FWIW: I have experience with many different Harmony remotes and also several Premium URC Remotes with RF-IR Hubs.
So after roughly a week of use, I think Im ready to provide a fair assessment:
The Good:
- Quality feel and Solid construction
- Very nice clear OLED screen
- Good feel to the scroll / click wheel
- Quite responsive and no noticeable lag
- External IR ports work well with generic IR Blaster's using 3.5mm mono plugs.
- Setup of Devices, On screen options, buttons and Activities is quite painless and intuitive
- Doesn't lose Device or Activity states when tweaking settings and resending while using you are using your equipment (This is a right PITA on most Harmony and URC remotes)
- Firmware for the App, Hub and Remote is being actively developed and updated
- Massive supported device database - even if your specific model isn't supported, the generic code options for that OEM will almost certainly work.
- The IR blasters in the hub are very effective, most folk won’t need the extra blasters
- The buttons have a nice firm click with great tactile feel, but not excessively noisy either.
The Meh:
- iOS app is a little buggy sometimes - I frequently need to kill it to reconnect to the Hub when updating my config.
- After changing to a different activity it doesn't automatically change to your configured display options for that activity.
- The button layout could be better - IMO the RR/PlayPause/FF buttons should be above the Volume / Channel buttons as they are currently too close to the bottom of the remote.
- The included IR Blasters are not the "stick over IR port" style - they are meant as general "IR blasters" and this is not clear in the manual.
- You can’t set global “power on / off” delays - instead you need to add a delay (eg 7 seconds) to every activity. This is a minor nuisance when your system is already on and you are changing activities.
The Bad:
- You can't re-order your on-screen options after adding them - you need to delete items and re-add in the desired order.
- if you have a smart mesh wifi system with a single SSID for 2.4/5Ghz frequencies, you need to disable your 5ghz radios to update the Firmware for the Hub and Remote.
- the remote screen/ buttons lighting only turns on when you press a button or move the scroll wheel. This is kinda a PITA at night when watching a movie in total darkness.
- The 4 colour buttons are not backlit
The Ugly:
- if you have a smart mesh wifi system with a single SSID for 2.4/5Ghz frequencies, you need to disable your 5ghz radios just to get your remote working in the first place.
In Summary:
I really like this remote - however until Sofabaton knock off a few more rough edges I won't be replacing my URC MX-880 + MRF-300 in the lounge room. My wife would be very confused and unimpressed if I made her switch at this early stage. I'll happily keep running it in my games room tho.
Latest review Update: 3rd of May 22
