The Logitech Harmony Elite Experience: Ultimate Control
by Brett Howse on February 14, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Accessories
- Logitech
- Remote Control
- IoT
- Smart Home
- Harmony
Final Thoughts
Logitech Harmony sits as the market leader in its category almost by default. Other than a professional systems, the world of universal remote controls is mostly low-end offerings, requiring users to manually enter remote codes, and offering very little customization. Harmony has been bucking this trend for well over ten years now, by offering truly customizable remote controls with the added convenience of one-touch activities. The Logitech Harmony Elite has been out for over a year now, and sits atop the product stack.
Harmony has made great strides in the last several years improving the software side of the house. The new MyHarmony PC software and smartphone app is worlds better than the old software. It is much more intuitive in its operation, especially the PC software which includes nice animated images on-screen to assist with any setup and configuration. The software is still the most cumbersome step, but the end results are easily worth the initial energy spent. Once you have the remote configured the way you like it, it truly becomes a universal remote control, much more so than any of the cheap models that come with a booklet of remote codes.
The remote itself is easily the most well thought out remote every to bear the Harmony name. The shape and materials make it excellent to hold in the hand, with the most used buttons falling easily into reach. The weight balance helps with any sort of fatigue issues, not that a remote is ever something you’d get tired of holding, but it does make it more comfortable to hold. Even the click of the buttons makes it feel like the premium device that it is.
I was at first skeptical about the Harmony Hub, and whether it would offer enough value to be worth the extra cost of the Harmony Elite setup, but once you use it, and see the benefits, it’s clearly a well thought out device. Adding the hub allows the remote to be used without line-of-sight, without the hassle of adding RF to IR adapters on all of your devices. The hub itself is also an IR blaster, and it can control up to two more blasters for remotely located devices. It also gives the Harmony Elite the ability to control devices over the network, which is a preferable, and more reliable, method of communication than IR can ever be, and for the devices like the Roku which support this, it’s a welcome addition.
The Hub also adds in the ability to control smart devices, such as lighting, plugs, thermostats, blinds, and more, as well as allow the system to be controlled by either a smartphone, or even with Amazon’s Alexa. I didn’t go over Alexa in this article, mostly because Alexa isn’t available in Canada so I didn’t have a chance to try it out, but once configured, you can use Alexa to power on your devices just like you would the remote. It’s a smart way to expand the capabilities of the Harmony system.
Logitech really has put all of the pieces together with the Harmony Elite. They’ve combined good software with excellent hardware, which is a feat that is all too often missed in consumer products. It would be pretty easy to say the Harmony Elite is the best remote control around that doesn’t need to be installed by a professional, but if you prefer that, there’s an Elite Pro as well.
The powerful remote control is stymied by less than amazing battery life, but you can still easily get several days of use out of it before it needs to go back in the charging stand. The multi-touch on the display is also a bit of a gimmick, but since you never need to use it, it’s not really a problem you need to deal with.
Really the one major issue with the Harmony Elite is simply the price. At around $300 USD, it’s a pretty steep price to pay for a remote, when every consumer device you buy has its own. The additional functionality of being able to control smart home devices is certainly a benefit, but these have not proliferated into the home like many IoT companies would like.
If you think you might like the Harmony system of activities, but think the Harmony Elite is a bit too much money, Logitech does sell other models, starting at around $35 for the Harmony 350. The capabilities are diminished, but the experience is still similar, with a remote programmed from your computer, and then set up to control devices based on activities. The Harmony 650 adds a color screen, and still comes in at less than $50. If you want to add in the Hub, that starts around $100, and so on. They even offer the Harmony Elite sans hub and smart home control, which is the Harmony 950. There’s a pretty wide range of products here, to fit most budgets. But they all pale compared to the Elite.
The Harmony Elite is a lot more money than even other Harmony models. Is it worth the money? In my experience, yes, it is. The combination of the remote and hub make for a fantastic user experience, especially when tied into the Harmony system of activity based use. The hardware is excellent. It’s expensive, but so are many things that are well made. There are lesser models available, but the Elite is truly a step ahead.
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Azethoth - Monday, February 20, 2017 - link
Teach them how to use the help button then.I had to teach my Mom that one and now she can fix her own issues.
kpb321 - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
Devices certainly can get out of sync but to some extent it depends on your devices and what commands they support. If your devices support discrete codes for the major things you do like switch the input and turn off/on then if you set it up correctly then it doesn't really matter if things are "out of sync" because they still work. For example my receiver has discrete codes for turning off and on and for switching to a particular input. Switching to an input will also turn it on if it is off so it never suffers from out of sync issues. The biggest out of sync offenders seem to be TVs when you have to switch their inputs as discrete input codes seem to be much less common there.Unfortunately the one issue I haven't been able to figure out yet is that my harmony remote seems to be really slow sending the commands to multiple devices so my wife has problems not waiting long enough for all the commands to be sent. In that regard my previous universal remote with some simple macros actually worked better as it blasted the commands to the different devices very quickly.
schizoide - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
I strongly suggest the Harmony Smart Control over the Harmony Elite.https://smile.amazon.com/Logitech-Harmony-Control-... (not a referral link)
The main difference is the remote has no touchscreen. It's smaller, takes a coin battery, and the battery lasts for an ENTIRE YEAR.
The Harmony Smart Control also comes with the Harmony Hub so you get the same functionality. It's normally priced at $125, which is a bit over a third of the ridiculously expensive $300 Harmony Elite, but is frequently available factory refurb (essentially new) for $99, and just last week I saw a sale on slickdeals.net for $65.
Get the Smart Control. It's worth every penny. The Elite is overpriced and IMO actually offers an inferior experience as it needs to be constantly recharged.
archon810 - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
This. I have a Harmony Smart Control and 3 Home Control remotes, all purchased at around $100-130 each, and they do almost everything this Elite does, for 1/3 the price. Plus, no need to look down - everything can be done by touch.Logitech is insane for charging $300 for something that is completely unnecessary. It should be at $180 max. DOA otherwise.
alfredoh - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
This x1000. Not only is it fairly cheap at $125, but if/when the buttons on the remote break (or you lose the remote), you can buy JUST the remote for $30 and re-pair it with the existing hub in 10 seconds. I'm tempted to buy a few extra remote's for $30 just in case they stop selling the things cause they realize that people have caught on and aren't stupid enough to buy these fancy touch remote's for hundreds.ABR - Wednesday, February 15, 2017 - link
+1, just bought one in Europe, but I think it might be discontinued now? The size is really nice, I mean most of the time anyway you are using just volume, play/pause/next, and maybe channel change. Programmable buttons and, if needed, the app, cover the rest. Two minuses:- Requires a 2.4GHz network to set up, and every time to boot up. I mean, really? Solved by temporarily activating connection sharing from my smart phone, but a pain.
- Flaky sometimes, especially with sequences.
Guspaz - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
Two things that I'd like to know as a Harmony One user:1) Does it support macros, so that you can program the remote to navigate a menu? For example, my Harmony can turn "night mode" on and off on my soundbar, but this requires the macro to push something like "menu-down-down-right-down-down-right-menu". That's over the max length limit on the macro so I had to combine some into custom signals. I know Harmony dropped support for macros entirely at some point, do they support macros today?
2) The Harmony One is super slow at pushing individual buttons, making it very painful to use it to navigate an on-screen menu. Did they fix this in newer remotes?
schizoide - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
1) I know you can create macros with >20 discrete steps tied to activities, but haven't really played around beyond that. The software is very powerful so I expect it is possible to tie them to any button. But research it first, if you don't get any other responses.2) You can adjust timings in the harmony software down to tenths of a second.
OzzieGT - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
I'm using the much cheaper harmony companion with the most basic remote in my home theater. It works great. No need for a fancy touch screen remote, the basic remote does what I need and if I need more advanced functionality I just load up the app on my phone.pookguy88 - Tuesday, February 14, 2017 - link
the thing I hate about the hub is it adds a delay whenever you press a button on the remote, can you opt to only use the remote to output IR?