Digital Trends

Harmony 688 December 7th, 2004 | by Yongki Go

Usage

In general, we felt that the Harmony 688 remote was fairly easy and pleasant to use. For starter, it is self-contained in terms of instructions, so you just need to follow the instruction given on the display. Or, you can press ‘Device' button, to operate each individual device. The Harmony 688 remote also has a set of buttons that are especially convenient for use with a recording device, such as DVR or VCR. That is definitely a plus for users who do a lot of recording in such a device.

We had a minor annoyance in regard to moving through the pages of the flexible buttons around the remote's display. That was because we could only move forward through the pages, but couldn't move back. So if we missed a page, we had to cycle through all the pages to arrive at the desired page.

Other than that minor quibble, the Harmony 688 remote worked as advertised. It doesn't mean that the codes that are downloaded from the database are always right for every button, but you can easily correct the one that is not right. Heck you can even ignore the codes from the database and just use the learning function to overwrite all the codes directly from the device's remote control. This is the flexibility that we dearly admire.

One of the reasons why the Harmony 688 remote is quite pleasant to use is due to its ergonomic shape. As has been mentioned earlier, it fits quite nicely in an average adult hand and one-hand operation of the remote is quite easy. Its buttons have good size and its layout is pretty nice too, although we were not too crazy with the oval-layout buttons in the middle of the remote. We thought the spacing of some of the buttons in there could use some improvement.

Because the buttons and display are backlit and the labels are on the buttons, the Harmony 688 remote is great to use in a dark room. The blue backlight is sensor activated. It is automatically on for a few seconds when the environment is relatively dark. The backlight could also be forced by pressing the ‘glow' button on the remote.

Conclusions

The Logitech Harmony 688 is a very versatile universal remote control that is quite capable of replacing all the remotes in a typical or even complex home theater system. It is easy to setup and to customize using its vast component database online. Also the remote has a nice appearance, sports a good ergonomic design, and is relatively easy and comfortable to use. The price is reasonable for a remote control with its capability. If you are in the market for a universal remote control, we highly recommend putting this remote on your short list.