Tilt Wheel Plus Zoom
Rechargeable convenience
Secure, high-performance cordless

Accessories:

Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 700

Customer Review: User Report… Logitech LX-700 Keyboard and Mouse
Summary: 3 Stars

I have just spent the last 2-3 weeks buying and using a couple of the newest Logitech keyboards and mice (LX-700, LX-501).

I have some detailed comments on their design that hopefully may provide some real world user feed back of a constructive nature.

Here is what I have found about my new LX-700 keyboard and mouse…

Packaging…
The packaging seems to be a little loose and generic…
• The mouse was not in any type of plastic bag; it was completely loose and floating around with no protection of any kind. Fortunately it was not damaged.

Mouse…
The mouse is fairly nice except for the following shortcomings…
• It does not have the MX mouse engine that provides 800 dpi (is only a 400 dpi mouse). This was a real problem for me as I am using a new Samsung 243t 24 inch widescreen LCD monitor with 1200 x 1920 resolution. What this means is that no matter how many times I adjusted the mouse sensitivity and/or acceleration I could not achieve a comfortable amount of curser movement without excessive wrist movement. 400 dpi is a very poor choice for a high end keyboard such as the LX-700. Monitors are getting much larger each passing year as the prices continue to fall; 800 dpi (or higher) mice are becoming an absolute necessity in today’s world.
• The single silver button next to the LED is too far back from the scroll wheel. Too much flexing of the finger is required to get to it in its current location. It should be just behind the scroll wheel or on the side like some other Logitech mice.
• The receiver is entirely too big; just what I did not want… more wires. Seems like the rechargeable battery is more of a gimmick then it is practical. The extra cost would have been better spent on an MX 800 dpi mouse engine. I ditched the rechargeable batteries in favor of good old Duracell’s.
• Due primarily to the 400 dpi resolution problem (I cannot use this mouse with my high rez monitor) I am looking elsewhere for a better choice.

Keyboard…
The keyboard is very pretty (sexy) and has a wonderful set of fully programmable buttons. But, after using it for several days, it became sadly apparent that it has a very long list of problems; so much so that I am returning it to the vendor (Amazon). I have already bought the LX-501 which I am much more satisfied with.

Color…
• This keyboard is supposed to be a multimedia product yet the very black keys are very hard to see in a darkened multimedia environment; why is that? To watch TV or work on a digital image I keep the lights only at a medium to low level but at these light levels I find the keys very difficult to see. Some of the buttons such as the Mail button are totally lost as you have a black button on a black background in a low light condition. This and other keys are often only findable by touch as they are completely invisible.
• I know that black is very sexy and is the current rage but for a keyboard it is not practical due to the low readability of the keys and buttons.
• If Logitech insists on black for keyboards PLEASE do the following to make them more readable (and usable)…
o All lettering should be very bright white (please no grey or washed out white text as it reduces the visible contrast).
o Make all the text about ½ larger so it stands out more in low light conditions.
o Small buttons such as the ones along the top left and right should be of a lighter color to be more visible. They should NOT be the same color as the background (black on black) as is the case with the LX-700.

Scroll \ Tilt wheel…
I do not understand why the mouse scroll \ tilt wheel is duplicated on the left side of the keyboard. This seems to be of very limited use…
o The odd shaped (concave) scroll wheel is not as easy to turn as is the standard mouse scroll wheel. Whoever came up with design… shame on you!
o The wheel should be just like the one on the mouse… round, rubber, and standing up so as not to slip under light finger pressure.
o If you are going to duplicate the mouse wheel on the keyboard then why not complete the job by being able to press the wheel to act just like the mouse center button; at least this way a left handed person (I’m a righty) can use the keyboard wheel with all the features intact. I think a left handed user would find that to be more to their liking.

Function Keys…
The F-Keys are totally useless under low light conditions that are often found in a Multimedia situations due to two things…
1. The very black keys are very hard to see in a darkened multimedia environment; why is that? They are totally lost as you have a black button on a dark grey background in a low light condition. This and other keys are often only findable by touch as they are completely invisible.
2. There is no space between keys to provide a tactile feedback so the F-keys can be found by touch (they certainly are not visible in a darkened multimedia environment).
3. I have noticed that the LX-501 keyboard F-keys are both very visible in a darkened multimedia room plus they have spaces between each F-key. The combination of a lighter color, high contrast between the key and the background, plus the spaces between keys makes the LX-501 MUCH more user friendly in a multimedia environment.

Volume Control…
What can I say other then I hate this volume control…
• It is too smooth and slick, if you have dry hands like I do it is nearly impossible to turn it unless I first wet my fingers to provide some grip to the slippery surface.
• If it was a knob that stood out from the surface it might be another story as then I would have something to grip and turn, but as it is I find it to be very irritating to use.
• I like the volume controls on the LX-501 a little better (+ and – buttons that can simply be pressed; but are a little hard to find in low light conditions as they are almost level with the surface and are somewhat hard to find by touch).
• What I would really like to see would be left and right arrow keys (or up and down) with the mute button in between them. Buttons similar to the LX-700 fast forward, reverse, Play, and Pause buttons come to mine as being very easy to see, feel and use.

Three Audio Presets Buttons…
No one seems to know how to use or program these three mystery buttons…
• I had several e-mails to Logitech’s customer service but they could not find anything on how to program them. Again, the Help center was of little help to me.
• The on-screen Help also had almost nothing about these three buttons.
• Why put features in a product with no instructions on their use? This makes absolutely no since to me at all.

Software…
The software is very nice except I had a lot of problems with it loosing my custom settings; it had on SEVEN different occasions reverted back to the default settings for no apparent reason. I have had numerous e-mails back and forth to Logitech’s support about this madding problem but I believe I have found what is the root cause…
• It does not seem to have anything to do with other programs conflicting with SetPoint.
• I made one change to SetPoint at 11:08 AM then did a global search for any files that had changed on 11:08 AM and found the SetPoint settings file (which I had asked for before from Logitech but never got an answer on) .
• The file is under… Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Logitech\SetPoint.
• The file name is… user.xml. It contains all of my custom settings.
• There is a second file called Last_user.xml in the same folder that contains all of the default settings.
• These are the only two files in the folder.
• For some reason SetPoint wants to sometimes use the Last_user.xml instead of user.xml.
• What I did was delete Last_user.xml. As soon as I used SetPoint it copied the user.xml file to a new Last_user.xml; now both Last_user.xml and user.xml have exactly the same information in them… my custom settings.
• I believe this will partly resolve the problem of SetPoint unexpectedly reverting to the default settings for absolutely no reason at all. As both files now have exactly the same settings in them it makes no difference which one SetPoint uses as my custom settings should now be retained.
• This does however; bring up the question as to why this happened in the first place…
o Why are there TWO files?
o Why does SetPoint sometimes revert to the Last_user.xml?
o What is going to be done to resolve this permanently?
• I believe this is a Logitech problem with SetPoint software and the blame can not be passed on to “other programs” as the Logitech Customer Service suggested (oh, it can’t possible be our problem, right?).
• Hope this helps and I also sincerely hope that Logitech will correct this problem soon as I really don’t want to keep manually deleting the Last_user.xml file every time I make a change to SetPoint in order for any new settings to be retained.

Another problem I ran into with the new SetPoint software is that it no longer recognizes my Cordless Trackman Wheel mouse (my all time favorite mouse for precision tracking, ease of use, and general feel in the hand). I tried to re-install the MouseMan software but got an error message that mouse software was already installed (SetPoint) yet SetPoint did not recognize my Cordless Trackman Wheel mouse… how totally rude of it to do that! It seems that SetPoint will work only with certain newly designed mice although I just bought the Cordless Trackman Wheel mouse less then one month ago. Seems to me that SetPoint should work with any mouse like the MouseMan software does.

When I buy a new keyboard I seldom use the mouse that often comes with it as it is usually of lower quality, the wrong type, or feature set then what I want. I will often use my old (and beloved Cordless Trackman Wheel mouse) or buy a new mouse. Either way the mouse should work with the SetPoint software, if it does not then SetPoint is of limited value to the user.

One thing that is missing from the mouse portion of SetPoint is a DoubleClick Speed adjustment. Yes, I know it is still in the default Win XP mouse software but it should also be in SetPoint for the sake of completeness.

I know this is a rather long laundry list of problems but hope that by providing feedback from a real in-the-field user that better Logitech keyboards and mice can be built in the future.

When they are built, I will buy them!

Update On The SetPoint Loosing It's Settings...

SetPoint has been running correctly with all of my custom settings being retained for three days now.

Last night I shut down the computer (this is done every night and sometimes more then once in any single day). This morning I booted it up as usual but the same old SetPoint problem of reverting back to the default settings reoccurred; I immediately looked at the user.xml and Last_user.xml files in the Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Logitech\SetPoint folder.

Much to my surprise it was not the Last_user.xml file that was being used (as I originally thought) but the user.xml file. The Last_user.xml file still had the previous date on it (with my custom settings intact); the user.xml file date had been changed to the current date (with default settings).

To see what is happening, I then deleted Last_user.xml and closed out SetPoint… the time changed on the user.xml file and it was copied thereby creating a new Last_user.xml file (with the previous time stamp). Now, both files have today’s date and both are incorrect (my custom settings gone).

I then tried deleting both files and discovered the user.xml file will be created as soon as I close out SetPoint.

I now believe this is what is happening…
• Each time SetPoint is unloaded (Exit)… it creates a new user.xml file (if it is not already there). If it already exists, user.xml is updated and it is copied to Last_user.xml.
• The user.xml file is the one that is reverting back to the default settings (how, I do not know as this seems to be happening within the SetPoint software).
• The incorrect user.xml (now with the default settings) is then copied to, and replacing the Last_user.xml file during the next SetPoint shutdown.
• Now both xml files have the incorrect data in them (default and not my custom settings).

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Description of Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 700

The new Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700 combines the most accurate Logitech optical mouse with a popular, multipurpose cordless keyboard. Based on Fast RF technology, this top-of-the-line combo ensures a high level of precision and incredible accuracy. Logitech s powerful MediaLife software provides quick access to all your digital media music, pictures, and videos in a single, intuitive interface Advanced media controls let you quickly launch and control your favorite music/video software as well as ripping or burning a CD With the innovative audio preset buttons, start playing your favorite Internet radio station or music playlist with a single press Launch e-mail, Instant Messenger or Video IM with sleek one-touch controls. The Status button lets you change your IM status, letting people know whether you re away or online Logitech s encrypted cordless technology creates a secure connection for interference-free, reliable performance Fast RF connectivity ensures crisp, immediate mouse response PC Compatible - Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, or Windows XP with 1 USB port or 2 PS/2 ports Includes 2 AA NiMH and 2 AA Alkaline Batteries USB to PS2 adapter Logitech 5-Year Limited Hardware Warranty

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