Logitech Harmony Smart Control with Phone App

Update 2014.01.22: I have tried to contact Sandeep "Sam" Honest four times but have consistently rolled to his voicemail. Sandeep, if you would still like to set up a time to discuss my review and problems with receiving broken remotes, please post a time when I can phone you and definitely get the call answered; otherwise, my review stands. Having received two units that were both broken in exactly the same way (non-functional yellow free button), and with the difficulty of orienting the remote correctly in the dark due to its "used bar of soap" shape with uniform edges/sides, and buttons that are not illuminated and much too small for the average adult hand to operate, I will return this sad disappointment of a remote and seek a suitable solution elsewhere. Update 2014.01.11: Having been contacted by Logitech in response to my original review, I have agreed to speak with and work with their representative, Sam. We have not yet been able to connect (my fault) but, in the interim, I thought it was premature to return this item for a refund. I will work with them in good faith, and with my mind open to the possibility that there was something I missed or misunderstood about how this remote is actually awesome (though my current opinion is still far from that conclusion). So, because the first item was defective, I requested a replacement from Amazon which has now arrived. Upon testing it out, it is not only broken but is broken in exactly the same way as the first (the yellow free-assignment button does not work). This either means that I am getting something wrong, or that their build quality is extremely consistent but far, far too low. I will update my review again after Sam and I conclude our collaboration. Original Review: Summary: If you watch your media in a well lit room and have fingers the size of needles, you'll love this one! Everyone else: Keep searching. Narrative: I bought this remote after doing some research to replace my Logitech Harmony 900 that finally croaked. My first observations were that this is a thin, light remote. Setup (because I was porting from another Logitech remote) was not bad at all. Not pre-school level, but do'able. I can't say how it would be for someone without an existing Harmony account and configuration but I would imagine it's about the same as setting up my Harmony 900, which was a pain but, again, do'able. After the setup was complete, I have to say that I was elated. The Harmony 900 used an IR blaster to reach components inside my cabinet. I swear, inside the blaster there was a 90 year old man who apparently had to translate my intent into the cabinet via interpretive dance. It took FOREVER after I pressed a button on the 900 to get a response from my equipment. But the Smart Control was INSTANT response! It was amazing. I had to re-train myself on how frequently I could press buttons and expect things to happen. At this point, I named my new Smart Control "Renfield" because he seemed to *live* to do my bidding instantly. Then night fell. Because I watch media in the darkest room possible, it was then that I first noticed that the buttons do not illuminate. They don't glow. And they're sized/shaped/textured almost identically throughout the remote. The number buttons are as small as a single grain of long grain rice, and packed together really tightly at the bottom of the remote. Big negative. Big, big negative. "Hello, Disappointment. I haven't seen you since... since... I signed up with Sprint, I think... How've you been?" "But...", I tried to console myself, "...I bet the battery will hold a charge a lot longer!" So I looked into how to charge the battery. You can't. It's a button battery -- so... not exactly littering my gadget drawers with replacements. "Disappointment, meet Disillusionment." I'm not sure if the designers just decided to "have a go" at we former Harmony owners or not, but all of the buttons familiar to Harmony owners are now in brand new locations, with buttons of completely different shapes and sizes. Play controls are now near the top where it is SUPER easy to hit the Activity buttons by mistake. Imagine the frustration of trying to pause a video only to switch to your BluRay player instead. Grrrr. "Disappointment and Disillusionment, I'd like for you to meet Disgust." I have held back on returning it for several days thinking that I'd eventually get the muscle memory of where buttons are. But now I don't think I can, and here's why: If you hold the remote in such a way that your index finger is over the directional navigator (round button roughly centered on the remote), you can very easily access up/down/left/right, channel +/-, volume +/- and mute. But to access play, pause, forward, reverse, record or stop you have to shuffle it in your hand until your index finger is now reaching the top row. Now the directional navigator is in your palm and inaccessible. So I tried it with my thumb on the directional navigator and quickly patented a "Fumble-Flip" move. In one position, my thumb lands on the directional navigator; in the other, my index finger lands on the play/pause/etc buttons at the top. Sweet!...almost. But because it never lands the same way twice, you're always going to be stuck doing the "braille" search to orient yourself (in a dark room). This is complicated significantly by the indistinguishable shape/size of the buttons combined with the thin, absolutely uniform shape of the remote housing. And this brings me to something else that surprised me. Would you like to guess how they made this remote so much shorter than the Harmony series? They removed a bunch of buttons! That's how! So Harmony 900 had one button for skip forward, another for skip backward, a third for fast forward and a fourth for fast rewind. But the Smart Control has just one button with two images on it. If you just "tap" the one with arrows pointing to the right, it skips forward. If you press-and-hold for about a second, it begins to fast forward. Now I'm paring it with a Tivo, which has three forward speeds. So you have to go " one, Mississippi...<release> two, Mississippi... <release> three, Mississippi" to achieve maximum forward movement. Pair the reduced buttons for basic functions with the fact that mine had a dead "free" button (the row of colored buttons that can be assigned to any task or activity) dead on arrival. Lame. But, when they work, all of the buttons on the remote can be assigned a "tap" action and a "press-and-hold" action for each Activity in your profile. That's a TON of setup (and a TON to remember, too). This brings me to the Activity buttons. There are only three. And, unlike the Harmony series remotes, they have a fixed image on them -- one for music, one for movies and one for TV/DVR. This isn't really quite enough for me, as I want to watch Tivo, watch BluRay, watch Roku, stream Bluetooth music from my phone through my system and play my iPod through my system. Sure, over time I would eventually remember that a press-and-hold of the music Activity button would get me to my Bluetooth streaming device... but I'm just gagging to understand why there couldn't have been another row of Activity buttons just above the existing row in that vast, uncharted plain of wasted space at the top and bottom of the remote. Upon unpacking it, the Smart Control feels remarkably thin, light but well constructed. Impressive. But when it stops being an aesthetic experience and starts being a functional one, I couldn't stop eyeing the box in which it came and planning to return it. "...find the Nav button... CAREFUL NOT TO PRESS THE OVERLY-SENSITIVE 'SELECT' BUTTON AS YOU PASS OVER IT... find up one (... I hope that's 'up') and right one (... I hope that's 'right') is ... I think... that's... 'Guide'." <click> "D### it all to h###!!! That was the 'Info' button!!" At this point, my neighbors began leaving fliers for Tourette's treatment centers in my screen door. Also, I renamed Renfield "Genie" because whatever he did was only inspired by my request, but it never came out exactly as I hoped it would... after dark, anyway... Also, this sleek, thin profile turns out to be perfect for slipping down into the crack of the sofa or recliner and disappearing altogether for a while. Magic. I have tried and tried to get the hang of it. During daylight, I do love it. It controls everything so smoothly and quickly that I would keep it as my "daytime" remote if the price were half what it is. For those of you who watch in a lit room (or who, inexplicably, never feel even so much as a tinge of urgency about hitting the right buttons in the right order to create the experience you want) then this might be a fantastic -- and I truly mean FANTASTIC -- little gem. But the tiny TINY tiny size of the number buttons and the lack of any tactile directional indicators makes it a non-starter for those with darkened media rooms. Oh, and if you're drawn to this by the smartphone integration... I've tried it. Imagine wanting to pause a movie using your smartphone. You have to unlock (biometrics? password? unsecured?) your phone, navigate to the remote app (if it wasn't already running), launch the app, switch to the controls menu and then tap pause. THEN it happens instantly. But geez... why was I pausing again? The app does have the option of preventing your phone from sleeping while you're using it as a remote. I think this is a service to be certain that your battery will be dead if you hear an intruder clawing at the back door just after midnight. Clever, Logitech. Clever. The smartphone app bit is just a gimmick in my mind, and won't be your favorite part of this remote. For lit-room/daylight watchers: I honestly can't say enough good things about it. It's clearly labelled buttons, lightening fast response and relative ease to set up complicated Activities makes it a fantastic choice -- if you don't mind going questing for weird button batteries whenever they die, that is... A little back lighting and a more tactilely distinctive design would make this remote The One of whom the prophecies speak... So I'm back in the market for a new Universal Remote at this point. I guess I'll just entertain myself with some do-it-yourself shadow puppet theater until it arrives. For tonight's early show, I'm putting on my shadow version of 'Downton Abbey'. Should be a hoot. So... Thanks, Logitech. Before this, I had no idea that an otherwise brilliant device could be so easily rendered useless. (For dark-room viewers, anyway)