New Logitech Harmony remotes, apps control smart home devices too (hands-on)

In addition to commanding your home theater, Logitech's updated Harmony Ultimate Home and Home Control remotes can now interface with lots of connected-home devices thanks to a slick software overhaul.

 

The Harmony Ultimate Home and Home Control remote are now available in white and black.David Carnoy

From a hardware standpoint, it's hard to call Logitech's new Harmony Living Home remotes completely new. More of a whitewash.

The new touchscreen-equipped Harmony Ultimate Home ($350) is identical to its predecessor -- theHarmony Ultimate -- aside from the fact that it's now available in black and white.

And the new button-only Harmony Home Control, an updated version of CNET's favorite universal remote the Harmony Smart Control, is also largely the same as before. It sports a small but important improvement, placing the bank of play/pause and fast-forward/rewind keys in closer thumb reach, along with a price bump from $130 to $150.

Both are available this month in the U.S. and Canada. Availability in the UK or Australia hasn't been announced yet, but at the current exchange rate, the Ultimate Home's $350 would work out to £219 or AU$385. The Home Control's US price equates to £92 and AU$165.

Those hardware updates may be minor, but when a company rewrites its software, redesigns interfaces, and adds new features, what's old becomes new.

The Harmony Control app and remotes now interfaces with lots of connected home products.David Carnoy

In the case of Logitech's new Harmony Living Home products, the emphasis is on home, or more precisely, the smart home. The updated remotes now allow you to control not only standard home-entertainment devices, but connected home devices, including learning thermostats, lights, smart locks, and electronic window shades.

Both the Harmony Ultimate Home (which controls up to 15 devices) and Harmony Home Control (which controls up to 8 devices) come with the Harmony Home Hub, an all-new, separate puck that sits in your entertainment center and serves as the real brains of the operation. It uses RF, IR, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi to relay commands from the remotes or the Harmony app (on Android or iOS devices) to the wide array of home-entertainment and now home-automation products.