SofaBaton X1S Universal Remote with Hub and App, All in One Smart Universal Remote Control with Customize Activities, Control Up to 60 IR/Bluetooth/WiFi Devices

Good for replacing all your existing remotes. Also a good replacement for my failing and discontinued Harmony remote. Amazingly fast support via email or chat via website or within the phone app. I only use InfraRed (IR) remotes. There is support for Bluetooth remotes and a few Wi-FI options, but I don’t have those, so I did not test those options. Pro:• Instructions are good and cover adding your existing remotes and combined remotes (for activities like watch TV or Roku in a home theater setup). There are videos that cover the same information for visual learners.• 80% of my devices were already in their database and it was easy to learn from my remotes that were not in the database.• A phone / tablet app is used to program the physical remote and the app on your phone or tablet can function as a second and better remote. An Infrared (IR) blaster hub is used to send the IR, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi commands. The hub lights up the whole room so IR home theater components see the IR bouncing off the walls. For situations where home theater components are in a cabinet, there are three included IR extensions to put little IR transmitters in different locations inside a cabinet.• Most common remote keys are on the physical remote and additional keys and macros can be added to the remote display screen and phone app.• Scroll wheel on the physical remote for quick switching between remotes functions or activities.• Easy to create remotes that combine keys from multiple other remotes (activities) so that you can control all parts of a home theater with one remote (activity). Examples would be to watch TV or watch Roku. You create macro commands to sequentially turn on the set-top box and the TV and another macro to sequentially turn off all parts of your home theater. These startup and shutdown macros are automatically created for each activity, then the macros can be edited for minor adjustments.• The app makes programming the physical remote very simple. The app also makes for a programmable remote in your phone / tablet. I have researched and played with some apps + IR blasters but have not found anything as easy to use and comprehensive as the X1S. Con:• No numeric keypad. Numeric keys can be added to a favorite key list that appears in the physical remote display and in the phone app. But trying to scroll through the numeric keys in the physical remote display is difficult to do fast enough for some devices like a set-top box, especially with 2+ digit channel numbers. The keypad in the phone app works much better.• No way to back-up or save the remote configuration.• You should manually write down how you have assigned buttons on learned remotes before you forget.• In order to combine buttons from a remote that was learned from an original remote, you may have to create a single step macro. In some cases learned buttons cannot be reassigned to an activity remote but can be assigned to a macro.• No way to copy an activity as the starting point for a new but similar activity. Each activity must be created separately from scratch.• The physical remote keys are a little finicky, you have to learn the right speed and firmness to send a code but not send two codes (double click when you didn’t mean to do that.) Overall, a good remote for home theaters, especially when using the app on your phone as the remote.

I am a very long time user of Logitech Harmony Remotes. And I was really bummed when they announced they left the remote control business because there is really nothing else like them for those of us with complex systems.I set up a new system and needed a remote to replace the growing stack of remotes that my wife was juggling. I found this SofaBaton X1S and I am impressed so far after a couple days of use.I will give more details, but overall, I can't find anything with this remote that I can't do, and seems to have all the same functionality as my trusty Logitech Harmony Elite.FYI: there are currently TWO product listings for this remote on Amazon, from similar named sellers, for the same price. I can't tell what is different between the two based on those product pages.DESIGN- Albeit a simple design, I really like this remote. It has the basic buttons necessary, feels good in the hand. Not premium, but definitely not cheap. It does not have any of the soft rubber material that some Logitech remotes had, which are prone to rotting and feeling sticky over time.- The LCD screen is basic, but I like it and there is some customization (renaming and re-ordering devices and activities, ability to add a few icons, etc.).- There is a rolling button (for lack of a better description) that is separate from other buttons, controls use of the remote itself (by scrolling through the screen). This is intuitive and feels solid.- The remote and the hub use USB-C which is welcome.- The hub does have a light that is quite bright, which I had to put some tape over since it's being used in a bedroom.- Comes with two USB-A to USB-C cables, but only one power brick; so you'll need a second one to charge your remote (or unplug the hub while charging the remote).- Comes with breakout IR leads, which I have not needed to use, but absolutely appreciated for situations where you might need them.- The room I am using this has a basic set of devices, but I browsed some other options, seems like a wide range of devices are supported.- You can learn remote commands for devices which are not working correctly (I had to do this with the power commands for my TV) or for legacy devices which may not be in the library.PERFORMANCE- After setting up 5 devices and 4 activities (which took about 1 hour, to include troubleshooting), I have this remote working as solidly as my other set ups using Logitech remotes with similar, or bigger setups.- I had no problems pairing via Bluetooth to a Sony TV (although I find that using IR for this TV works better, which I think is a function of Bluetooth being buggy, nothing to do with this remote)- I have not used any WiFi components (I do use Philips Hue, but have not set that up yet)- I don't use Amazon Alexa or Google Home, so I cannot comment on that functionalityVALUE- For $150 (with the current deal), not a bad deal compared to the original Logitech Harmony Elite price (I paid $250 in 2017 -- now they go for MUCH more than that)- Given this reasonable price, and seemingly able to do everything the Logitech Harmony Elite does (which is now unavailable) this seems like a great deal.CONS- I wish there was a charging cradle for the remote.- I would appreciate a second charging brick, and I would prefer the bricks were USB-C instead of USB-A since all my stuff is going full USB-C nowadays.- I wish there was a way in software to dim or turn off the light on the hub.- Syncing the hub with the remote is slow, but TBH, it's just as slow as my Logitech Harmony Elite.- I think other reviews have commented on difficulty programming the remote; from my experience, it is no less cumbersome than using any of the Logitech remotes. Which is to say that it is hard. If you are not savvy with these things, and have no patience, then you will be frustrated. But, TBH, I don't know how the interface could be any easier given how complex of a job you are asking these devices to do.- It would be a nice touch to have a colour screen, but not necessary.- You won't be able to use voice commands & searches for things like with Xfinity or Apple TV, but the Logitech remotes (and probably every one else) don't support that either.- I am not certain, and I am not sure if it makes a difference, but I "think" the hub connects directly to your phone for setup, and not through WiFi (and then to your phone), which I wonder if that might be a problem under some circumstances that I can't predict right now.- It would be nice to support Apple HomeKit.- No customizable wallpaper for the LCD screen, but this isn't really necessary.