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

My background: I have been in various IT fields for about 25 years, many of those either working in or supervising a Help Desk or Service Desk. Generally speaking, it is my department's job to help users with technology, explain it to them, and help them use it to accomplish what they need to accomplish. I help users understand tech.I am replacing a 16+ year old Logitech Harmony remote. It was a great remote, but over the years it has really showed its age. I have 4 kids, and the Harmony has been dropped enough that I started to wonder when, not if, it was gonna die.This Sofabaton X1S system is legit amazing for a couple reasons.1. I can program everything I need on my phone. No more rummaging around for the random mini-USB cables for my Harmony. No more holding on to a laptop because it's the only device that still has the version of the software that works with my remote. Smartphone app, and you can program the Sofabaton to control all your activities, even setting delays, changing startup order and everything. I can't believe how easy this was to set up. Even the software worked well...I didn't feel like I needed to trick the software into doing what I want. It seems well designed, and well thought out, and I wish that wasn't so rare.UPDATE: Over the last few days, I have noticed that my TV has 2 kinds of "off". There's the state right when you turn it off, and then there's the state after it's been off awhile. That last state takes a bit to turn on from before it's ready to accept input. I have had to program a delay in my activities, and fine tuning that to be correct has been SUPER easy to iterate through testing without needing a laptop and special cable. Love it!2. It's not THAT complicated to set things up. I pulled this setup out of the box, and had it set up and programmed with a TV, DVD player, HDMI switch, and a sound bar in under an hour. You need to understand how a remote like this things. You set up devices, and teach the remote how to use each of your devices. How does the soundbar turn on and off? How does the TV switch inputs? Then you set up your activities. This would be "Watch a Blu-Ray" or something like that. Then, when you hit the activity, you tell the remote how to turn on all your devices and set them to the correct input, and in what order. Here is where you can program delays (like my TV needs a 1-second delay after turning on before it will accept an input change command). Even this is not terribly difficult.3. The remote does not need line of sight to ANY of your devices to operate them. The hub controls everything, and the remote just tells the hub what to control and when. My kids had an amazing knack for knowing exactly when I was trying to turn on my TV, set it to the right input, and then turn on the DVD player, and they'd walk in front of me so that one of the devices wouldn't be set right, and it was annoying to unravel.4. If the hub can't control one of your devices because it's in a weird spot on your cabinet, there are 2-3 IR blasters included with the hub that you can route around your cabinet a bit, and stick to the underside of a shelf or whatever you need in order to control that device. For example, my HDMI switch is tucked into the corner of my cabinet, and I like where it is. So I had to route a small cable around the outside and stick the IR blaster to the backside of the fascia piece to my entertainment center. Now it's flawless when controlling my HDMI switch!5. Rechargeable remote, with USB-C connector. I love USB-C. I love that my laptop, my phone, my Nintendo Switch controller, my Steam controller, and now my remote uses USB-C to charge. I happen to have a USB-C cable on my side table for just this kind of thing, and I love that I didn't need to install some sort of proprietary dock to charge it.6. It's responsive! My old remote had a bit of a delay on certain devices and I could never make that any better. My son noticed right away how much more quickly I could scroll through menus on my TCL Roku TV. So much nicer when you have to navigate an on-screen keyboard to search for a video or something.Overall, the thing just seems well-designed and well-thought out. I can't yet comment on longevity or durability, but the SofaBaton folks really thought about what would make your experience with this device better/easier...and they succeeded. I thought for a long time about whether this X1S system was worth the money. It depends on your budget, but if you're in the market for a premium device, this guy fits the bill quite well.Rest assured, I will come back and update this review if I have any problems, but even my son was pleased with how well the SofaBaton X1S worked. I am so pleased with this purchase, and look forward to the family getting the opportunity to use it.

Final a good replacement to my Harmony Elite. I'll keep this review simple and easy for those in the same boat trying to replace their Harmony system: Its good, it works, its better in some ways, worse in a few minor ways, but if you give it time and program it right it will be a great replacement and I hope the company succeeds in sticking around a long time.Pros:+It works consistently without fail, once programed its yet to misfire at all.+The battery life is excellent, with USBC charging+Button response and command sending seems faster than my old harmony elite+Programing the remote is very easy from the app. You can do all the standard things of setting up devices, adding custom commands to them, add/remove buttons, map commands to the physical buttons or the lcd screen, setup repeated pressed, button hold times, all the standard stuff. And actives are the same, and just like on harmony you can setup startup activities, add delays, add macros, all the main stuff, and its honestly easier than it was on harmony.+Remote syncing takes seconds and its automatic anytime you make changes, way better than how Harmony did it.+learning manual commands from other IR and RF remotes is super simple, literally just point your old remote at the top of the hub, and it works instantly and so far has been 100% accurate.+Its easy to test device profiles out without going through the whole setup process, you can choose a device from the list and press "trigger" on any of the command previews to see it works. If it doesnt, you can find user uploaded command list for devices (I had this issues with my Sony 85x95L, the official command list didnt work properly, but other users have uploaded a corrected one that did work instantly).Nuetral:/ I thought I'd hate the LCD/Scroll wheel, but I don't, it works. Still would probably prefer an optional touchscreen for quicker command selections. But it does prevent the accidental launching of activities!/No remote stand/holder included, but its super easy to 3D print a remote holder stand/magnetic charger for it/The IR sensors use 3.5mm plugs instead of the 2.5mm plugs the old harmony hubs used. You can reuse your old harmony ones if you've already run them like I have, by buying some 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapters.Cons:- it does feel a bit cheaper than the Harmony Elite, mainly because its light and the buttons are more "clicky".- Some of the official command list aren't right/don't work, but as with my Pro, their are user created ones to help supplement and fix this.- No Homekit integration (harmony didn't have it either, but you could use HomeBridge to unofficially add it, no dice here), Instead they give you simple weblink api commands that you can use a Home bridge/home assist like solution to turn devices on or off, but you'll need to be experienced in that area to make it work. I've set it up using home assist and it works, but Its limited and a pain.-No "Help" button. Harmony's had a great feature where if an activity didn't launch properly, you could press the "help" button and it would resend all the commands. This doesn't by default have that. However You can custom program a macro to do it, but you have to remake it for every activity. Functionally though you can do it, its just not presetup for you. If they developers are reading this, please make this a feature of your next version!