It’s never fun having to control your entire home theater system with multiple remotes. Here’s where a universal remote comes in handy, powering nearly every device with a single clicker so that you don’t have to look high and low for a missing controller between the cushions or get up out of your comfy seat on the couch. We’ve found the best universal remotes to control your tv.
After Logitech discontinued the Harmony remote line, it seemed that the category was done — especially after another one of our previous recommendations, Caavo, also became no longer available. But Sofabaton has breathed new life into universal remotes with its brand-new U2 universal remote. It offers simplicity of setup — with a straightforward app and a Bluetooth connection — and an even better ease of use. At half the price of the Harmony 650, the SofaBaton U2 is the best universal remote for most people.
So what’s left? Among remotes, we can recommend based on hands-on testing, not much. The outgoing Fire TV Cube is expensive and more of a hybrid Alexa speaker/streamer than a universal remote, although it will also control your devices. And the Roku and Fire TV clickers, while great for controlling those streaming devices respectively, as well as most brands of TV, don’t really qualify as “universal” remotes in the classic sense. A number of cheap replacement clickers are available too, but we can’t recommend them because we haven’t tested them yet.
Even with the emergence of SofaBaton, the universal remote category is still less popular than before. Many entertainment systems today don’t have as many separate devices as in the past, so you might not even need a universal remote. With a smart TV connected to a soundbar and a game console, for example, you can control streaming apps, audio and device switching from a single remote (the TV’s), eliminating the need for a universal remote. If you have an AV receiver and multiple sources, however, it gets more complicated.
With those caveats in mind, here are our current picks for the best universal remote.
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