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.

Was looking for a remote that could work in place of what Harmony used to do. There isn’t a ton out there and my needs aren’t uber special. However, I did want a relatively straightforward and simple way to switch between inputs and run different types of devices. Again, not crazy, but there just isn’t a ton of options on the market and I don’t want to manage 3 remotes to watch something.My current setup is a low end Samsung 4k television, low end Samsung soundbar (although I’m getting another soundbar soon that is a less common brand (Nakamichi) and I don’t expect issues due to it being an IR device and I can program this unit with the existing remote), FireTV 4k for streaming and an XBOX One X for Blu-ray.Setup -Download app, connect hub - easyThere were some updates that took place, needed to connect it to my WiFi (Nest system). Started adding devices - somewhat difficult, I’d initially started by using my existing television remote to “train” the hub, don’t do that. Search for your manufacturer and model, there is probably an accurate profile already built. The setup for the TV and soundbar were simple after that. The FireTV needs to connect via Bluetooth, that went well and the instructions were clear.The XBOX is under the manufacturer of Microsoft (duh) but I’d initially just searched for XBOX because it is a brand in its own right.Next up, create activities so everything is done with one click. Here’s where things got trickier and I don’t think my biggest issue had anything to do with the product. In short, my input selection is tied to another submenu with the Samsung UI, I was having a hard time getting the input to switch effectively. However, and this made everything a lot easier, there are colored keys on my remote and I was never sure what they did. They (at least on my TV) offered a discrete key to pick inputs.So, once I sorted out that piece, I was able to set up the sequence and added a delay such that the television, soundbar started first, then the input gets changed. Things have gone well since initially testing and setup, took about an hour and a half, would have taken under an hour if I knew about the input buttons. Seems to work well and it is nice having everything in a single remote.Remote itself -The remote itself reminds me of a bulky FireTV remote with a screen. It’s got some heft to it and the keys are backlit. You don’t have to engage with the screen really. At least in my simple setup and that was the idea, really just wanted to have everything on and pointed to the correct device with using 3 remotes. Battery doesn’t seem to be an issue, charged it once and it’s still reading high.The hub unit is just a box with a USB C, sits in your cabinet- I didn’t use any of the repeaters, and it can communicate with everything.Overall, it is definitely a lot for a remote, but it does what it says and it has a lot of devices in the library. That list isn’t as curated as I’d like. For example, there were a lot of profiles for XBOX One, I just picked one and it seems to work fine - every key I have needed so far works and is mapped appropriately. There is also a lost remote feature from the app, you have to go into the app and click into Me > Settings > Find my remote, that would be a better feature if it was a button on the hub or on the homepage of the app. All things considered, worth it if you’re tired of juggling remotes.