Review: 4/5
Well Built Remote, Excellent Easy Software, But a Touch vs Buttons Preference Makes 5-star vs 3-star.
This is a very good, truly universal remote. It can truly replace your existing remotes (minus few RF-only devices like a Wii or some uncommon DVRs). It has a wide blaster that can usually hit all of your devices in the general direction (with line of sight open or glass). This uses the newer MyHarmony software which is excellent, very polished, and easier to use, which would be great even for someone who isn't as tech savvy. I really like the polished look of the software, intuitive use, speed, and drag-drop to buttons on the remote picture. You can configure everything for any device in the activity. You can add, remove, or reorder soft buttons for any available action from any device in an activity. You can configure any of the physical buttons to any device too. Plus it can learn buttons from your existing remote if you need to teach it one that it doesn't know. The MyHarmony version doesn't seem to know as many buttons as the older software, such as my TV ratio buttons to directly toggle to 16:9 or standard or zoom. The harmony database often knows more buttons than your actual device remote had available, but the old software had even more, at least for my devices. You can also make modifications directly on the remote, which will save back later if you synchronize to the website again so they are not overwritten. The touch screen also offers gestures that you can map to anything, although fairly limited to 5 - tap, swipe up/down/right/left, such as to swipe right to fast forward.
Why you want a truly universal remote like this is that you can get rid of 4-5 remotes laying all over your couch or end table, and make it easy to just "watch a DVD" without having to use 3-4 different remotes to turn each on and set all the inputs correctly. This (like any Harmony remote) just takes care of it. You press one thing and it starts and sets input, and does anything else you want it to do, including sequences you specify.
But here is the bottom line compare to other Harmony remotes. This remote is centered on its touch screen, and other harmony remotes like the One and 900 center on physical buttons optimally places with contextual feel. If (A) you love touch screens, you don't normally memorize where all the buttons are, you don't prefer to press buttons by feel, you don't often issue remote commands other than to turn on / play / and occasionally pause, and you are happy to look down and scroll through a screen when you do need to do something, then this is an excellent 5-star remote for you. But if (B) you normally hold the remote in your hand without looking, you play / pause / fast forward / and jump back frequently, you prefer the contextual feel of physical buttons, then this remote is an okay 3-star remote for you. It is still a Harmony remote regardless which is well built & configurable. But basically think how often you fast forward. I skip commercials constantly, so an optimally places fast forward button and 8-second jump back button is critical, so I prefer the One & 900. The gestures (tap to play/pause and swipe to fast forward or rewind) are supposed to help place these actions more optimally, but they still don't make it as easy as a button in the center. The play/pause and fast forward buttons on this remote are at the top and are ackward to use by feel alone, but are perfectly fine if you look down and use two hands.
Compared to the Harmony One and Harmony 900, the differences are many... But still, the biggest thing still comes down to physical buttons or touch screen, which is a preference. For more, please see my full text review on Amazon at [ Ссылка ].
Product Title: Logitech Harmony Touch Universal Remote with Color Touchscreen - Black (915-000198)
Model: 915-000198
