Logitech Harmony One Advanced Universal Remote

We decided to finally buy a universal remote control after I kept on getting quite aggravated trying o track down the corresponding control for the equipment I wanted to use. I had seen universal controls in the past and when my husband brought the subject up I thought that it was a great idea, to go from four or five controls down to one clearing the clutter away from our coffee table. After searching around and looking at different options we decided upon this Logitech harmony one advanced universal remote that appeared to do everything and more than we wanted.


The control does take some getting used to but really after you have had it and used it for a couple of days you will be an expert for all the daily and basic functions. The set up of the control does take a little while but there are detailed instructions in a handbook as well as online, there is also a phone number that you can call for technical support or just a talk through if there is something that doesn't seem to be falling into line. The control can also be plugged into your computer and configured using the Harmony online website.


Admittedly it was my husband that programmed this so that all the settings were as we wanted. It is set so that when you press 'watch tv' it turns the TV on, as well as the surround sound (and to the preferred settings) as well as starting the sky box. This all does take about 20 seconds but really is hassle free - all you do is point and press. We have among other things a surround sound system and I kept on having to remember to mute the TV's stereos unless I wanted a weird echo. However, the control does all of this with one press of the button and it remembers all the preferences, as the surround sound in particular is set to different preferences for just watching regular TV, or a blu - ray as well as having yet more specific preferences for my husband's Xbox.


The control is surprisingly light, probably because it doesn't have batteries to hold. It also looks really seek and shiny. It is contoured so that it is comfortable to hold and has a none slip back which means that even if your hands are hot this control won't just slip from your grasp. As far as controls goes this looks great. The battery life seems to be pretty good, we tend to leave it most of the time in its charging cradle, however, on the days that I have forgotten to do this and left it off over night or throughout the day it still has more than enough charge to work just fine.


The control has a largish section of buttons at the top which are changeable and accessible by using the touch screen area. To begin with I only really thought that this was a bit of a novelty feature but it really is a space saver because we a few clicks of the 'activity' button you can change the touch screen options, i.e., you can change them from 'selecting the blu-ray player or Xbox' to the coloured buttons that you find on all the sky remotes. The touch screen is also very responsive to use and for any gadget orientated people this might appeal. The touch screen when not in use goes black, but when you pick up the control again or move it, the touch screen is reactivated and ready to go.


When not in use the control has a recharging cradle to sit in so as long as you don't take this to another room we never lose it, we are both just in the habit of returning it to this cradle which sits on a small side table. This is great because you never need to hunt around or steal batteries from something else when your remote control starts refusing to change the channel late at night when all the shops are closed.


These controls are expensive retailing around from anywhere between £129.99 to £74.99, so it is best to shop around and see if you can grab yourself a bit of a bargain. This control is available to buy in most of the stores that sell TV's and other similar technology equipment, I bought ours from John Lewis who price match with other stores, something that is always worth bearing in mind.


I would completely recommend this control to anyone looking for something similar, this control is easy to use and there is a lot of support and information to enable you to configure it to your specific needs. There are a lot of equipment that is already pre-programmed in the control, such as Sky box settings. However, even if you have something that is a bit more specialised there are a lot of equipment that you can still configure the remote control to work with, we had to do that with our surround sound system. I believe that Logitech say that this Harmony remote is compatible with 200 000 devices and over 5000 different brands, so chances are whatever home equipment you have will work fine with this.


Since having this remote control for all the daily things I might need to do I don't ever look at another control. I can't remember the last time that I picked up one of the other older controls that are all now hidden away in a drawer. When my husband first started talking about getting a universal control I was a bit shocked at the price of them and a bit sceptical how it would work and whether it would be worth the hefty price tag. Now I can say that this was one of the best purchases of last year and it really makes daily life a lot less cluttered and I am now only reaching for one control rather than a TV one, a sky one, a blu-ray player one and the surround sound system one. This Harmony one universal control gets a full and well earned five out of five stars from me.