SofaBaton X1 Universal Remote Control with Hub & APP, Smart Remote with One-Touch Activities, Works with Alexa/Google Assistant for Voice Control, Control up to 50 Entertainment IR/Bluetooth Devices

Received the X1 through a KickStarter campaign. I haven’t even been able to set up devices and activities because the phone app constantly looses connection with the hub via WiFi. My home WIFi is of high speed and wide bandwidth, so I can only assume they shipped me a defective hub or the app is poorly developed. Very disappointed. I hope there’s some better reviews to come, but I cannot recommend this device and urge extreme caution before purchasing. Feel free to ask questions about specific with the issues I’m experiencing, but at this point I feel as if I was conned.

I got this remote on kickstarter,finally received it 3 months late. While the remote looks good it functions like a child programmed the interface. The database is outdated my Vizio Oled was no where to be found so had to settle for a generic Vizio. The way to edit what a button does is simply clicking on possible commands until you find the correct function after saving it still does the default action. There is no pages no icons just a long list of commands when looking at a device,in activity there is zero commands . Until they hire a competent app designer avoid this remote like the plague.

I'm not going to repeat what other reviewers wrote, other than to say they are spot-on with my experience with this remote. Even if the manufacturer can get the software bugs worked out, which they probably can, there are some extremely poor design choices made that are not going to change without a total redesign of the remote. These are the design issues that are deal breakers for me:- The back button is placed at the top of the remote, so every time you want to change to a different activity or to a different device, you need to get a finger to the top of the remote to press the back button, and then go back to the scroll wheel to make choices. Why it’s not right next to the scroll wheel is inexplicable.- You must first press a button on the remote to wake the remote up. Only then does the button and function for that button operate. So everything is a two-press operation. The only thing the first button press does is 1) wake the remote up, and 2) turn the back lighting on. Imagine you’re scrolling through a TV program guide and you pause for a second or so to read the description of the program you may be interested in. The remote has now gone to sleep and you must first press a button to wake it up, either to select to watch the program you’re interested in, or to continue scrolling through the program guide.- The buttons are overly difficult to press, particularly the directional ring, and each button press announces itself with a relatively loud and cheap snap / click sound which gets annoying very quickly.Finally, the remote is overpriced at $189. It’s at best a $129 remote, and that’s only if the software issues get resolved and people are willing to overlook the design issues noted above.

Finally, got it figured out. As I said before customer support is abysmal at best. Use their bbs.sofabaton.com for answers to questions. I had to troubleshoot on my own. The controller itself is highly configurable. But until they work out the setup kinks, this controller isn't going to be good enough for alot of people.Old review:Customer service doesn't speak English and only responds during China business hours. So, working with them is impossible. They have an online forum where you can ask for help, but even there the level of support is not very good.The product itself is impossible to configure. They recently updated their firmware to fix these issues, but unless you can get it to work in the first place, updating the firmware is impossible.Don't waste your money until they company as a whole improves.

Update on 4/11 has greatly improved device. I/R learning now works. Remote is much more responsive to key presses. Bought on Kickstarter and like many I was starting to question whether I had made a mistake backing. I have the original Nvidia Shield, Yamaha AVR, LG TV and non-brand name backlighting. All devices and activities work as they should. After this update I am very happy with the device. Still a few nitpicky issues. Remote still needs a key press or a scroll wheel action to wake the remote up. The screen timeout is still only 10 seconds. Hopefully these will be addressed in future updates. The biggest drawback to the device is that it does not have I/R built into the remote. If you have devices in a cabinet the placement of the hub and the repeaters can be problematic. This was not an issue for me.4/17/2022 - After the update I have continued to make additions and changes to my setup. I am upgrading my review to a five star review! Since the update on 4/11, I have not had the issues many others appear to be having with the device. I will agree that the manual is not very good and it has taken some time to learn the functions of the device. I enjoy figuring things out so I do not see that as a negative. If you are looking for a manual that holds your hand through the setup than this is not a device for you...yet. I think over time it will get better. Anyway, my setup includes 6 devices and 8 activities and they all work exactly as they should. The key response is so good now, that I don't really notice that you have to press a key to wake up the remote. The screen time-out is really a non-issue however, Sofabaton should allow users to adjust the time in settings (along with other things). The exciting thing for me is that currently the device does everything I need it to and Sofabaton has just started to make changes. Excited to see where it goes from here.

Even after searching and finding the LG brand it won’t let me add it to the Devices. It won’t learn my LG TV remote either. If the up and coming fix doesn’t resolve this problem then I will be returning the product.