Logitech Harmony One

Harmony One, Logitech's latest universal remote is a bit distinct from other remote controls. It requires you to use some of your brainpower until you become friendly with it's touch screen and are over with the setup process.

Like it's previous version, the Harmony 880, it fits conveniently in the hand and also has a charging cradle. Its bright, 2.2-inch color touch screen has innovative navigation controls around its edges that make it easy to move up, down, and around the various options. The navigation controls are a huge advance from the 880's screen-side buttons. So is the new push-button area below; the new buttons have distinct sizes, shapes, and placement, making the remote easy to use by feel alone.

The touch screen shows commands and icons for common activities that initiate macros; touching 'Listen to Music' can turn on your stereo and media center extender, for example. And once you've started an activity, such as 'Watch TV', you can touch further selections like 'Favorite Channels', then use the standard push-button controls for changing volume or pausing playback as you would on any TV remote. It all works together intuitively.

While using the Harmony One is a joy, setting it up would not be much fun. You'll have to start the process on your PC or Mac by plugging the remote into your USB port and connecting to Logitech's online database of more than 225,000 devices and then getting your devices loaded on your remote.

The remote has a Help button to aid in diagnosing and fixing setup issues. The Logitech help staff can make changes to your devices and activities, which you can then sync to the remote and test in real time.

The holy grail of truly universal remotes is still elusive, but the Harmony One is your best option right now.