I've had a Harmony 550 for a couple of years now, which I use to control my basement home theater setup (Mitsubishi projector, Sony Blu-Ray player and A/V receiver, Toshiba HD-DVD player, Samsung HDTV tuner, Motorola cable box, and an XBox 360 -- all sources mounted on a rack behind the screen wall, controlled via IR extender system). I still really like that remote -- it was intuitive to set up and operate, had pretty good aesthetics and hand feel, and has been rock-solid reliable ever since I got it set up. Plus, it handles a diverse array of devices with aplomb.
Late last year, I overhauled my bedroom A/V setup and I knew I was on the verge of creating a new A/V setup for the living room. These would be simpler than the basement HT, sure, but would still involve multiple sources per display (with the living-room sources located on the same rack as the basement ones -- so good, reliable operation is important since you can't look at the devices to confirm power on/off, etc). I knew I'd want another Harmony remote, hopefully one I could set up to share between the two locations.
My search originally led back to the 550. However, it was now discontinued, and the remaining units I could find were priced well above what I had paid for the one I have. I was aware of the One, but I figured its price was beyond what I was willing to spend -- I checked Amazon anyway, and imagine my surprise when I found it was ~$100 less than my local stores. I had to go for it.
All that background aside, I'll now get to the point. Since the 550 is what I knew prior to the One, I'm going to treat it as sort of my benchmark.
I like my Harmony 550 -- but I LOVE my One. First, and most importantly, it doesn't have any less functionality than the 550 (unlike the 510 that supposedly "replaced" the 550). In fact, it actually has some additional function (TV channel favorites, for example). It supports plenty of devices (15). It has the great soft buttons (except now on a TOUCHSCREEN - awesome). And, its aesthetics and ergonomics are substantially better than the 550. Setup is done via the tried-and-true web-based interface, so it was very familiar to me.
Some additional positives about the One -- it has a rechargeable battery with a charging cradle, so no need to periodically replace/recharge NIMH AAA batteries like I do with the 550. Some additional handy hard buttons (which can of course be custom-programmed for each activity and/or device). Better location of transport keys, and they can now be distinguished by feel. Backlight comes on whenever the remote is picked up (versus only after a several hour delay on the 550).
Dislikes -- relative to the 550, none; I honestly feel the One is superior in every way. In general -- there are a few areas where I see room for improvement. First, it'd be nice if you weren't locked into 3 activities per page on the touchscreen... an option to select between a few different configurations (maybe 3, 4, or 6 for example) would be welcome. Second, when using it for two different rooms, you either have to power off everything in room A before starting an activity in room B, or remember to re-start the activity from room A before returning there (if you re-launch the activity while in line-of-sight for that room, chances are things will get out of sync, unless you've got a miracle system with no toggles - just discrete commands for everything). I can't really demerit the remote for this, since it isn't designed nor advertised for multi-room use -- but I would give Harmony HUGE thanks if they could add multi-room capability via a software update (basically allow the user to set up a simultaneity matrix for activities). And last, but not least, when using TV channel favorites I find that the remote sends the required three number presses more slowly than I can send them by manually keying in the numbers (even with inter-key delay set to 0 ms) -- likewise for sequences I've set up that navigate thru menus with directional keypresses. It's a nit for me, though, because it doesn't hinder functionality -- ultimately the favorites and sequences still work.
So, in a nutshell... great remote. Buy one (or two, if Harmony never decides to implement my wonderful multiroom suggestion :D )!
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