CES 2007: More Logitech Harmony 1000 details
One of the most exciting products to emerge in the early stages of CES was the Logitech Harmony 1000 programmable remote control. Here’s a few of my thoughts and also check Kat’s interview with Logitech for some hands on footage.
The spec list was pretty well known even before CES kicked off but here’s a brief recap: it has a rechargeable Li-ion and comes with a minimalist, but rather plain looking, docking station, it uses a 3.5” touch screen display but also has some buttons off set to the right hand side, and you can program most of its more exciting features from a fairly straight-forward computer based setup utility. It also offers RF and IR communication with your home entertainment goodies.
Getting a very quick hands on with it, I was surprised to find that it was a deal thinner than I had expected and the touch screen was nice and responsive. The general layout of the various internal menus was pretty nice and the quality of the LCD screen meant that the icons feel very usable and border on looking a little cartoony, but in a good way.
The macro features is undoubtedly going to be a big lure to those who can afford the premium, $499 price tag. But if you can afford to spend that kind of money on a remote, I expect you’ll already have plenty of home entertainment kit that you can watch light up in glorious harmony as a single press sets off any number of events that you choose so you don’t have to faff around turning on your TV, your amp, your DVD player, setting them all to the right channel and searching for the volume controller down the back of the sofa.
Check out the rest of our CES coverage.
