Greg is correct. The amount of bit travel you have with the fine adjuster is around 20mm or 3/4". That is more than enough for most grooving operations and nearly all sliding DT operations but it is certainly not an all around router. There are many times you will want greater bit tip movement range and that is where the plunge routers come in. The 1010, 1400 and 2200 area all plunge routers. For all fixed base router use all that matters is how close the bit tip is to the base of the router when first mounted with the adjustment all the way "up" and the bit shank is at manufacturers recommended depth into the collet, and then how far the bit tip extends below the base of the router with the adjustment all the way "down".
The 700 is very useful for the way I work building fine furniture as many of my router operations are for grooving, edge profiling (ie: chamfering and such), inlay work and cutting male SDs. All of those things take place inside a range of bit tip movement of 10mm given my standards. Hence, the 700 now comes into my hands often. The other six routers in my studio (1000, 1010, 1400, 2200 an old Bosch beater and a PC under a table) still get plenty of use, too, but the 700 I prefer where it is appropriate because of the light weight.
I still use the table mounted router a lot for all kinds of things where the work piece is small enough to move safely across the top of the router table. I grab the 1000 or 1010 for shelf hole work and routing dovetailed boxes and drawers on jigs for which I do not have guide bushings that fit the 700 (like the VS600) or where the jig holds the router so far off of the work piece that the bit mounted into the 700 won't reach proper depth. I am doing tests with a number of different jigs now and will post results when I get time between customer projects.
The 1400 is faster than the 700 if I have really long straight routs to make in really dense woods or when using the saddle jig (now called something like acrylic router fixture) or for fitting onto a large router trammel. The 1400 or the 2200 get the nod for long or large bits like cutting the edges, creating the tension rod pockets and recessing the electrical popups on that large conference table shown in the tutorial section of my web site.
Bottom line for me is there is no one "ideal" router for all seasons. The closest is the 1400, but I prefer the smaller, lighter 700, 1000 and 1010 when they will do the job. Hope this helps.
Jerry
