Philips Prestigo SRU8015

Universal remote controls have become increasingly popular due to the consolidation and convenience they provide the home theater buff with an increasingly burgeoning rack of gear. While manufacturers have approached the technology in a number of different ways, we tend to be partial to the PC-programmable technique used onLogitech Harmony remotes. There are alternatives to this concept; we've looked at remotes that use Wi-Fi to display TV programming schedules like with the Acoustic Research Universal Smart Remote ARRU449 and we've seen basic remotes that simply offer button-based programming (no PC at all). The Philips Prestigo SRU8015 falls into that final camp. There's nothing truly innovative or outstanding about it; it's just a relatively easy-to-use universal remote that falls within the $80-to-$120 price range. But while the predecessor SRU8010 model offered simplicity and the potential for customization at a great price, the Prestigo SRU8015's addition of a scroll-wheel makes it a bit more polarizing from a usability perspective.

When you first pick up the SRU8015, you'll immediately notice its weight --at a half pound, it's definitely among the heavier wand-style remotes we've tested. There's not much of a disadvantage with a heavy remote, just the louder smash it'll make if you happen to drop it on the floor or onto something else.

The remote is outlined in a silver plastic that should mesh well with today's home theater devices. While it's ergonomically designed for using the rotary wheel located in the middle of the remote, you may find yourself stretching or even using two hands to reach buttons north and south of the wheel. Most of the buttons have a satisfying tactile feel to them, with the exception of a few vanity buttons that are tougher to sense whether or not they've been pressed. The SRU8015's full-color screen is nice and bright with plenty of customization options that allow you to control brightness and dimming. Every key on the remote is backlit, allowing for operation in dark situations.

The main difference between the previous Prestigo model and the SRU8015 is the rotary wheel. While it seems like it might be a great way to control the remote's settings, we just weren't happy with its performance during our testing. Even though you get a physical click sound when turning the wheel, those clicks aren't always in sync with the onscreen action. We wish more of an effort was made so that the click wheel and the remote's onscreen cursor were more in tandem. Also, the "OK" button located in the middle of the wheel is not the "enter" button you're most likely going to press after using the wheel to select a function or option. Instead, the check-mark button below the wheel is the "enter" button. This resulted in a frustrating reoccurrence of hitting the wrong button after we highlighted a command. To us, it just makes more sense to include the rotary wheel's "enter" button right in the center of the wheel.

As for the rest of the remote's buttons, they all feel a bit cluttered--much more than what we saw with the Prestigo SRU8010. The number keys feel like they're on top of each other, and the set of play control buttons above them are quite small. We found ourselves hitting the incorrect button numerous times. Overall response time on the keys is quick, something Harmony remotes are known to suffer from.

Most of the buttons on the SRU8015 are too close to one another.