Perfect Harmony: Logitech’s Newest Universal Remote Reviewed

We test drove the Lexus of universal remotes, Logitech’s Harmony 900. After putting it through all the paces—in our case that means setting it up and using it like anyone else on the planet would—we’ve concluded it’s a home theater dream come true.

The Skinny: The Harmony 900 continues Logitech’s dominance of easy-to-use universal remotes. This rechargeable powerhouse has a color touch screen, a motion sensor that activates the backlit buttons/commands, and can work through walls. It can control up to 15 remotes (in our case, 7) and is expensive ($400). Hey, sometimes awesome things cost more money.

The Look and Feel: It’s long, sleek, and glossy (just look at the photos of it). The weight is evenly distributed making it light but sturdy. This isn’t the type of remote you’d lose in the couch cushions, but if you’re that irresponsible you can keep it in the slim cradle to charge when not in use.

The Screen: It’s a sharp screen that sits atop the remote (again, look at the damn photos already). It’s clean, clear, and crisp and doesn’t require much effort or accuracy to hit the correct options or scroll between screens. You’ll be leaving fingerprints on it, but they wipe off easily on the bed spread or couch cushions. The default screen offers up three “activities” per page (example: Watch TV, Watch DVD, etc...) and you can also select “Devices” to control specific components in your system, or “Options” to adjust remote settings, which includes the IR Blaster set up...or “working through walls” part.

The “Working Through Walls” Part: You might be wondering how that severed hockey-puck-looking-thing has anything to do with your system. This is to prevent you from having to twist and turn your arm to line up the remote with the sensors on each component in your system. Just plug the puck...we mean IR Blaster...into an outlet and keep it near the back of your system. Next, plug those little “Mini-blasters” into the puck and make sure they’re near components that aren’t in the direct path of your remote. Perhaps they’re hidden in a cabinet, or in our case it’s a 3-input HDMI selector that’s right behind our flat screen. Hit “Options” on your remote, select “Assign IR,” pick the components you want controlled, go through a simple test, and it’s set. For those of us who had to contort ourselves to get all the correct components for each activity functioning properly in the past, it’s a very big deal.

The Software: Like iTunes, it’s the software can often trump the hardware. Logitech won the universal remote war by having the easiest and most seamless remote set-up there is. It’s not perfect, in fact we seem to have more complaints about this than any other aspect of the remote, but their database of compatible electronics tips the scales in its favor. Oh, but you want to hear some complaints?

• You have to set up a new account for each remote. Why can’t you just add more remotes to your account? (We’re asking you a question, Logitech.)
• The walk-through set-up is easy but we had to keep going back and tweaking it over and over again. Perhaps it was our OCD acting up, or our system has way too many components, but there is no easy way to go in and tweak one part of an activity without having to go through the whole darn thing each time.
• One of our components wasn’t recognized properly (that pesky 3-input HDMI selector). We tried everything possible but nothing worked. So we had to delete and re-enter it. This meant we had to run though all our set-ups again and it wiped out the customized buttons. This wasn’t catastrophic, and we were extremely excited to finally get the HDMI-dealie functioning properly, but it was a bit tedious.

Enough bitching. Here are some great things about the software:

• It’s a breeze to find your components and manage them.
• Once you get a feel for your activities you can make them very specific, which is great if you’re a controlling mess like us.
• Customizing the buttons really allows you to make every part of the remote work exactly as you need it to...especially if you’re controlling messes like us.
• Updating your remote after making a change is fast and effortless.
• You don’t have to update it that much. Once you get the settings the way you like them you’re work is done...until you add new items to your system...or buy a remote control fireplace.

Last Words: Despite our minor complaints about the software, it has no bearing on how great this remote is. Once the set-up is complete it will immediately become the most important part of your home entertainment system. Apart from the TV...and surround sound...and DVD/Blu-ray player... Okay, you can’t categorize one thing above another. Think of your system as the perfect team and the Harmony 900 is the all-star quarterback. When you look at it that way, $400 isn’t that expensive for a top-notch QB.

The Harmony 900 is due out later this month. See more info on Logitech’s site or order it on Amazon.