tack2004's Full Review: Logitech Harmony® 659 LCD Remote Control
After searching high and low for the perfect remote, I found the harmony 659. My main criteria was how did it feel in my hand. Are the main buttons all centralized naturally under my thumb and of course, did it handle all my devices. :)
After the search I have to conclude that engineers don't watch TV. I've seen a lot of bizarre layouts for universals. The Harmony 659 was the closest I found. (In my budget) The layout is not bad however the arrow buttons could be larger and more comfortable as I tend to lay my thumb in that region while I'm surfing. (Strange eh?) I think that in a high end remote, the cursor, guide, info and cancel buttons are the most important. The others can go where ever. Or do most people that use Programmable universals just have 13 channels and a VCR to control? :P
I have to say one of the most well thought out things about this remote is the labels for the common macros that I use. Like Watch TV or Watch a Movie. I figure for a high end macro remote, some of us might actually want to watch TV and Movies occasionally. For some reason my wife can't figure out what those blank buttons mean on other remotes. Kudos to Harmony for that simple selling feature in a hard button remote.
The web interface is the one thing that actually looses points with me on this remote. While setting up the remote with my computer scores very well with me, all of the configs are stored on Harmony's website and are pushed from there to the remote. I find this site is very slow and takes me sometimes 2-5 minutes just to push 1 change to the remote. They definitely need some more servers in that farm. Additionally it would be nice when programming the soft keys to be able to specify which commands go on which buttons. You cant do that now. Seems to me it would just be a simple firmware update for that. (You can download firmware updates. Another plus for me)
The only other negative thing is the remote was very sluggish when changing channels and surfing on my Guide menu. You'd press a button and it would take .2 to .5 seconds for the cursor to move. That issue however was corrected simply with a setting I pushed to the remote. I figure something like that should be default.
I did e-mail tech support for that issue and they responded in 8 hours. Thats not bad.
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