@ Halo…
I can only think of 2 surfaces better than the table I am working on; Glass, which would not work well witht he tracking system of this Logitech G700, and a special kind of plastic (probably teflon) that I once saw in a mouse pad, which is not easy to find (much less having the right size, and me not being in the US) and comes with problems in the long run (plastic surfaces tend to get dirty or sticky quite fast and get wavy (convex and concave) with time or simply wear off so that friction increases).
There are also the aesthetic and ridiculously high price factors against mouse pads. In most cases I rather use the table as it is.
Even on the best surface I can test, glass, I still find quite noticeable the impact that the battery weight has on how smoothly the pointer moves on short movements. There is not as much improvement going from melamine to glass as there is removing the battery (g700 has usb cable too, but it is too rigid)
@vēer
I checked the eneloops lite yesterday. Eneloop says: “30% lighter than normal batteries”, so 26.75*0.7=18.725.
19g weight is also mentioned by other sources.
The problem is that at 950mAh their capacity drops more than 50%, doubling the frequency of battery replacement.
If Logitech had thought users would be fine changing batteries daily, they would have designed the mouse with an AAA battery slot.
Unless the device manufacturer made a wrong choice of battery size slot, the eneloops lite dont make much sense to me since they weight 19g and have very similar capacity with AAA eneloops with 800mAh weighting around 11g.
You are right that having to change batteries every 2-3 days is too frequent. It’s a known problem with some advanced Logitech mouses. I have seen users reporting shorter battery lives, probably because they use a higher polling rate (mine is 500, normal) or higher DPI level (mine is 1200. i think it is usually 800). but it may also be because this mouse can store setting on board (which is the reason i bought it), so the electronics inside it may be more complex than those on normal wireless mouses. For instance, Logitech G7 & MX Revolution (Newer Generation) Laser Mice, not featuring on board settings storage, come with a 600mAh Li-ion battery.
Being the first time I use a wireless mouse, I was comfortable with a 2-3days battery lifespan. After all, my phone will only last 36h at most before having to charge it. But I may get tired and in the end I think 1 week will most likely be the frequency I ma happy with.
@travis
LiFePo4 AA batteries are typically 3.2V (LiFePO4/LiFeMnPO4 Batteries). that would fry the mouse. It specifically warns that only NiMH batteries at 1.2V should be used.
I found the Energizer L91BP-8 Ultimate Lithium AA Batteries with 1.5V weighting . The extra 0.3V should be no problem for the mouse (http://www.instructables.com/id/MODIFIED-MOUSE-RUNS-ON-LITHIUM-ION-CELL-PHONE-BATT/), but lithium batteries, unlike Li-ion batteries, are not rechargeable.
So, going back to NiMH, adding to the list of 2000mAh batteries:
- Tenergy Centura NiMH AA 2000mAh: 1oz (28.35g) (obviously it’s rounded)
- Powerex MHRAAI4 Imedion AA 2400mAh (can’t find 2000mAh): 30g (also rounded, a package of 4 weights 4.8oz)
- GS Yuasa Enitime 2000mAh (the one the mouse came with, similar to Eneloops): 29g.
BTW, I want to buy more batteries not just because I could reduce weight by 29-26.75g=2.25g, which I will probably not notice, but also because I dont want to use the usb cable at all.
Despite not having accurate weight measures, it seems Eneloops 2000mAh are still the best option (although they wont bring a really noticeable improvement).
Thanks for your suggestions.