The Logitech Harmony 700 is a fully featured universal remote for easily controlling all your home cinema devices.
The Logitech Harmony 700 is most obviously compared to the more expensive Logitech Harmony One, a similar looking but full colour and touch screen remote. However, despite the lack of some of the more high tech features of the ‘One’, the Logitech Harmony 700 is in many ways a better remote control.
Firstly, although they look very similar, the Logitech Harmony 700 has a matt black finish rather than a glossy black finish which certainly makes the remote look more functional and not quite as ‘bling’ as the One. The smaller colour screen also hints at its less ambitious aspirations, with two buttons either side to select the options that appear on screen, rather than being touch screen. Surprisingly though this is not something we miss – the touch screen/button combination can feel a little awkward to begin with and whilst a very nice feature to have, the plain ol’ buttons of the 700 do just as good a job.
The remote itself is 225mm long and doesn’t feel that big in the hand with a nice weight and feel about it, but put it next to the Logitech Harmony 525 and the size difference is immediately apparent. The buttons are all very well made in a hard rubber material, and are also quite rounded on the top with a pleasant tactile feel to them. The rocker buttons (volume, channel) all click to provide a little feedback and are raised towards each end. Rather than having a ‘glow’ button to turn on the backlighting, the buttons are permanently backlit and only turn off after a period of inactivity – but like previous Logitech Harmony remotes it is motion sensitive, so pick it up again, and the backlighting is turned back on.
Where the Logitech Harmony 700 does get one over on its bigger brother though is with the addition of the four coloured ‘FastText’ buttons. This is a major benefit of this remote, and is a real bugbear of the ‘One’ so it is great to see them added especially for users who use Sky+ or click the red button frequently.
What to consider before you buy the Logitech Harmony 700
Without the touch screen, the Harmony 700 is not as instantly appealing as the Harmony One, but the reduction in cost most certainly is. If you want even better value, then consider the Harmony 650 which is less money, but can control only five devices rather than six, and is not rechargeable.
Why you should buy the Logitech Harmony 700
The addition of the FastText buttons is a real usability bonus for this remote, and makes Harmony 700 a great, cheaper, alternative to the Harmony One. Rating: /5
Compare prices and Buy Logitech Harmony 700
The remote is rechargeable and comes provided with 2AA NiMh batteries, and mains charger and USB connection cable. There is no installation CD supplied, as you will need to download the latest version of the software from Logitech.com/myharmony. Thanks to Logitech for letting us borrow the review sample.
