Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home: Remote to Rule Them All

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Not only can the $350 Logitech Harmony Ultimate Home control your entertainment system, it can also control a wide range of smart home devices.

Couch potatoes, rejoice! Logitech's new premium remotes can control not just your entertainment center, but a wide range of smart home devices. You may never leave the couch again.

The $350 Harmony Ultimate Home and $150 Harmony Home Control, which go on sale today, bring an added dimension of control to Logitech's lineup of remotes. Both remotes are available in white or black, and are just as comfortable to hold as previous generations, with a curved, soft-touch underside and easy to press buttons.

MORE: 15 Amazing Smart Home Gadgets

While the older Logitech Harmony Ultimate remote can control both Philips Hue lights and the Nest thermostat, the Harmony Ultimate Home takes home automation a few steps further. In addition to controlling a wider range of connected-home devices, such as window shades and door locks, the Ultimate Home will also let users create actions that will dim the lights, close the shades, and turn on your TV just by pressing a single button.

As with its previous remotes, the Ultimate Home communicates with a Wi-Fi connected hub, which then relays signals to your entertainment center or connected home devices. 

For those whom a $350 remote is too steep, Logitech will also sell the hub separately for $100, which will allow them to perform all the same actions using an Android or iOS app. The $150 Harmony Home Control is also being offered as a more basic remote, which lacks the touchscreen of the Ultimate Home.

Regardless of which remote you choose, though, consumers will also be able to control their home and entertainment center via the Android and iOS app, provided they have the hub. And, Logitech says that at some point this fall, it will update the firmware on the older Harmony Ultimate. If you can't wait that long, you can bring it into Best Buy for $100 off one of the new remotes. 

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Mike Prospero
Mike Prospero
U.S. Editor-in-Chief, Tom's Guide

Michael A. Prospero is the U.S. Editor-in-Chief for Tom’s Guide. He oversees all evergreen content and oversees the Homes, Smart Home, and Fitness/Wearables categories for the site. In his spare time, he also tests out the latest drones, electric scooters, and smart home gadgets, such as video doorbells. Before his tenure at Tom's Guide, he was the Reviews Editor for Laptop Magazine, a reporter at Fast Company, the Times of Trenton, and, many eons back, an intern at George magazine. He received his undergraduate degree from Boston College, where he worked on the campus newspaper The Heights, and then attended the Columbia University school of Journalism. When he’s not testing out the latest running watch, electric scooter, or skiing or training for a marathon, he’s probably using the latest sous vide machine, smoker, or pizza oven, to the delight — or chagrin — of his family.

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10 Comments Comment from the forums
  • natcparis
    I'd still request the prosthetic leg, anyway.
    Reply
  • jpishgar
    Was going to take the plunge on gearing up with home automation, but waiting for those Philips Hue lights to come down a bit.
    Reply
  • ubercake
    These remotes are great.

    I have an older 700 and have been using Harmony remotes for years. They were the first truly universal that could control even the Motorola cable boxes when no other remotes could. This is what turned me on to them.
    Reply
  • evanevery
    Not even close to the flexibility and programmability of the IRULE product.

    www.iruleathome.com

    The Logitech remotes aren't the ultimate anything and don't come close to "ruling it all"...
    Reply
  • natekinkead
    Here's an in-depth analysis of the Harmony's new Z-Wave home automation integration. Is it too little, too late, too much? http://kinkeadtech.com/2014/09/logitech-harmony-gets-z-wave-home-automation-late/
    Reply
  • n1kk0
    It's way too expensive.
    Reply
  • VinceCL
    No Windows Phone app? No thanks. I have the original version of the remote shown and it is an ergonomic nightmare. The action buttons above the screen should be below it like previous versions. The touch screen is a nightmare if you brush it accidentally. I spend most of my time putting it back onto the right screen. It is flexible, that is to be sure, but the 880 before it (my first Logitech remote), though not as powerful, was a far better remote to actually use.
    Reply
  • mattyj2001
    Not even close to the flexibility and programmability of the IRULE product.

    www.iruleathome.com

    The Logitech remotes aren't the ultimate anything and don't come close to "ruling it all"...

    That's just a remote app for smartphones, which doesn't rule. When the wife asks how to turn the TV on and I say 'Get your phone, unlock it, start the app and ...', it fails miserably as a TV remote. Or any type of remote, for that matter.
    Reply
  • evanevery
    Not if you get a small tablet to simply function as the remote and leave it on your coffee table!
    Reply
  • mattyj2001
    14227252 said:
    Not if you get a small tablet to simply function as the remote and leave it on your coffee table!

    True, perhaps. :)

    I feel like my fingers prefer tactile buttons for the most part. In any case, it would be rad to control my lights from the TV remote, and have it automatically set the mood when watching certain things.
    Reply