Control4 came out with a new modern looking remote..

Compared

Compared to the older one it’s much lighter and smaller. It feels nice to hold, lot more modern.

I didn’t really realise how massive the old one was until I got this one. I remember feeling that way the first time I got it – like what is this big black 80s brick. But I’d got used to it.

Setup

You don’t need a dealer to install it for you. You just take it out of the package and log into your wifi network, it finds the controller and you assign it to a room.

There are some more advanced settings in composer though. I’m guessing you can tweak these with Composer HE too.

Screen

The touch screen isn’t an iPhone. It isn’t nice to use. It misses presses, you have to be deliberate with it. It runs at about 20fps.

You can adjust the layout of the touchscreen tiles – but not on the control itself. You need to do it via the phone app or a touchscreen.

Usage

I’d say if all you do is watch something like Apple TV where you just need the arrows you’re going to get along fine.

If you use Freeview/Cable/Sky, where you remember the channel numbers and want to pop the TV guide up – it can get a bit exhausting. The numpad and the guide button are on the touchscreen, you can’t really develop muscle memory and automatically press them while looking at the TV. The guide and numpad are on different screens so you have to swipe around to try to find the button you want to press.

As ugly as the default Control4 remote is you learn to love the number of buttons on it. Especially once you start programming them.

My living room remote is programmed so a single button press can open/close the curtains, toggle the lights, switch to appletv/freeview/cameras. You learn where these are and can press them without looking. You lose all that with the new remote

That said – if you have a partner who doesn’t really know how to do all that then the touch screen might be a bit easier for them.

Price

£600. For a remote control.

To be fair to them, it feels premium. The charger is really heavy and magnetic so the remote just snaps to it really nicely.

Worth It?

I find myself reaching for the regular remote more than this one. It sucks, but it’s just much more straight forward to use.

Maybe the next version will have more physical buttons or voice controls – but for now don’t bother.