SofaBaton X1 Universal Remote with Hub and App, All in One Smart Universal Remote Control with Customize Activities, Control Up to 60 IR/Bluetooth/WiFi Devices, Compatible with Alexa

I generally do not submit reviews for products. However, this product was initially such a disappointment and waste of time and money that I wanted to warn people not to buy this product.

After my initial negative review, SofaBaton reached out to me in an effort to recover an initial negative experience.

The X1 device promises to work with over 500,000 devices and while that may be true, if you attempt to put the device together like I did you will be disappointed and frustrated. However, the customer service representative that reached out to me helped to clear up my frustration.

First the black square device that the X1 remote communicates with must be in direct sight of all of your devices IR readers meaning. Do not attempt to hide it or cover it or burry it in an entertainment cabinet otherwise the black square will not be able to send signals to your devices. The other part is the IR blasters that also come with the device are crucial as well. You need to set those infront of other IR receivers in your devices if the black square can not be in direct line of sight. I say this as the pamphlet that comes with the device failed to mention this important aspect.

The customer service support has been outstanding and they will be able to walk you through set up.

Just be warned. If you think you can get this set up in 5 minutes or less it’s not possible and highly recommend chatting with customer service.

Also side note, if you have a small set up (ie cable box/ steaming device, TV and surround sound speakers the U1 may be a remote you should start with to get familiar with the SofaBaton functionality.

The x1 device has the capability to evolve via updates through the app. Should be relevant for a while until they develop their next universal remote.

UPDATE: 12/16/22 This remote still constantly disconnects from Fire TV on a daily basis. "No Fix Yet" As a professional installer I would say this remote is worth about half of what they are charging. I would not buy this again or recommend it to anyone.

UPDATE: 11/22/22
It constantly drops connection with the FireTV, so you have to go to the app (can't be done through the remote "bad design") you have to find FireTV "in the Sofa Baton" app" - go to the edit - click "Bluetooth re-pairing"...then go to the setting on the FireTV - Then Bluetooth connections find Sofa Baton and click connect. It's quite the lengthy process especially when you have to do this 2 to 3 times a week.

Also I emailed support the second day I bought this remote about FireTV button commands missing and so far "2 months later" no fix. Also they are missing some popular major brand models. They added one for a major brand sound bar that I mentioned to them but the codes don't work.

10/8/22
First off let me say that I am a professional home theater/home automation designer and installer. I was looking for something to replace the Logitech Elite remote for a client, but this is not it. There in no IR in the remote itself which renders it pretty useless if have equipment inside and outside of an equipment cabinet or closet.

The remote is snappy and the commands work ok. It's a will do if you don't have any equipment in a cabinet. Set up was okay, certain buttons for the TV wouldn't populate during the setup so I had to manually add them. Not good especially when it's a major brand TV.

The second "major problem" I see is the remote itself does not emit IR commands, only the hub/blaster does. That means if you have equipment in a cabinet you can put the hub/blaster in the cabinet but you must run ugly extention wires run to the outside of the cabinet to control the TV and other devices outside the cabinet. In my opinion this defeats the whole purpose of having the remote in the first place.

Also in the description they claim that you can pause, play and volume up and down via voice command. You can do that but it's a bit misleading, you must make an activity for each of those commands in order to make it work like that. So on your main menu you would have watch TV, play DVD ect... and you would also have to setup DVD play, DVD volume, DVD pause etc...you need to do this for "every piece of equipment" just to have those commands work. You also have to setup routines in the Alexa app for each one as they show up as separate scenes in the app. So by the time you're done you would have a massive list of activities and/or favorites on your main screen and a ton of manually adding routines to the Alexa app. Very cumbersome not practical at all!

As I said it's an OK remote if you don't have any equipment in a cabinet, if you have equipment in a cabinet you may want to look for something else.

This could have been easily solved by them by simply putting an IR emitter in the remote itself that works along with the hub/blaster. This could be partially solved if the used "network driver" commands for all the major brands that offer them (which they don't). A shame because most major brands have working network drivers for thier products. Major design flaw!!