In the world of touch screen tablet-style remote controls with their sophisticated technology and complex programming, it’s nice to have a company like Logitech around. Most of the upscale touch screen remotes require hiring professionals to do the programming and updating. But Logitech makes this nuisance a thing of the past with their Harmony 1000 remote.

The Logitech Harmony 1000 is very good at what it was made to do. It doesn’t require a professional home theater installer to do the programming or updating. It has a light feel to it even though it’s twice the size of a standard smart phone. The screen isn’t supersharp but it does have a nice display with a QVGA resolution (320x 240). And with 3.5 inches of viewable screen space, you won’t have to worry about not having enough room to maneuver your fingers.

The 1000 shares one thing in particular with Logitech more expensive models, it comes with its own docking station. The docking station is for powering up the removable and rechargeable battery, which should save you hundreds of dollars due to not having to buy batteries over and over. As with any tablet-style remote, the Harmony 1000 does take some time getting used to. Most people use the wand-style remotes and when taking the jump up to the tablet-style, becoming an expert with the design isn’t going to be immediate. Logitech designed the 1000 with a maximum of four layers of screens, so while that is not a lot of screens it’s still enough to make you sit down and read the manual.

Programming the 1000 is extremely simple; you connect it to your PC with the included USB cable, install the model-specific Harmony software, and then you answer a few questions from an online questionnaire. Once this is done you select the components of your home theater from a provided list, supply info regarding how they are connected and define the roles they play such as, Listen to Music, Watch a DVD, Watch TV, and Play Videogames. Also you need to specify which inputs and devices the remote need to enable. After the questionnaire is finished, the software will then upload all of the codes to the Harmony 1000, as well as to the virtual buttons. And I must point out if you have a complicated system with more than 8 devices, the programming can become a little bit difficult, but if you only have a few devices it’ll be smooth sailing.

One problem that I see with the Harmony 1000 (and it is a little problem) is that sometimes there is a slight delay when navigating through menus. For example, going through the television menu to make adjustments, the remote would lag a bit. Now this doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen it is very noticeable. But aside from that small imperfection, The Harmony 1000 is a good Logitech product and should be definitely considered if or when you’re on the hunt for your new remote.