![]() ![]() (Yes, in this case that includes spending more money.) You connect Philips Hue to Harmony, set the button, and you're turning things on and off (or dimming) right from the remote. That's a great feature in the bedroom, where I'll do anything I can to stay in bed just a little bit longer. They look like lightbulbs and outlets and do exactly what you think they do - they control connected lights and outlets. The real bonus in the bedroom with the Companion is the addition of the home control buttons. ![]() (And why I refuse to use phone-based remotes except for in a pinch - or when I want to lower the volume on whatever my kids are watching without getting yelled at.) It's easy to learn where things are by feel, which is another must-have in any remote. It's got buttons - lots of them - a non-rechargeable CR2032 battery, and that's it. So they have to feel good, and the Companion nails that benchmark.īeyond that, it's a fairly standard remote. Universal remotes - even the ones I'm looking at here - are almost always at least a little more difficult to use than the individual remotes they're replacing. We talk about curvy phones all the time now, but my wife catches me fondling this remote all the time and gives me a good dirty look for it. I'm dead serious when I think the best-designed device in my home is this remote. In the bedroom: Logitech Harmony Companion My only real complaint is that it can be a little slow to sync, but it's not like you have to do that too often.Īs with everything else these days, Harmony works with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, as well as with Philips Hue and other connected devices.Īnd with that, on to the goodies. It's highly flexible, highly customizable, and pretty much just works. Harmony does a good job recommending activities, or you can start from scratch. You set up the remotes through the apps, they sync over Wi-Fi, then you go about your business.įirst you add your devices (either manually or auto-detected over Wi-Fi), and then you use those devices to fill out "activities", like "Watch TV", or "Play Xbox". With those caveats in mind, here are our current picks for the best universal remote.These work with (require, actually) the Harmony app on Android or on iOS. If you have an AV receiver and multiple sources, however, it gets more complicated. ![]() With a smart TV connected to a soundbar and a game console, for example, you can control streaming apps, audio and device switching from a single remote (the TV's), eliminating the need for a universal remote. Many entertainment systems today don't have as many separate devices as in the past, so you might not even need a universal remote. A number of cheap replacement clickers are available too, but we can't recommend them because we haven't tested them yet.Įven with the emergence of SofaBaton, the universal remote category is still less popular than before. And the Roku and Fire TV clickers, while great for controlling those streaming devices, respectively, as well as most brands of TV, don't really qualify as "universal" remotes in the classic sense. The outgoing Fire TV Cube is expensive and more of a hybrid Alexa speaker/streamer than a universal remote, although it will also control your devices. So what's left? Among remotes, we can recommend based on hands-on testing, not much. ![]()
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