Great mouse!

I've owned a number of mice in my time, generally wired mice are better than wireless but in this product and the mx1000 logitech has a real winner.

What's in the box:
The mouse
Transceiver (plugs into usb port or on top of battery charger)
Battery charger with plug on top for transceiver
Driver disk
2 rechargeable battery packages

Setup:
Setup is simple.
Plug the usb cable from the battery charger into an available usb port. The battery charger has a switch on the bottom allowing you to switch the charger into a higher power draw mode that will charge your battery faster. Generally you must plug the charger into a self powered (i.e. it's got a ac adapter) usb hub to use the higher draw/fast charge mode, a bus powered hub will not be able to supply enough power for fast charge mode and will trigger errors on your computer telling you that you've exceeded the power allocation on your usb bus.

Insert one of the batteries into the charger and allow it to charge (2 hours in fast charge mode, something like 5 hours in standard mode). The light blinks on the charger while charging and goes steady when the battery is fully charged.

First use:
Install the logitech mouse software and drivers.

Install a charged battery into the mouse and turn it on by pressing the silver button.

Plug the transceiver into the top of the battery charger or any other available usb port. If all is well windows will see the mouse and install it, if windows didn't detect the mouse turn the mouse over and be sure the power button is lighted, if not press it again to turn the mouse on.

What's so special about this mouse?
This is an exceptionally accurate wireless mouse that uses laser technology. The mouse has adjustable accuracy using buttons on the top of the mouse behind the scroll wheel. The scroll wheel has horizontal as well as vertical scroll functions. Wireless means no wires to get tangled while using your mouse.

The achilles heal of most wireless products is battery life. The other achilles heal is that once the battery stops taking a charge they often aren't replaceable and you have to just chuck it and get a new mouse. I personally like this mouse because it doesn't need an AC adapter, a lot of folks seem to disagree with that but to me it's a plus not a minus. You do need to have a ac powered usb hub to use the fast charge mode on the battery charger however.

What I think of this mouse:
I also have the MX1000 logitech mouse (mouseware is the same I didn't even have to install software again, the mx1000 software installation saw this immediately and set itself up. Unlike a lot of products, 64 bit drivers are available for xp 64 bit professional probably also for VISTA (or they at least have betas for VISTA). Compared to the MX1000 the battery life of the G7 mouse is pitiful however, the mx1000 needs an ac adapter of its own to charge and I've found the charger a bit quirky if you don't get the mouse on there just right it won't charge. I also think some of the more used buttons have gotten "quirky" on the mx1000, hopefully I can find the box and send it back under warranty because I truly believe the right button is either bad or dirty to where it's almost unuseable after barely 6 months of use.

In terms of everyday use, I like this mouse better because the batteries are removable and swappable, one can stay on the charger while you use the other one. You get a good 6 hours of continuous use off a battery and they charge in only 2 (in fast mode) so you are in reality never without a charged battery at least while you have access to the charger--for the long haul gamer this mouse is better than the mx1000 (even though you get something like a week off a mx1000 charge and I think the mx1000 is better at conserving energy) because you can't exhaust a battery faster than you can charge the second one. I find batteries last a bit longer if you switch off the mouse when you're finished at the switch at the bottom. The mx1000 has a better energy conservation mode apparently, I never had to bother with shutting it off. Only time will really tell but so far I get the impression that the switches on the G7 buttons may be a little more beefy than those found on the mx1000 and it may be a little more sealed against skin oils and dirt intrusion.

I'm not sure that I'd agree this is a good mouse to take traveling with your laptop. I'm kind of curious why logitech chose not to offer extra battery packs for sale for this mouse, personally I think that was a serious error in logic on their part. They could easily charge ten bucks for one of these batteries (i'd pay that anyway) and apparently no one is making them aftermarket that I can find. One of the attractive features of replaceable packs is just that....so why would they fix it so you can't replace them....just doesn't make any sense. Apparently if one of your packs goes bad logitech just replaces the entire mouse...not just a battery.

Great mouse, the mx1000 has better battery life but in terms of continuous usage this is a better mouse. I for one have not found much usage for high definition modes, I get perfectly adequate performance from low res mode in all of my games. Like the mouse, but if they improved the life, offered extra packs for sale and put the improved power saving features of the mx1000 on here it would be a much better product.

update: well here I am the beginning of January 2007 not even a month after I bought this mouse. Suddenly I started noticing really, really, poor battery life so I took a look at what the charger is doing and it seems that it is not fully charging the batteries (charges so far then stops, you can pop the battery out and then back in and it will charge some more but that's not supposed to be how it works, the charger has issues). I tried a different powered mouse hub port to test if that could be a problem but got the same result. After only a month the chager is wonky on this mouse so it's going back in the box and off to logitech. Sigh, they won't be getting any more of my money for awhile. At office depot I had the choice between their newest product and the microsoft 8000, I picked up the 8000, it is made as well as this one and uses standard AA nimh batteries (the charging cradle is also intelligently designed but since it's AA powered you really don't even have to use that, you can just charge a bunch of batteries in a standard charger) sorry logitech have to lower the rating due to poor quality control apparently.

update: Finally located the box for the G7 packaged it up expecting to have to mail it back for a replacement. Logitech won't give RMA via email you have to call them. Called their phone number, talked to someone right away, explained the charger was wonky, they asked a couple of questions like did I try a different powered usb hub (duh!) and they said they'd send me a new one no problems....I don't even have to send the old one back. Well I guess that's one way to get yourself two extra batteries (LOL). That was a pleasant experience. I'll probably keep it for a spare, I never got a chance to test how long the batteries keep after they'r charged (i.e. can I charge all four up and take it to a Lan party with no problem?). Go Logitech, maybe you will get more of my money later after that experience. I really like their newest product (two scroll wheels) but I just can't justify it right now.

update: Apparently some time in the recent past they decided to start selling additional batteries (only in the US market apparently). This is good news because I've got a second mouse and only one charger and two sets of batteries now maybe I can use the other mouse by buying two more batteries. I don't know what they charge or if it's cost effective over getting the old packs reloaded (or if you even can) but this is still a current product and still a very expensive mouse. I love it, I've never found another wireless mouse I like as much. The closest I've come is the microsoft bluetooth 8000 which is even a bit more expensive than this but I really don't think it's as easy to deal with when gaming (the shape is better on this one).