Logitech Harmony Ultimate

By Will Greenwald

Last year, Logitech's Harmony Touch universal remote control impressed us with a simple, elegant design, an easy setup process, and enough power to automate nearly any home theater activity with the press of its 2.4-inch color touch screen. Now, Logitech has one-upped itself with the Harmony Ultimate, a universal remote control system that takes all of the great parts of the Harmony Touch and adds even more power and features. At $349.99 (direct) it's pricier than the Harmony Touch and can be hard to justify if you don't have a very complicated home theater system, but its functionality and design still earn it our Editors' Choice and distinguish it as one of the best remote controls available.

Design
The Harmony Ultimate remote itself looks and feels almost identical to the Harmony Touch. It's still a conventionally shaped remote control centered around a large 2.4-inch touch screen flanked by large, simple buttons for playback, navigation, and volume/channel control. The controller has a matte, textured underside that feels both sturdy and secure in the hand, and its slim, curved profile is much more comfortable than many chunkier, rectangular remotes. It has a micro USB port hidden behind a rubber door on the bottom, and two metal contacts let it charge in the included cradle (which doesn't make a USB connection; you need to plug a cable directly into the remote to update it). If this were it, the Harmony Ultimate would be making a poor argument for its $100 premium over the Harmony Touch.

However, the remote is only part of the system. It comes with the Logitech Harmony Hub, a separate box that works with the remote to handle infrared repeating and Bluetooth. The infrared repeating is a handy feature that lets you control your devices without any line of sight. Place the hub near your home theater components and run the two included infrared blasters to other components nearby, and the remote can trigger the hub to blast out commands to all devices even if they're in a cabinet. The hub also adds Bluetooth functionality and support for the Harmony smartphone apps.

Bluetooth
Bluetooth support means the Harmony Ultimate controls not only your HDTV, Blu-ray player, and set-top box, but your game systems as well. A simple Bluetooth wizard guides you through pairing the remote with the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii U, the former of which previously required an adapter to work with Harmony remotes and the latter of which has no specific remote support. You can't play games on either system, but the Bluetooth commands let you navigate certain menus and control media playback. That's great if your game system is your primary media hub, but perhaps not so great if you consider the Harmony Ultimate retails for at least as much as the game system itself.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/DDJDkRoUc9o/0,2817,2419257,00.asp

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