I have been looking for the perfect remote to suit my needs since moving into my new house and setting up the home cinema system. I had a Harmony One in my previous house, which I sold to the buyers of my house.
Harmony Ultimate received a lot of flak for its button placement. I looked at URC (www.universalremote.com) which are the best built hard button remotes on the planet. But they were prohibitively expensive (although on the hindsight, I have ended spending nearly that amount already to find a cheaper alternative).
I then looked at Roomie remote which, on the face of it, looked cheap, but it needed extra components for incompatible devices to work, and required an expensive professional installation. It had 2 issues:
1) Lack of a hard button remote. An iPad can never replace a remote in my opinion.
2) Somehow, it couldn't switch the projector on or off with one tap of a button. We had to create an additional toggle, making it a two step process.
As a backup, I bought the Harmony Smart Control, and we found ourselves using it exclusively as the AV remote. It was a joy to use, but was limited to the number of activities we could set, and was temperamental.
When the Elite was launched, I was excited as it corrected the problems of the Ultimate but it was very expensive at £280. I had hoped for a Boxing Day deal but that never came. I was looking at the price at least once a week, in the hope that it would fall. But that never happened....
....until I stumbled upon Amazon's German site. It was already cheaper at £233 but I waited for it to drop further.
Last week, my Harmony Smart Control remote played up again and stopped responding despite changing battery. Luckily, the price of the Elite had dropped further to £218 on Amazon.de. So I ordered it.
It arrived yesterday (I was amazed at the speed of delivery!). First impressions of the remote was very good. Certainly the best built Harmony I have owned, and it just felt right holding it. The charging cradle is very stable, and hub is small, similar to Smart Control. I was pleasantly surprised to find UK plugs included in the pack!
Setting up was a breeze, since I could transfer the settings of the Smart Control to the Elite easily. I then tweaked a couple of things and set up additional activities. I also chose 44 favourite Sky channels out of allowable 50. The process is extremely user friendly. I even set up 4 different commands for my Philips Hue light system.
Then I started to test it. Wow!! It's leagues ahead of anything I've owned so far! Very responsive (far more than Smart Control), the AV system switches on and off far quicker. The touchscreen is better than Harmony One, and has the right amount of responsiveness. The favourite channels appear as channel icons. I had to set Hue commands again, as it didn't seem to work the first time.
Any negatives? I do miss the physical number buttons, although the 44 favourite channels have reduced the need for it. I have assigned the DVR button to input the PIN number, should I need it in the future. Also, I could not find the coaxial input option for Marantz AVR when I tried to set my Sonos up. Will check this again over the weekend, or will contact Logitech support. I have had excellent experience dealing with them in the past.
For now, my quest for the perfect remote has ended.
Harmony Ultimate received a lot of flak for its button placement. I looked at URC (www.universalremote.com) which are the best built hard button remotes on the planet. But they were prohibitively expensive (although on the hindsight, I have ended spending nearly that amount already to find a cheaper alternative).
I then looked at Roomie remote which, on the face of it, looked cheap, but it needed extra components for incompatible devices to work, and required an expensive professional installation. It had 2 issues:
1) Lack of a hard button remote. An iPad can never replace a remote in my opinion.
2) Somehow, it couldn't switch the projector on or off with one tap of a button. We had to create an additional toggle, making it a two step process.
As a backup, I bought the Harmony Smart Control, and we found ourselves using it exclusively as the AV remote. It was a joy to use, but was limited to the number of activities we could set, and was temperamental.
When the Elite was launched, I was excited as it corrected the problems of the Ultimate but it was very expensive at £280. I had hoped for a Boxing Day deal but that never came. I was looking at the price at least once a week, in the hope that it would fall. But that never happened....
....until I stumbled upon Amazon's German site. It was already cheaper at £233 but I waited for it to drop further.
Last week, my Harmony Smart Control remote played up again and stopped responding despite changing battery. Luckily, the price of the Elite had dropped further to £218 on Amazon.de. So I ordered it.
It arrived yesterday (I was amazed at the speed of delivery!). First impressions of the remote was very good. Certainly the best built Harmony I have owned, and it just felt right holding it. The charging cradle is very stable, and hub is small, similar to Smart Control. I was pleasantly surprised to find UK plugs included in the pack!
Setting up was a breeze, since I could transfer the settings of the Smart Control to the Elite easily. I then tweaked a couple of things and set up additional activities. I also chose 44 favourite Sky channels out of allowable 50. The process is extremely user friendly. I even set up 4 different commands for my Philips Hue light system.
Then I started to test it. Wow!! It's leagues ahead of anything I've owned so far! Very responsive (far more than Smart Control), the AV system switches on and off far quicker. The touchscreen is better than Harmony One, and has the right amount of responsiveness. The favourite channels appear as channel icons. I had to set Hue commands again, as it didn't seem to work the first time.
Any negatives? I do miss the physical number buttons, although the 44 favourite channels have reduced the need for it. I have assigned the DVR button to input the PIN number, should I need it in the future. Also, I could not find the coaxial input option for Marantz AVR when I tried to set my Sonos up. Will check this again over the weekend, or will contact Logitech support. I have had excellent experience dealing with them in the past.
For now, my quest for the perfect remote has ended.
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