Buy the X2 SofaBaton for $329.99 direct from their store or on Amazon US (code B0FYPRX2)/ Amazon UK (code CARPLAY16) / Amazon EU (code B0FSZRX2)/ Amazon AU (code B0G25DX2)
For years, the Logitech Harmony Elite has been the gold standard for universal remotes. But since Logitech discontinued the range, home cinema enthusiasts have been left searching for a true replacement. Enter the SofaBaton X2 — a touchscreen universal remote with hub-based control, smart home integration and a premium redesign aimed squarely at former Harmony users.
I’ve been using the X2 for several weeks across various devices, including 4K Apple TV, Samsung S95F TV, Samsung N950 soundbar and some smart home devices. Here’s how it performs in the real world.
Design and Build Quality
The X2 is a major step up from SofaBaton’s previous X1S model I reviewed. It now uses a zinc alloy chassis instead of plastic, giving it a noticeably more premium feel in the hand. It’s heavier, yes — but in a good way. It feels solid, durable and far less like a cheap gadget.
On the front is a 2.4-inch colour touchscreen and two capacitive buttons, replacing the old jog wheel and physical buttons from the X1S model. Below sits a full physical button layout with controls for most AV equipment, including colour buttons and some additional programmable function buttons.
On the back, there is a dark polycarbonate material that mimics a premium leather-like texture. The remote supports both wireless charging via the supplied dock and a direct USB-C port for faster recharging. The included dock is convenient, though much lighter and less premium than the remote itself.
Set up and Hub System
The X2 includes the same dedicated hub as the X1S, which handles IR, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. This allows you to hide your equipment inside cabinets and still control it using either the 360-degree emitter from the box itself, or use either the included IR blasters for devices outside of an enclosed cabinet or the X2 itself now also has an IR emitter for direct line-of-sight connections to your AV equipment.
Setup is done entirely through the SofaBaton mobile app. Adding devices is straightforward, and most popular brands are present and supported, with fallback to a list of user-generated profiles for equipment not officially present. Syncing can be frustratingly slow, however, and occasionally unreliable — especially during full remote syncs rather than small incremental edit updates.
Once configured, you’ll hardly need to go back to the app, other than to add newly purchased devices or edit or remove old ones. Daily use is all handled by the remote, which is kept simple, and it has been generally stable.
Everyday Use
The touchscreen is a big improvement over the X1S. Devices and Activities are easy to launch from the home screen menu, and the screen wakes quickly when you pick up the remote. Its button layout is comfortable and not too far away from an Apple TV remote, which I am sure has been a big influence in its design. Between its buttons and touch screen, navigation feels modern and intuitive.
There’s also a “Find My Remote” feature, which can be toggled either (deep) in the Sofabaton app or more swiftly via the function button on the back of the hub. This triggers a very audible alert from the remote if you lose it in the house — surprisingly useful.
Over the last few weeks, I have seen a few firmware updates for the hub arriving regularly, which shows SofaBaton is actively developing and improving the platform. Sadly, at this time, there have been few to no features being added in these two updates, other than a few additional smart home Wi-Fi services from LIFX and Govee, who join the existing line-up from Roku, Philips Hue and Sonos.
Battery Life
Despite the large 1200mAh internal battery, battery life is one of the X2’s weaker points. With light use, I averaged about 8 to 13 days before needing to recharge it. This is also alongside using TV and Apple TV remotes, so this isn’t an exclusive use test, which would have had a far worse outcome. Charging takes just under two hours, which isn’t too bad if you want to get a little power, quickly.
This makes the charging dock more of a necessity than a convenience — you’ll likely leave the remote docked most of the time; however, you can take it out for at least a week before it needs to go back onto the dock to charge.
Screen sleep and brightness can help with battery life. At its lowest brightness setting, I felt it could go much lower and at 10 seconds to sleep, this also could be trimmed by half to help with overall battery life of the remote.
Apple TV and Bluetooth Performance
This is where things become more problematic. Bluetooth responsiveness with Apple TV is noticeably slower than the original Apple remote. There’s a perceptible delay in button response, and this could be the button travel being longer than Apple’s own remote buttons, and it seems to vary between apps used vs the settings menu, which is a little more responsive and on par with the official remote response.
More frustrating is that the remote needs waking before any inputs register. If you have the remote on a surface and just wish to select an option from a menu without picking up the remote, the input isn’t sent until the remote is out of its sleep state. I’ve also had a few instances where the BT connection has been lost, and I had to wait for the remote (or hub) to re-pair with the Apple TV before an input is executed.
For users who rely heavily on Apple TV as their main media hub, these disconnections and input lag can be frustrating and significantly impacts on general usability.
Finally, the X2 has no voice input, which further limits Apple TV integration compared to the original remote. Other hardware, such as Amazon Fire TV and Google Chromecast, will suffer from the lack of being able to use voice to search for content. As a result, this forces you to keep the original remotes close by just for this function alone, and thus questions the purpose of the X2 being a remote that rules them all.
Smart Home and Customisation
Id’ say the X2 has some basic to extensive smart home integration, depending on your own smart home setup. There is limited support for Philips Hue, Roku, Sonos, Govee and LIFX, but anything else has to go through the Home Assistant service, which, unless you’re a die-hard smart home enthusiast, not many will have in their home. The ecosystem is still far behind Logitech Harmony’s former depth of integration to a vast library of services that are still available for its users.
Again, most changes must be made through the mobile app — very little can be customised directly on the remote itself. The remote has three function buttons that can be allocated to a smart home command, with addtional functions for a held button to expand on the limited set of three buttons. I get this working ok with my Hue bulbs, but it wasn’t as deep and thorough as Logitech’s offering.
My Impressions
The SofaBaton X2 is easily the best remote SofaBaton has made to date. The hardware is excellent, the touchscreen is a major improvement, and the overall concept is sound.
However, software limitations, slow syncing, delays in Apple TV Bluetooth performance and missing quality-of-life features prevent it from fully replacing the Harmony Elite — at least for power users. The Logitech has spoiled users for many years, and it remains a tough nut to crack.
If you want a modern universal remote with solid build quality and a token gesture of smart home control, the X2 is a strong option. But if sync performance, voice search and instant input responsiveness are critical to your setup, the X2 still falls a little short.
At $329.99 direct from their store or on Amazon US / UK / EU / AU, it’s certainly priced as a premium product — and while the hardware justifies it, the software still has catching up to do. If Sofabaton doubles down on software updates to fix some of these issues, the X2 is a decent Logitech Harmony replacement, but to begin to play ball with today’s smart entertainment boxes, with voice control, the X3 would need to tackle that to ‘1-Up’ its rivals.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:30 – What’s in the box
1:02 – Design & build
2:18 – Touchscreen & controls
2:52 – Charging dock
3:41 – Hub & IR blasters
4:52 – Weeks later impressions
5:06 – What’s good
6:35 – UI & software issues
8:39 – Battery life
9:30 – Can it replace Harmony?
11:55 – Apple TV performance
13:25 – Final verdict
