Universal Remote Controls Fargo ND

Not content with what the HT Guys have declared the best universal remote on the market, Logitech continues to put out new Harmony Universal Remotes.  Of the two most recent models on the market, the Harmony 700 and the Harmony 900 , we've had a chance to look at the 700.  It is the less expensive of the two, and can be found in retail stores and online for an MSRP of $150 US.

Setup

The manual tells you to reserve 45 minutes to get the remote set up.  If you're a first-timer, that might be about right.  You need to make sure you know the model numbers for all your home theater equipment and also set aside a few minutes to get familiar with the programming software.

For us, and likely for those who've owned a Harmony before, it's much closer to 15 than 45 minutes.  As is customary, we started from scratch, but there's really no difference in how most of the Harmony remotes are programmed.  There are only subtle differences on what buttons it has, how many soft buttons are available, etc.  It took about 15 minutes to program 700 even when you consider the time it took to include all our customizations.

In addition to the remote, the box includes a USB cable for programming which also doubles as a recharging cord when plugged into the included wall adapter.  So yes, this Harmony is also a rechargeable model, but it's slightly different.  For this one Logitech chose to include 2 NiMH rechargeable AA's.  We found the charging cord to be a bit short, but since you can get a week's worth of use out of one charge, there's no need to keep it constantly plugged in.

It would seem that one benefit of the AA form factor is that if the batteries die, you can simply swap them out for some standard AA batteries you have lying around until you can get a pair of new rechargeables.  We didn't test this theory, though, since the manual warns of a risk of explosion should you replace the batteries with an incorrect type.  Sounds like an episode of MacGyver in the making.

Design

The 700 is a replacement for the trusty 880 many of us had grown to love.  But admit it, it needed a face lift and the 700 provides just that.  It will drop you to four soft buttons from eight on the 880, but it provides more hard buttons that are laid out much better and a much easier to get to.  It also adds three hard buttons for the most common activities, Watch TV, Watch a Movie and Listen to Music.  Of course you can always override those to do whatever you want.

Use

The Harmony line of remotes is award winning and a lock for the Home Theater no-brainer award, in our opinion.  The 700 continues in that tradition.  Setup is as si...