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SofaBaton A2 Remote for Apple TV 4K Remote Replacement
For Apple TV Player
Can be Completely Replaced Apple TV Remote
- A1427 / A1469 (MD199) – Gen 3rd
- A1378 (MC572) – Gen 2nd
- A1218 (MA711) – Gen 1st
For Apple TV 4K Player
(Voice Control, gesture control and Bluetooth are not supported)
- A2169 – Gen 2nd
- A1842 (MQD22, MP7P2) – Gen 1st
- A1645 (MGY52, MLNC2) Apple TV HD
No Programming needs ( If it was paired with the original remote, then it needs to be unpaired )
Features & Specifications
- 【Replace Remote for Apple TV】A2 remote completely control Apple TV 1 2 3 / Apple TV 4K Player, no programming is required, use out of the box. Equipped with 4 programmable buttons on the top (only support infrared devices)
- 【Compatibility】Completely replaces your Apple Remote for Apple TV (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation) A1427 A1469 A1378 A1218. Supports some functions of the Siri Remote (4th, 5th, and 6th Generations) A2169 A1842 A1625. Compatible with MD199 MC572 MA711 MQD22 MP7P2 MGY52 MLNC2 ❌【NOTE】Not support Voice Control, gesture control, touchpad, and Bluetooth function)
- 【Exclusive Unpair Function】A2 remote control is equipped with an unpairing function, even if the original Apple remote that is pair with the Apple TV is lost or damaged, it can be unpair via A2. Instructions Included, easy to set up
- 【Infrared Programming Remote】 Through infrared learning technology, easily set the 4pcs programmable buttons (Power + Volume) to control most smart TVs likes TCL, Philips, Samsung, LG, Sony, etc. Also support Cable Box, DVD/Blu-ray Player, Home Theater and more
- 【Should not be Missed】Stable Signal, fast transmission, the response time of 0.2 seconds and 30ft (10m) infrared control distance, allowing you to control the TV smoothly while sitting on the sofa. 2*AAA batteries included, the battery life is about 6 months. If any questions, please contact us for technical support. Provide a 1-year warranty service.
- Dimensions: 5.04 x 1.38 x 0.6 inches
- Weight: 2.39 ounces
Pros & Cons
Pros
Recommended with Qualifications. I first tried the X1 several months ago and sent it back as it clearly was not ready for prime time. I purchased it again about a month ago when it was on sale for less than $150. The good news is that it is a better product now, but it still has a way to go before it is a great product. Like many others, I am looking for a replacement for my 2 Harmony hubs now that Harmony is discontinuing Harmony products. The X! is a step in the right direction, but there are some issues that need to be addressed before I can give it more than 4 stars. On the positive side, I did not have much trouble getting the X1 hub up and running. It was a little balky in terms of the initial connection to my network, but after a couple of attempts, I got it up and running. To keep things simple, I set it up with my Samsung TV, U-verse DVR, and Apple TV. Setup is not as flexible as with the Harmony hub, but I did not find it overly onerous and had everything running within about 30 minutes. I could fairly easily switch between activities (Watch TV or Watch Apple TV). The only real issue is that the hub cannot determine the current state of your system, but does remember the last activity for your hub. So if you were watching TV, but your TV or set-top box powered down, the X! will not turn it back on if you select the Watch TV activity again as it assumes the TV and/or set-top box are still powered on. Similarly, in a few cases, the X! would not select the proper input (HDMI 1, etc.) as it could not determine the currently actively input. I could get it to switch correctly between regular TV and Apple TV, but it occasionally it would not switch HDMI inputs to switch between Apple TV and regular TV. However, usually just selecting a different activity or using the FIX command for the selected activity would get everything back in sync. The FIX command will be your friend so get to know how to use it when getting everything up and running. There is a similar REPAIR feature for each device as well which will come in handy when assigning keys to the remote/app. This will allow you to quickly determine if the key is doing what you expect. I did not have any problems with teaching hub additional keys/commands that I wanted available. It was fairly intuitive and worked as expected. I did not spend a lot of time making sure all of the available commands/functionality was downloaded from cloud database for the devices I was using as I found it almost as fast and easy to just teach the hub the commands that I wanted use. I just downloaded the basic configuration to get started for each device and then taught the hub any specific commands I wanted using the original device remote. You may not need to do this, but this eliminated one more variable in the configuration for me. Again, the FIX feature will be your friend when assigning keys/commands. Note that if you do decide to use one of the available device configurations in the X1 database, make sure it works for your specific remote. In some cases there may be several available configurations, but one may most closely match your original remote. You can review which commands each configuration supports and test them before you fully download them to the X1. Once I selected the most closely matched configuration for my device, it worked well for my device without further tinkering, although there is some ability to do so if some tweaking is required. The two biggest downsides for me are 1) the lack of physical number keys on the remote and 2) no charging cradle for the remote. The 2nd would not be a huge issue if the battery life were better. In my experience, the remote needed to be recharged every 3 days or so. Note that you must use a regular USB-C charging cord as the remote will not charge with a PD charger which is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation. The remote itself is pretty basic with many of the keys you may be used on the Harmony or original device remotes not present. Basically, there are volume and channel up and down kyes; up, down, left, and right navigation keys; and pause, play, back, and home keys. All of the keys can be reprogrammed via the app, but out of the box you will not have some of the standard functions you might expect to find on the remote keypad. You will have to decide which buttons are most important to you given the limited keys available. You can add additional commands to the display above the keypad, but I found these clumsy to use as you need to use the scroll bar to select them. I still am deciding whether to keep the X1 because of the missing number keys. I can’t think of any reason anyone would design a TV remote without a number keypad, but clearly the Sofabaton team thought otherwise. There is no easy way to enter numbers via the X1 remote. Using the scroll bar is pretty much an exercise in futility. There is a way to enter numbers via the number keypad in the app, but there sometimes is a lag between digits where digits get dropped (e.g., 1007 becomes 107). This did not happen consistently and you either configure the X1 to send each number twice as some of the numbers are getting dropped when sent to the receiver or you can setup a “channel” macro. If you setup a “channel” macro you can insert a delay between each number. I preferred Harmony’s option to control how quickly the keys are sent which was much more flexible and reliable in my setup. Note that there are 2 types of macros that serve different purposes. There is a startup and shutdown macro for each activity where you can add any additional actions required to get your devices required for that activity up and running. You may not need to do this if nothing more is required other than turning the devices on and switching to the correct input which is handled by the basic activity creation. If additional actions are required, you can create a startup macro to handle the commands. You can create command/key macros as well that apply to a specific activity and will appear on the remote display when that activity is running/active. For example you can create a “channel” macro called “GOLF Channel” that would send the correct digits to change the channel to the GOLF channel when selected versus entering the digits one at a time from the app number pad. You likely will be frustrated trying to enter individual digits from the X1 remote since there is not physical number pad on the remote. Pretty much anything you can select from the original device remote(s) can be included in a macro, including commands from multiple devices if multiple devices are used for that activity. Overall, I would give the IOS app a B-. If you have used a Harmony remote before, you will find it somewhat similar (I was not a big fan of the Harmony app either). Navigation is not especially intuitive, but you should not have too much of a problem locating most of the features you will need when adding or creating activities, devices, or macros. The ALEXA integration is extremely limited. Pretty much all you can do is turn on or off devices. Ther is not support for changing channels, adjusting the volume, etc, as you may have been used to if you were using a Harmony hub. In its current form, it’s not very useful. All in all, it’s not a horrible first effort and it is better than anything else currently available. It’s fairly expensive for what it currently does, but roughly in line with what Harmony was charging for the same functionality. I should note that The Sofabaton team was very responsive to and fixing problems which is something I had been concerned about. They even scheduled a call with a support technician when I was having an issue that was not resolved via several email exchanges and did offer to exchange or refund my purchase if everything did not work as I expected. If you are considering purchasing this product, make sure you can live with the limited remote functionality due to the lack of number keys, etc. In general, it is no harder to configure than the Harmony devices, albeit with less flexibility and functionality. 4 STARS.
Harmony Replacement. Disclaimer: This replaces your Harmony remote. No, I was not paid by anybody, nor did I receive a free remote or anything else for this review. I’m just thankful that somebody has filled the post Harmony void. _______________________________________________ If you have grown up with learning remotes and are equally disappointed with Logitech's dissolution of their Harmony version of remotes, pay close attention. In a short period of time, Sofabaton (what a silly name) has somehow leapfrogged somewhere around 80% of the way to where Phillips, Harmon/Kardon, Home Theater Master, Harmony, and Logitech perfected this technology in about 30 years. This company is on the right track for this niche community that doesn't want to pay a "professional" to program their ProControl remote every time they swap out a DVD player, receiver, or projector. Kudos Sofabaton. From a hardware perspective, the X1 button layout is very similar to an Amazon FireStick remote. Our family likes this, as we previously bought into the Amazon ecosystem/interface. If you haven’t done that, it’s user friendly. The remote itself feels cheaper than a Harmony remote, but from a functional perspective, that does not matter. Nobody who designed the dashboard on a BMW designed the feel of this remote. It's smooth, lightweight, and lacks the feel of a high end remote like Logitech's last line of remotes. While it has a screen, it's not touchscreen like the Harmony Elite. The general idea of this remote "feels" EXACTLY like a Harmony remote with a hub, and blasters/emitters. While Sofabaton claims a huge number of devices are in their database, be prepared to teach it IR commands. My receiver (Harman Kardon) and Blu-Ray player (Panasonic) weren’t in their database. While pointing my original remotes toward the hub, the hub learned impeccably without a hiccup very quickly with each button press. Button 1, learned. Button 2, learned. Button 3, learned. On and on until 50 or so buttons were learned without any problem whatsoever. Score Sofabaton. There’s an order of operations. Basically, it’s as follows (this is important because I messed up on step #3): 1. Define devices (receivers, TV, Roku/Fire Stick, etc.) 2. Learn device commands for devices not in their database (the IR “teach” phase) 3. Assign learned device commands to device buttons (it took me a while to figure this out, but this is super important or your activities won’t know the device commands) 4. Create activities 5. Assign devices to activities The app is good, but achieving the above steps takes patience. The Chinese to English translation is less than ideal (read this two times). If you have the patience to teach remotes IR commands and figure out how to assign buttons to devices and activities, you will not be disappointed. On a side note, the Harmony blasters/emitters have 2.5 mm aux input jacks. If you are looking for an adapter to convert those blaster/emitters to work with the 3.5 mm Sofabaton input jacks, these worked for me. They were a tight fit, but they worked. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FDW8PDQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1 Good luck!
Wonderful device! It took me a couple of days to get things the way I wanted them but with a bit of patience, it is totally doable. This replaced a Universal Remote that I had replaced a few times. We have been using it daily now for several weeks and it is rock solid. Our system has components (DVR and Denon AV system) that are inside a wooden cabinet and the hub and the TV itself are outside. The hub is positioned about an inch below the TV and this seems to blast the IR on the TV just fine. I used two IR transmitter cables from the hub to the inside of the cabinet that are stuck to the front of the DVR and the Denon. They do provide new IR cables but I opted to use my old ones that were already stuck to the right place on the devices and that worked just fine so I will save the new cables that come with the hub as spares. What they are doing is not easy but I'm really impressed with how well they pulled it off. I set up two Activities and named them "Cable" and "Streaming". After investing some effort in the setup, I am very, very happy with this remote.
Great remote, but the setup process is a chore. They came so close. They really did. I like everything about the design. I like the screen. I like the scroll wheel. The buttons are nice and they are backlit. The hub is great and comes with two IR extenders which work well. The problem lies in setting the thing up. It's a very involved process that's worse than U1 in some ways. To start, I connected the hub to my WiFi then I connected it to my phone through Bluetooth. Once that's done, the software asked if I want to update the hub. It took no time. After all that good stuff, setup became similar to U1 which was regulated to bedroom duty. The same issues with the U1 persisted. To find my devices in the database, I had to be very specific with the model numbers. Syncing sometimes dropped which meant I had to redo the process to get it fully synced. The IR learning was worse than the U1 - so bad that I'll cover it later on. The remote is limited compared to U1 in certain ways. There is no dedicated power button. The "Off" button is for Activities and can't be changed which is printed in the surprisingly nice color manual. To get a dedicated power button for each device, I had to sacrifice one of the buttons on the lower half of the remote. I would have really appreciated a power button to the left of the wheel and an input button to the right of the wheel like the U1 had. Another way it is more limited than the U1 was that I couldn't contribute to the command list or overwrite a command for a Bluetooth remote which the U1 allowed you to do. To use the X1 for my Chromecast and control the volume of my sound bar without changing devices, I had to set up an activity for that. Last, but not least, is the IR learning. It was terrible. It was worse than the U1. It was the worst out of any universal remote I've ever used. The hub refused to pick up certain button presses. Even though it accepted a button press, it didn't work when I tested it. On top of that, there was patterns to the missing button presses. Sometimes, a press was skipped. Sometimes, it required multiple button presses for one input. Sometimes two presses worked but the third and forth wouldn't. It's a great thing they included a test button in the app. They had to. They knew the IR learning was bad. While I did get it to work flawlessly and added the two devices I needed to, the three hours of attempts broke my spirit. That was the main reason why I didn't give the remote five stars. Everything else is on point except for the setup process. The buttons feel great. The scroll wheel is awesome. I love the screen. The remote feels great in my hand, although it is a little top heavy. I've had no issues once setting it up, but setting it up is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. While I do think Sofabaton is on to something here and could put out an amazing product, they just aren't quite there yet.
Happy except for losing bluetooth volume control. Works well, once you get used to having to point right at at the box. My only issue is that the original Roku remote let me change the volume on bluetooth devices via the side buttons. (I used Sideclick to control my soundbar.) I get that the SofaBaton is an IR remote, and can't learn functions from the Roku remote. I know it doesn't support wifi or bluetooth. But has anyone figured out a way to program this gizmo to manage bluetooth volume?
Great hardware but need improvement on mobile App and user manual for setup process. Same as many other people, I'm buying this X1 remote to replace the discontinued Harmony Elite remote which has been working very well for me. I have nearly 10 devices including TV, PC, fireTV, Roku, Xbox, Nintendo, HDMI switch and sound bar. I got very frustrated with the setup process initially and almost returned it. But I know there's currently no other better alternative remote in the market. After more than one week of diligent research and experiment, finally I got it working in the similar way as my old Harmony except it doesn't have a touch screen which I'm fine with it. One biggest hurdle that I overcame is the source input selection. When the devices are added, I need to go to the Device Information/Source switching mode to add the inputs and use them in the activities. The issue was that selection sequence may not be the same as I use my original remote. For example, my original TV smart remote doesn't have direct input select buttons and I need to press a few different keys to select the desired input source. With multiple keys, it may mess up sometimes. I didn't realize that the TV input source can indeed be selected with one single key which doesn't exist on the original remote but is listed in the key list which is shown after choosing Source switching mode/Switch sources with one-clock in the app. I wish such information had been explicitly highlighted in the user manual/instruction/prompt and it would have saved me a few days. Another thing is that the original remote may have just one power button which is used to toggle the TV on and off. Sometimes it may mess up if something is out of sync. When setting up the device in Device information/Macro settings for turn on/off, indeed there may be two separate power on and power off keys that can be used for power on and power off respectively. If the device is already on for some reason, when select an activity with power on key, it won't turn off the device by mistake like the single power key which toggles the device to power off. It would be very appreciated if such information could have been in the instruction. The summary is the remote hardware is great and capable of doing many things like the Harmony remote, but the mobile App for setup and user manual need to be improved a lot. Given time to improve, it definitely can become a comparable or even better replacement for Harmony remote.
Cons
No comparison with Logitech Harmony Hub. So you know where I'm coming from, before trying the Sofabaton X1 with Hub I have been using a Logitech 950 with Harmony Hub and a Logitech Companion with Hub. While those aren't perfect, they're miles better than this. SETUP The only way to setup, as others have mentioned, is only through the app. The app could be a little better. I had trouble getting it to connect to the hub after I setup the Hub on my Wifi. I had even disabled my 5GHz network to make sure it didn't interfere. The hub would show in the list for me to connect to, but when I tried to select it nothing would happen. I ended up having to uninstall and reinstall the app and after doing that I could finally select and interact with the Hub. I updated the firmware. As the screen tells you, this transfers from your phone to the hub via Bluetooth so you have to remain somewhat close to the hub during the process. Then once it "completes" you get a message saying... not to open the hub or app for 5 minutes or you might corrupt something?! Based on other firmware updates I've done there are better ways to do this. There should be some notification the update process has successfully completed, not just wait 5 minutes. Unlike others, after that I didn't find the setup process too bad. It's not as good as Harmony, but it's serviceable. As others have noted there is no drop down to help you find your devices or model numbers. However, if the device is wifi controllable you can do a Wifi scan and select it on screen. I did this with my Roku Streaming Stick+ and it worked well. Everything setup and worked the first time for me. I didn't like the process of setting up activities and having to tell the app each time how my inputs are selected (direct, scrolling, sequential, etc.). Once the selection is made it should remember that. Better yet, it should be transferred to and stored in the Sofabaton database so that others with the same model item don't have to make that selection either. Overall, the setup wasn't too bad. One thing about the app I didn't like is that there is a constant icon in my notifications on my android phone for the Sofabaton app even when it's not in use. There is nothing in it, it's just there. As someone who likes to clear notifications (especially pointless or useless ones) it is annoying for it to be there all the time by default. USING THE REMOTE I also updated the remote firmware after charging it fully. Remote must stay close to the hub and you need to keep your phone connected to Wifi for the duration. Unlike the hub there's no 5 minute wait after the update, the remote is ready to go. I knew the remote wasn't touch screen, so that was no big deal. The screen is readable and I like that most of the buttons light up. I didn't play around with it too much, but it seems to me the remote screen should default to your Activities once you have them setup instead of having to select it each time and then choose the activity. Maybe there's a setting somewhere to change it, but I haven't bothered to look. The remote feels fine in my hand, and the scroll ball works well. I agree with another reviewer that said the back button for the remote display should be next to the scroll ball. It's a bit inconveniently located. PERFORMANCE Here is why I'm sending it back. I set the hub in the exact same spot as my Harmony Hub and started to try and use my system. It's very minimal: TV, soundbar, and Roku. I used the IR emitter to get to the TV IR receiver since the soundbar blocks it. The hub could not reliably control my soundbar though. I could setup the second emitter for my soundbar, but it seems a bit superfluous. By contrast, the Harmony Hub (from a now less ideal location) had no issues controlling everything. The X1 hub has 4 IR emitters in it in an upside down Y configuration looking at the front. The Harmony Hub has 6, a similar Y configuration plus 2 more on the side. I can only guess that these extra emitters are what make the difference. The X1 hub emitters seemed brighter to me, but it didn't help with the device control. If I stood in a certain position where the signal could bounce off me then I could control everything with no issue, but standing there for day to day use is not ideal or feasible. As another reviewer noted, the IR signal just isn't strong enough. Either that or it's not broadcast widely enough to get where it needs to go from the hub. The X1 has potential. It needs some hardware updates (back button moved, more IR emitters in the hub and/or stronger emitters), but it could be a good product. Maybe an X1 Revision 2 or an X2 model could incorporate these things. For me though, it's not going to replace my aging Harmony as I had hoped though. As a side note, the Hub feels incredibly cheap when compared to the Logitech Harmony Hub. There's little weight to it probably lending to the inexpensive feel. The only leg up on the Harmony Hub that I feel it's got is USB-C power, which isn't enough to win me over. I'll keep my eye on Sofabaton products and maybe a future one will be able to replace my Harmony. At least I hope so because they'll eventually die on their own.
Octopus of problems. If it's not one thing, it's seven others. DO NOT BUY. I rarely write reviews, but this device is so bad, I feel compelled to warn others. Don't only read my review, though, check out similar comments, as well as the X1's low 3.5 star rating. Hopefully, you've filtered only to find 4+ stars here at Amazon. Lucky you will then neither have to read my lengthy review nor suffer through the experience that is Sofabaton. First, there are basically no instructions. That's fine, I'm into this type of thing, good with computers, I'll figure it out. Like other half baked junk these days, the app is only on the phone. I'd prefer it on the computer for a setup tool like this, but maybe others like tiny screens and limited options. My biggest complaint is that the commands don't work consistently with my preamp. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. My preamp works fine with the factory remote, the Harmony 890 blaster, and my nVidia shield remote. No problems, basically 100% of the time. But the X1 fails frequently (let's say it's a 30% failure rate on volume up/down -- totally unacceptable). I've spent hours and hours trying to figure this out to no avail. I even removed IR LEDs from a working Harmony blaster and installed them in the X1 to see if they were just using cheap parts. Yes, I have taken an extreme effort. You can guess at their codes in the database, you can learn from the original remote, you can add "repeats", etc. Doesn't make any difference. Note: all the options they give you are not described -- what are "repeats" exactly? What difference codes are you selecting when you go through the list? They just ask if it worked. They are totally guessing. Almost as annoying as it being unable to consistently control my devices is this: When you create an "Activity" and you assign commands to the soft menus on the screen, you cannot reorder them once they are in place. You can also not delete them. You have to delete the entire activity and start over. So, if you had a whole system set up and you bought a new TV, you could not simply change the TV model and reassign buttons -- you'd have to start all over. This makes no sense, of course. I and others have repeatedly asked for them to fix this, and they say they will review the request. Um, this would be one of the first things I would do if this were my project (from the start, not after probably hundreds of customer requests). The database of IR codes is a total disaster. Some commands are missing, some are oddly named, and some do the wrong thing. I suppose you could consider this some type of challenge -- like a Sudoku or a crossword -- to keep your mind active, but I just find it a pain in the backside. Between the oddball codes and the inability to reorganize the menus once they are in place, I was discouraged from creating an elaborate setup in the soft menus. If you do attempt to work with this device, I suggest setting up the *absolute* minimum until you're sure it'll work for you. If you try to set it up as you really want, you'll be met with frustration. Sometimes the hub and/or the handset will drop the connection. I don't know exactly which connection is lost, but power cycling it will fix it. Let's just say that this isn't particularly popular with my wife and kids. I'm sure there are more negative points, but I can't remember them all! Check out the negative reviews from others to get a feel. And check out the "community" section at the Sofabaton X1 website. You can see the endless complaints, along with Sofabaton's responses, which are usually a regurgitation of some type of "sorry for the inconvenience" nonsense. The external hardware and the packaging are impressive, though I have read complaints of early failures on some of the buttons. However, the app, the firmware, the electronics and the IR databases are what I would expect of a year-long graduate level four-person group project. Very, very impressive for a handful of kids that have no real work experience. But it's not ready for primetime and I'd say it would take another year or more of development with a team of real engineers for it to be at the point that it's for sale at Amazon for $189. Please, give yourself an early birthday present this year and DO NOT PURCHASE this piece of junk! Extra points if your birthday is actually TODAY!
Almost there. UPDATE: Since my original review, my X1 hub has been freezing at least once a day. It becomes completely unresponsive to the remote, and trying to re-sync the remote manually is never successful. I found that a powercycle of the hub fixes it every time with no need to reconfigure anything, but to have to powercycle this at least once per day is not acceptable. On top of this issue, their support is extremely lacking. It takes days (sometimes up to 5 days) to get a response from support. And even then, once you reply to the templated "perform a factory reset" response, the next reply is like starting all over with a new rep asking for the same background info and proof of purchase that was already sent multiple times. It's as if they don't track cases by case number or log them at all. Pretty frustrating to say the least. I'll still give it two stars for now hoping that a firmware update may solve this, or more unrealistically support will deem my hub defective and send a replacement. One can hope. ORIGINAL REVIEW: Like others, I intended to replace older Harmony remotes with the X1. So far, it has accomplished that. It seems a lot of bugs were fixed and features added by the time I got around to purchasing one in December 2022. A lot of older reviews mention issues that I have not encountered, so I can only assume the devs are actively working to continually improve the product and have worked out a lot of bugs by now. My main gripe (and the reason for only four stars) is the lack of physical buttons, which I was aware of when purchasing. I really wish there were additional buttons surrounding the LCD similar to the Logitech Harmony 650 remote, where you could easily scroll and select specific commands using the physical buttons. With the X1, you only have the top scroll wheel, and you have to keep drilling down into a device and scrolling more to find a command you need to send. Not nearly as quick and efficient as the Harmony design. The lack of number buttons and additional physical media control/playback buttons is also a bummer. Even the addition of just a " * " button would be helpful. On my Harmonies I used the * button for various commands depending on the activity. That being said, it does work. The IR custom learning works. I had no issues adding devices by manufacturer part number; they were all recognized first time and code base downloaded without issue. IR range is great. No Wifi issues at all either. I've also noticed that each button push and command is much more responsive than the Harmony. With my Harmony remotes, there was about a 5-10ms lag between the time a button was pushed until the action happened. It never bothered me and honestly I never noticed until I got the X1 working. I immediately noticed the X1 was quicker at sending the commands. Pros: - USB-C Rechargeable, Backlit keys; decent LCD display - Advanced per-key programming and manual override available as well as power on/off sequence, sequence delay, and even button press duration. - Remote to Hub range and IR in general is very good. Hub IR learning using original remotes worked the first time every time I tried. - Setup with app wasn't too bad at all in my experience. There is a slight learning curve, but I had my entire setup programmed and fully tested in less than an hour - Actions are more responsive than Harmony 600 series remotes - Find remote feature is sufficiently loud Cons: - Limited transport keys (only back, pause/play, forward) - Lack of number buttons. - Lack of buttons in general (only 4 misc hotkeys at bottom) - Poor design for locating specific keys for a device. Must rely on top LCD and round scroll wheel, go into device, and scroll and scroll to find the function you need. - Hub gets pretty warm. I have mine on top of the entertainment stand and not in an enclosed glass door cabinet or shelf and it still is surprisingly warm just for a remote hub. Bottom line is that yes, it will suffice as a replacement for Harmony remotes. However, even at the lightning deal price of $150 I still feel that is too high. I have a need for a total of 3 custom remotes (basement, living room, bedroom) but I think I will wait for some time to see if the next iteration includes additional features and physical buttons. Although it works just fine for my smallest setup and I will be keeping it, I think I will wait to see what the next iteration has in store instead of purchasing more of the X1 models. If these were half the price I would purchase 2 more in an instant, but not at the current price given the reasons above. SofaBaton, I hope you read these reviews and expand on the X1. There is serious potential here!
When it works, it’s great… But half of the time it just doesn’t work...but wait... Update: I did some digging around my setup and discovered that the apple box has slid from line of site of the hub. That correction restored apple tv control. Apparently it did not set itself up via Bluetooth like the apple remote. There may be a way to do that, but time will tell. I am giving it another week or so of use to decide if I will keep it. I am hopeful that I can, because it could be just what I have been looking for. Like everybody here I wanted to love it. The set up was very challenging but once I got through it, it seemed great. I could control my Apple TV and my Pioneer receiver volume button at the same time and when it worked it was great. But I’ve had it for 4 nights and two of the nights, it just simply did not work. Like everybody else I had to go and unplug the hub and plug it back in again. That’s simply not acceptable. My Apple remote will control my Apple TV every time I pick it up, but at the same time this remote will not. I just want some thing I can pick up and use. Back it goes.
So Much Potential. BLUF – if you are good with tech and do not care about occasional hiccups you need to fix, this remote is great. If you have someone in your house that just wants things to work and does not want to deal with this remote not working occasionally, do not get it as there is some work that still needs to be done with it. I will say, the last firmware upgrade did seem to make it more responsive, it will work faster after it’s been sitting there for a while during a movie or football game. Maybe it is my set up, NVIDA Shield Pro, Sony TV, Onkyo Reciever and an Xbox One S that is causing issues. I’ve reformatted it a couple times and it does seem better after the few firmware upgrades. However, I still need to reconnect the Bluetooth to the Shield once in a while, and occasionally something will not turn on or off. All things that did not happen on our old remote, the company that stopped making universal remotes. Usually opening the app on my phone or unplugging the hub will fix things. I do not have an issue with getting the remote functioning, but no one else in my house likes it. I’ve come home to all the remotes sitting out because the issue usually happens when I am not home. All in all, it has great features and setting up activities is a great feature. I also like reprogramming buttons to do something else. I think if they can iron out connection issues, this will be a perfect replacement to the remotes that were the best.
Sofa Baton X1: A glitchy remote with poor user interface and no support! August 31, 2022: So much promise, so much disappointment. This should be the perfect remote: able to control multiple components via wifi, BT, RF and IR. Activity based and macro programmable so it can control any system. Elegant packaging with good hand feel and logical button layout. But in the end it just doesn't work. I spent about 20 hours trying to get it to work - I shouldn't have spent the time but I wanted it to work and I was confident I could get it to work. I was wrong. I have over 20 years experience working with universal remotes for both my customers and my own use: setting up macros, defining activities, teaching commands. I tried all of these things with the Sofa Baton and in the end had to admit defeat. I searched for help online and found none. During troubleshooting, the app would lose contact with the hub and I'd be left holding a brick while the app spun and spun, looking for a hub that was 3 feet away. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app; I restarted the remote and hub; I deleted all the programming and started over; I double checked (again) that the firmware had been updated. In the end I was able to get most of the individual commands to work for a while but inevitably their function was limited to occasional success only. And the activities (strings of specific commands to various components to start or stop certain functions) only worked maybe 20% of the time rendering the X1 essentially useless. Very disappointing. There is so much promise with the X1, I hope Sofa Baton gets their act together. I hope they set up a real support section on their website. (As of August 31, 2022, the website still says the X1 is coming March 2022 and there is no X1 support page.) I hope they upgrade their app so it is logical and usable with consistency from one window to the next. Is it too much to hope that they allow learned commands for all components, not just some? (See below.) If this was a $40 remote, I could forgive all these shortcomings but it is a $200 remote which makes these shortcomings fatal. I spent 3 weeks tinkering with the X1 and then returned it. I read some conflicting reviews prior to purchasing the X1 regarding control of Sonos speakers. My answer is yes, the X1 is capable of controlling a Sonos Soundbar (I didn't try it with other Sonos components). However, I had to create a workaround to make it happen. When I set up the X1 for the Sonos Soundbar, Sofa Baton provided 30 or 40 pre-programmed commands for the Soundbar which did not include MUTE, Vol UP or Vol DOWN - all of which, IMHO, are relatively important for controlling a sound source. When I navigated to the Sonos command list, editing the list was not allowed. So I went to the Samsung TV command list (which I was allowed to edit) and added these three commands via the learning function, then went to the Fire TV activity and designated these 3 commands as sound control using the TV component. This worked, except when it didn't because the X1 was busy looking for the hub. One other note. I was really surprised that included in a $200 remote control were 3 IR blasters that had OPAQUE 2-sided tape attached to them. This seems like such a no-brainer to me. You have a component (IR blaster) which needs to transmit light in order to work and one entire face of the blaster is covered with tape which blocks light! ALL of the other IR blasters I've used over the past 20 years have had clear 2-sided tape on them so you peel off the backing and stick the blaster right on to the IR receiver window, easy peasy. This is not an option for the Sofa Baton blasters. Such a small thing yet such a difference. Sofa Baton: I'm sorry for such a terrible review. Maybe I'll try the X1 in 6 months or so to see if you've cleared up some of these glitches. If so, I'll update this review.
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