One of the main selling points of the Harmony 880 is its small
128x160 pixel color LCD screen. It displays messages from time to time, but it is mostly used for displaying labels for the 8 buttons alongside the screen.The Harmony 880 has a very smart energy saver to make sure the display doesn't drain the battery too quickly. The fact the display switches off after the remote hasn't been used for 20 seconds isn't all that special. What
is special is that it automatically turns on whenever you pick up the remote thanks to an internal tilt sensor! So you don't have to switch the remote on or anything. Just pick it up and you're good to go - another very smart feature. You can change the
Glow Timing (the time the LCD stays lit) and turn off the tilt sensor through the "
Settings" page on the Harmony's setup website.
You can upload new backgrounds and themes for the LCD screen - again through the setup website. You can even create a slideshow and display that on the remote's screen. Ok, the usefullness of a slide show on your remote evades me a bit, but the possibility is there. But to me it feels much the same as listening to the radio on a digital camera.
The LCD screen is bright enough to be easily read in broad daylight, but dim enough not to be blinded by it in a darkened home theater room. The keys are subtly backlit and are wired to the same on/off circuit as the LCD. This enables you to always find the right key even in very dark rooms.
The keys are actually not so bright as they seem in the picture above. I just upped the contrast a bit to give you an idea how beautiful the remote looks in the dark.
The remote feels very light. It's completely symmetric so it does not matter if you operate the remote left- or right handed. When holding the remote, your thumb naturally hovers above the cursor and "Ok" keys, which are probably the keys you will use the most. To the left of the cursor keys are the volume up and down keys, to the right the channel up and down. So you have the most important keys near the center of the remote. Obviously someone at Logitech had thought this through.
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