Logitech’s Harmony range of smart, universal remote controls have long been a favourite in connected homes across the world. Personally, I’ve owned several of the devices and have always found them to offer a fabulous blend of simplicity and power. Configuring a single remote that supports more than 5,000 brands and 225,000 devices sounds like a major headache waiting to happen, but Logitech has always managed to make setting up the Harmony, and living with it on a daily basis, an absolute pleasure.
The question is more about where the Logitech Harmony brand is heading. Almost three years ago, the company announced plans to sell off its Harmony division, quoting “unacceptable losses”. Q3 2013 saw Harmony post an operating loss of $180 million from sales of $615 million. With retail sales down 14 percent year on year, it looked as if consumers were turning their backs on premium, learning remotes in favour of smartphone and tablet apps that could offer similar features at a far lower ticket price.
But a last throw of the dice, in the form of the Logitech Harmony Ultimate, turned things around. It sold so well that Logitech reversed the decision to divest itself of the Harmony brand and doubled down on the Harmony Ultimate line, introducing the cheaper Harmony Hub (which catered for those smartphone users), low-priced Harmony Companion and more. The change of mind also coincided with an emerging trend in smart home devices – audio, lighting, security, temperature control and monitoring devices – which were becoming cheap enough to reach the mass market.
Spotting an opportunity to bring smart home control into the Harmony ecosystem, Logitech worked quickly to position their remotes as ideal companions to smart home devices. Earlier this year, the Control With Harmony API was launched to developers with SmartThings, IFTTT, Ivee, Myo armband, Playtabase, and UCIC, creators of the Ubi, all on board.
We know that entertainment is critical to the smart home experience, and will be a main driver for mass adoption of smart home products,” said Mark Spates, head of the smart home platform for Logitech Harmony. “By opening our platform to developers, we’re giving developers the ability to create complete smart home experiences that include the living room, knowing that their entertainment component will offer the same flawless experience that consumers have come to expect from Harmony.
But it’s in the company’s latest remote control, the $399 Logitech Harmony Elite, that the new vision is best articulated. With a sleek, refined handset design and support for smartphone and tablet control, the Harmony Elite is the company’s first remote to be built from the ground up to control the whole home. Alongside that vast array of home entertainment devices, the new model also supports lights, thermostats, window shades and more using IR, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless signals. And if you need support for additional smart home protocols, it can added easily with Logitech Harmony Home Hub Extender, designed to integrate ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Z-Wave Plus compatible devices with an existing Harmony Hub and remote controls. So as your connected home grows more complex, managing it should be simpler with Logitech Harmony.
Logitech sent over a freshly baked Harmony Elite over to us this week for review. Let’s take a look.
What’s in the Box?
With the ability to replace up to 15 remotes, the Logitech Harmony Elite ships in a surprisingly compact box, dressed in Logitech’s new branding. Inside you’ll discover:
- The Harmony Elite remote
- Harmony Hub
- Charging cradle
- Power adapter x2
- IR mini blaster x2
- USB cable
The two key components are the Harmony Elite remote and Harmony Hub – together, the two devices work in partnership to control devices across the home. The remote handset, equipped with a touchscreen and the usual array of buttons, accepts your commands and passes them to the Harmony Hub – the brains of the operation. Placed near your television, set top box and game console, it’s able to communicate with your devices via Wi-Fi, Infrared (IR) or Bluetooth.
Like previous Harmony models, the Harmony Hub also accepts remote commands via a smartphone (or tablet) running the free Harmony app (available for iOS and Android). So if you don’t have the handset to hand, or it needs recharging, your mobile device can be used as a fully featured universal remote.
Once again, Logitech has done a great job with the design of the Harmony Elite. At 19.2 cm (7.56 in) x 5.4 cm (2.13 in) x 2.9 cm (1.14 in) (h x w x d), it’s very similar in dimensions to the previous Harmony Ultimate. It has a more regular, candy bar shape than the Ultimate, which I prefer, with a grippy underside that tapers from bottom to top.
The new design retains the color touchscreen from its predecessor and includes both motion sensing, and vibration feedback. With additional devices to control, the button layout has been changed – now you’ll find dedicated connected home buttons alongside the usual entertainment line up.
There are enhancements on the inside too – the Logitech Harmony Elite is powered by a replaceable, rechargeable battery with 20% greater capacity. As with previous models, the Elite sits in a charging cradle with contact points on the bottom of the device.
Meanwhile, the Harmony Elite’s Hub hasn’t changed much over previous generations. The large, pebble-shaped device remains a dust/hair/fingerprint magnet, clad in glossy piano-black plastic that initially looks great, but will need a good wipe after a few months in your AV cabinet! It’s shallow enough to slip into the cabinet easily – even if you need to position it on top of your set-top box, games console or Blu-ray Player. It’s mains powered with a micro-USB power connector and two ports for IR blasters – cables are included in the package if you need them to control any IR-based devices.
Overall, the Harmony Elite is a great-looking package, that improves on an already successful design.
Setting Up the Logitech Harmony Elite
Getting up and running with the Logitech Harmony Elite takes a little time, but isn’t a complicated journey. First, you hook up the Hub in your AV cabinet, positioning it where signals can be transmitted to your entertainment devices. You can also opt to hide it out of the way in a closed cabinet, as long as you connect up the IR mini blaster cable and ensure it’s on show. The Harmony remote transmits commands to the hub using RF, so no line of sight is needed.
While you’re charging the handset, you can spend some time configuring the Logitech Harmony app with your devices. In the past, Harmony remotes were configured using a (reasonably shaky) Silverlight app on the desktop. Thankfully, that’s been put aside (although it’s still accessible if you don’t have a mobile device to hand) and you set up the remote using a mobile application for iOS or Android devices. While configuration isn’t particularly complicated, it can take a little time to get all of your devices and activities added. My advice is to clear the family out of the house and grab yourself a quiet hour without distractions to get up and running.
Your mobile device needs to be paired with the Harmony Hub in order to configure the device. My experience pairing my phone (a 2015 Motorola X Pure Edition) with the hub wasn’t perfect. Once you plug in the hub, it’ll enter pairing mode automatically after about 30 seconds (a red light flashes on the front of the hub to denote that it’s ready to pair). While my phone was able to detect the hub, a pairing code was requested in error, so I couldn’t proceed. A power cycle fixed the issue, but it’s the kind of glitch that doesn’t inspire confidence. Be persistent and you should be OK.
Once paired, you’ll need to enter your wireless password so the hub can connect to the Internet through your router. That stage was fine, and once connected, you can create a new Harmony account, or connect to an existing account. Once you’re logged in, your remote will be detected (as long as it’s powered on in the hub) and you’re ready to start configuration. There’s a short orientation menu that helps you get to know the Elite and its constituent components a little better, which is a great touch.
Handily, if you’re upgrading from an older Harmony remote that’s saved to your account, you can choose to copy its configuration to the device – it’s a big time saver for Harmony loyalists.
Otherwise, you can kick off configuration from a blank sheet of paper – well, actually, not quite. I was really impressed to see the Harmony app immediately present a list of devices that it had already detected on my wireless network – a brilliant example of great usability design. My Sonos speakers, and a Google Chromecast were initially detected, but there was an additional option to re-scan the network for additional devices.
I powered on an Xbox One and my TV and rescanned the network – curiously, neither was found, but the re-scan did pick up a Google Nexus Player that had been missed first time around. The scan also missed a Nest Thermostat and a set of Philips Hue lights. It’s a great idea to get you up and running quickly, but you may well need to add devices that aren’t picked up.
"Manually" connecting home control devices was reasonably easy, although the process (and indeed experience) varies depending on the device itself. Launching a search for the Philips Hue bridge was successful, and I was directed to press the connect button on the bridge to pair the system with the Harmony app. Simple!
Hooking up to a Nest Thermostat required me logging into my Nest account, although my phone automatically launched the Nest app (rather than my mobile browser) and setup ground to a halt. Attempting to fix the issue, by clearing the Nest app launch defaults and browser cache seemed to kick me out of the Harmony app altogether, forcing me to rescan for devices. So, while the Harmony Elite setup shows a lot of promise – certainly from a design perspective – the execution needs some improvement.
While I needed to add the Xbox One and my Rogers Cable DVR manually, this took less than a minute and Logitech’s extensive database had no issues locating the devices. Even a cheap Monoprice HDMI switcher was found.
Once your devices have been added to your account, the Harmony app allows you to quickly test the positioning of your hub, with a simple On/Off test for nearby entertainment devices (in my case the DVR, TV and Xbox One). All worked perfectly, first time – a magical experience.
Once the Harmony app knows it’s able to control your device, you’re walked through setting up Live TV – a common requirement for most households. The real benefit of a universal remote like the Logitech Harmony Elite is that it can be configured to control multiple devices simultaneously. A “simple” activity like watching TV is a great example, where you may need to power on multiple devices – TV, DVR. AV receiver, games console (if, like me, you have your TV passing through the console) – before you can enjoy your shows.
The Harmony Elite makes this a breeze, asking you to select the equipment needed and any sources that may need switching, before trying out the task. If it doesn’t manage it first time, you can ask it to keep trying and it’ll learn any changes necessary to get you going. Depending on your location, the Elite can also grab your local TV EPG for your set top box or DVR and allow you to quickly customise favourite channels.
Elsewhere, the Harmony Elite offers some smart integrations – when configuring a Sonos player, for example, your Sonos Favourites will be pulled into the app, so you can automatically select a starting channel for your listening. As the Harmony app knows the devices you’re trying to set up, it can provide bespoke instructions. For example, when configuring a Nexus Player, it knows exactly where the required Bluetooth pairing button is on the device, and shows a visual to make connection easy. Or, when configuring my Samsung TV, it shows how to set up a Keyboard connection so I can use my smartphone keyboard to enter text on screen. It’s all rather clever.
There are some minor frustrations, however. The Harmony app makes an assumption (a reasonable assumption, admittedly) that your TV Watching activity must involve powering on the TV. It simply won’t let you continue setup unless your TV is selected. However, I control my TV’s power through my Xbox One, so don’t wish to include my Samsung TV device in the Watch TV activity. Harmony says no – in the past, this would result in the Harmony remote toggling power – so the Xbox One turns the TV on, and Harmony immediately toggles it off. However, on the Elite, this doesn’t appear to be an issue. Whether that follows for every TV, who knows?
While the Harmony app does a reasonable job of suggesting activities and device combinations on your behalf, it’s likely you’ll need to manually add some activities to complete your home line-up – particularly if you need to control smart home devices. Again, configuring these is a breeze – in fact, I preferred configuring my home’s Philips Hue lighting system and Nest Thermostat in the Harmony app to their native counterparts! Given the vast array of devices supported on the Harmony Elite, it’s clear to see that the company are spending time designing an appropriate and relevant user experience to make setup easy. What could have been a mess is far closer to magic.
With much reliance on the hub and smartphone app, you may be asking yourself why you need to bother with the remote handset at all! One answer is muti-room control – with the hub fixed in one location, its commands aren’t going to reach non-Wi-Fi devices in other rooms around the home. The remote handset is able to fire IR commands directly to devices and, of course, is portable. You’ll need to assign IR control for devices in the Harmony app settings (Selecting the hub, IR blasters or remote) which takes a little digging, but works well once configured.
Using the Harmony Elite Remote
Once you have your devices and activities set up in the app, they’ll sync over to the Harmony Elite remote, which should be sitting patiently in its cradle. The great news is that, unlike the days of old when you had to tether the remote to a computer via a USB cable for synchronisation, it’s all now done over the air – firmware updates included. If an update is required, you’ll be politely asked to place the remote back in its cradle and the update will be automatically installed. It’s a big step forward over my old Harmony Ultimate One.
The remote itself feels good in the hand – it has a some weight (a smidge under 164 g), so feels solid and high quality, but is never uncomfortable. Button positioning is similar to previous Harmony remotes, although the new form factor and additional home controls has changed the layout a little. Actually, that’s for the better as the transport controls (the Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind commands et al.) have been moved from their previously uncomfortable position, at the very top of the handset, down below the touchscreen. For those with smaller hands, reaching these buttons was a stretch, so many will find the Harmony Elite design to be both logical and more comfortable to use.
The touchscreen is reasonably large and clear, like Harmony remotes of the past, but sadly remains reasonably low resolution, so text and icons appear blurry. It’s a minor point, but detracts a little from the premium experience surrounding the Harmony Elite. The screen itself been enhanced with haptic feedback (which can be adjusted for strength) adding a little reassurance that your touch commands have been received.
The Harmony remote UI has been refreshed a few times over the last couple of years – not always with the best results – but the latest iteration is clear and simple to use. White text on a black background, with colour highlights ensures commands are legible, but an enhanced screen with higher resolution would have been more fitting on this top-tier device. The touchscreen supports taps as well as swipes, depending on the device you’re controlling – it’s not the biggest, but works well in use. If you feel the need for additional real estate, then smartphone or tablet control using the Harmony app is a great option.
The Harmony Elite was able to control the majority of my household devices with ease. The only issue I encountered was with my Philips Hue lights. Setting and launching an activity using the lights worked fine, but I was unable to control individual bulbs as the Harmony app and remote complained that it wasn’t logged into the Hue account (despite repeated attempts to log-in). There’s always likely to be the odd issue with specific devices that can be fixed easily with an app or firmware update – overall, the Harmony Elite managed to look after my devices with ease.
From time to time, you may find the Elite fails to fire a device correctly – it’s reasonably rare once you’re set up and have tweaked the remote, but it does happen. Again, resolving the issue is both quick and easy, with a guided troubleshooter that allows you to identify the problem device and fix the issue – toggling power, setting the input correctly and so on.
Summary
I started the review stating I was a big fan of the Logitech Harmony range, and if you are too, the Harmony Elite will deepen that love affair. The latest generation of Harmony remotes retains the premium styling expected from the brand, but adds new features and intelligence that really makes life easier. If you’re seeking a “mission control” for your home, it’s right here.
While getting up and running with the Harmony Elite initially takes a little time and tweaking, you can spend as much or as little time after that to tailor the remote to your needs. But the more time you spend working with the device, the better life gets. Adding new devices and new activities is a breeze and editing those activities is easier than ever. With over the air updates and synchronisation, gone are the days of tethering the device to a computer for updates – a massive usability win.
With the flexibility of using the handset or a smartphone app, not only can you control devices right around your home, it’s easy to download the app on family members’ smartphones and tablets. That means once you’ve done the configuration work, everyone can benefit from the simplicity of managing the home with the Harmony Elite. Again, for “home IT admins” frustrated at seemingly being the only family member that can work the TV, it’s an escape.
If I was going to be harsh – and let’s remember this is a $400 remote control – the Harmony Elite has two gaps in its arsenal that are worth highlighting. First, I mentioned the Harmony Hub Extender earlier in the review – it’s a $99 add-on that equips your Harmony remote with Z-Wave and Zigbee device support. Depending on your smart home setup, the Harmony Elite’s home control story is incomplete without it. It would have been great to see those two protocols integrated into Logitech’s top of the range remote, or have the Extender bundled in-box.
Secondly, in a world where voice control is emerging rapidly thanks to Amazon, Google, Roku and Microsoft, the Harmony Elite has no listening capabilities. That may or may not be important to you, but it’s certainly a gap I’d expect Logitech to fill with a future device.
Let’s be clear – $399 is a lot of money to spend on a remote control and there are cheaper solutions out there – from Logitech and others – which will do a job, but lack the quality, simplicity and grace of the Logitech Harmony Elite. There are pricier, more complex, options too, but the Logitech Harmony Elite successfully balances beauty and brains which, in combination, makes the device the ultimate smart home companion. High price, yes. High class, high performance? Absolutely.