Initial Impression- Limited and Overpriced

I bought my Logitech Harmony 890 from Shipdog.com for 251 with shipping (it's going for $399 at Bestbuy and most other places).

In the interests of fairness, I have only had the remote for two days. It's possible I have not had enough time to give a fair review of this remote's capabilities. My initial impression, though, is that it is pretty dissappointing and does little more than cheaper remotes.

One of the reasons I got the remote was so that I could set up my computer to output to my plasma TV for music and video. The computer has a Logitech wireless PC receiver used by the wireless keyboard and mouse. According to Logitech's tech support, the remote cannot be used for modifying any computer settings in this way. I guess if you have a remote bought specifically with your computer, you can possibly mimic the commands on it. You can, however, modify the inputs of the receiver and TV, so that's at least some of the manual work that can be avoided. Perhaps a computer running Windows Media Center might be a better match with the remote (mine runs XP SP2).

What I like about the remote are the activity based buttons (like, watch TV, watch DVR).

Programming the device is a fairly slow and cumbersome process, almost like it's not quite made for computer use. You can't just make a simple change. You have to scroll though a full preset script from square one, then upload the changes to your remote and RF device. It reminds me a lot of a Casio watch I got circa 1990 in which the computer interface was a novelty, not really an efficient interface. Setting up your buttons the way you like is a drag and takes time.

To be fair, Logitech has a pretty extensive library of components, which is nice.

Another main problem is that the remote isn't that smart. For example, it can't tell if a device is really on or off, it just toggles it when you push an activity button. This gets difficult if some of your activities overlap (for example, if your DVR is your cable set top box). Often you will end up with getting a device out of synch (in other words, on when it should be off,or vice versa, when all of the other components are O.K.). Of course, you can scroll through the devices and then scroll through the options and turn it on or off(though just getting up off the couch and pushing the button the hardware is less work!), but then why not just buy a $40 universal remote?

Finally, I have a gas fireplace with a remote, and the Harmony 890 was unable to either find my stove in its library or learn from the remote.

The RF works well- no problem with sensing.

I'll change this review later if I find it's too hasty, but, at this point, I can't recommend buying this remote unless money is no object to you and you simply like the way it looks.