INTRODUCTION

   It doesn't really matter if you're a casual, hardcore or professional eSPORTS gamer since the moment you visit your local electronics superstore and head to the computers section chances are that you will be overwhelmed by the sheer number of available gaming mice. Of course as expected (and i consider this to be right) the eye usually falls on models designed and manufactured by the most well-known and established manufacturers out there but there are certainly exceptions to that rule especially when design and price occupy the two top spots in priority for the interested party. COUGAR became quite the popular name after releasing several high quality PC cases and power supply units which also combined performance and features but it wasn't until just recently that they announced the release of their very first gaming peripherals and today with us we have their flagship gaming mouse model, the 700M.

   COUGAR products are designed by COUGAR GERMANY, a professional R&D engineering team and COUGAR is part of the “HEC/COMPUCASE” Group. The unique combination of the world-famous German skills of designing the best products worldwide and HEC/s power and long-time experience to produce the best high quality products created innovative masterpieces in PSU history. The PC upgrading and DIY market is changing rapidly and is growing more and more. Professional user are asking for more than only stable and silent PSU/s, they want efficient and energy saving products without compromises in quality. COUGAR GERMANY created such products! COUGAR GERMANY combines the features of innovation and evolution to create efficient, powerful and unique products like “COUGAR POWER”. The purpose of COUGAR GERMANY is the satisfaction of the customer, reaching it by creating most valuable, advanced products. COUGAR – YOUR POWER!

   The 700M laser gaming mouse by COUGAR is not your average mouse since it aside the high quality aluminum frame it also allows the end user to customize all of its 8 programmable buttons, set the weight system by adding up to 18g more and adjust the height of the palm rest to further improve comfort and grip. Once again just like the recently reviewed Rapira Elite the 700M makes use of the very fast and quite popular ADNS-9800 laser sensor by Avago which gives the mouse a resolution of 8200DPI with a framerate of 12000fps, tracking speed of 150IPS and up to 30G acceleration. The specifications of the 700M are completed by OMRON switches (5 million clicks), polling rate of 1000Hz/1ms, onboard 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 CPU and 512Kb of memory used to store and switch between the 3 available profiles. So as you can see COUGAR obviously studied quite a bit prior to releasing the 700M laser gaming mouse, the how much is up to us to find out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Most of the box inside which the 700M gets shipped is made out of clear plastic so you can take a good look at it.

The features of the 700M are listed and showcased on all the sides of the box.

Turning the box over COUGAR has placed the features list in 9 languages right next to the specifications table.

Along with the 700M laser gaming mouse inside the box you will also find 4 weights, replacement palm-rest, 3 COUGAR stickers and the user manual.

THE 700M

The 700M is a unique looking medium sized gaming mouse that measures 127mm in length, 83mm in width, and 38mm in height with a weight of 112g (without any weights).

As always we placed the 700M right next several gaming mice we've been testing for the past month to have a better idea of how large it is.

Two programmable buttons and the sniper button (increases accuracy by slowing down the DPI) are placed on the left side which features COUGARs non slip coating.

The company logo is printed on the palm-rest and as you can see right next to it we see the DPI selection LEDs.

Another area featuring the same textured non slip coating as the one on the left is present on the right side.

A rapid fire button is placed right next to the left primary button and the DPI selection switch as always is placed at the top center of the mouse.

At the front we find the very good clickable scroll wheel and a cable guard designed to increase durability.

The base has six low friction rubber feet and the Avago ADNS-9800 laser sensor.

As mentioned earlier you can adjust the height of the palm-rest to improve grip and comfort. To do so you need to use this small knob at the rear end of the mouse.

I didn't measure the angle of the palm rest when at default and when raised all the way up but as you can see the difference is quite a bit.

If the default palm-rest is too large for you then you can replace it with the bundled one just by pressing the button at the top and pulling it backwards. In the end we chose to go with the default palm-rest since we all have medium sized hands.

COUGAR has placed the weight compartment at the center of the 700M as seen above.

You can fit all four 4.5g weights here to increase the weight of the 700M to 130g.

The 700M features a 1.8m braided cable and a gold plated USB plug.

USING THE 700M

Since the 700M doesn't come with a driver CD you will have to check the official COUGAR support page to download the latest version and the latest FW update.

Updating the firmware takes just a couple of minutes.

From the COUGAR control panel (UIX system) you can adjust the 4 available DPI presets, adjust the DPI for the sniper button, change the lift height (LOD), adjust the polling rate, turn angle snapping on/off, adjust the double click/scroll/pointer speeds, program all 8 buttons to the desired functions (macros included), change the illumination color and save/edit all the available profiles.

Unfortunately if you're looking to get a flashy gaming mouse the 700M won't cut it since its illumination system is very limited as you can see from the above pictures.

CONCLUSION

   COUGAR surprised us all when they announced their entry in the gaming peripherals market but we had every confidence in them since we never thought they'd jeopardize their name by releasing something mediocre. Well I’m sure that many of you have noticed by now so we can't deny the several obvious similarities to the R.A.T. line by MadCatz (aluminum frame, removable palm rest, adjustable palm rest height, sniper button) but that's a good thing since the 700M proved to be a very good gaming mouse. The aluminum frame gives it a very sturdy feeling, the Avago ADNS-9800 sensor is very fast and accurate (the 6 feet help with the very good gliding), the OMRON switches ensure you will not have any problems with the buttons, the removable palm-rest is a good addition (although the non-slip version was too small for our hands), the adjustable palm-rest height did come in handy when i used it and the weight system does offer a more "solid" feeling when playing games. Unfortunately even with the extra weights the 130g of the 700M are not enough if you have big hands (or if you've been using a heavier mouse until now) so it would be nice if COUGAR supplied people with heavier weights. The UIX control panel is also very thorough and allows you to adjust every setting you'd ever want including the lift off distance but the at best limited illumination system almost makes that section of the control panel feel unnecessary.

   The 700M gaming mouse by COUGAR is currently available in two different colors (silver & black) and retails for USD71.43 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 100Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which although quite tempting on the other side of the pacific is indeed set quite high in the EU. Leaving out the price issue COUGAR has designed and manufactured a solid gaming mouse with very good speed and accuracy and surprisingly good grip thanks to the adjustable palm-rest, weight system and the non-slip textured areas. I do hope they eventually release something slightly heavier because i found it too light for my hands but that's just me since the others here found its weight to be almost ideal for long periods of gameplay. In the end we all have to remember that this is the first attempt by COUGAR to create a very good gaming mouse for serious gamers and although they still have ways to go before they can release the perfect gaming mouse still this is well worth our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Aluminum Frame)
- Design (For Some)
- Very Fast & Accurate (Avago ADNS-9800)
- Good Grip (Textured Non-slip Areas & Removable/Height Adjustable Palm-Rest)
- OMRON Switches
- Sniper Button
- Weight Adjustment System
- Braided Cable & Gold Plated USB Plug
- Current Price (USA)

CONS

- Current Price (EU)
- Weight (For Some)
- Limited Illumination System (For Some)