Any smartphone paired with the right app can serve as a decent universal remote. Unless you live by yourself, though, having a dedicated remote that everyone can use will probably work a whole lot better. And while there’s no shortage of handheld devices for controlling your home electronics, the Ray Super Remote updates it for the modern times.
Borrowing the form factor of modern smartphones, it’s a bar-type device with a large touchscreen in front, along with a small selection of physical buttons along one edge (as opposed to traditional remotes with dozens of buttons and other modern remotes that combine touchscreens with a dozen or so buttons). Since it’s custom-built for universal remote functions, they dispensed with the wide dimensions of most smartphones, opting for a tall-and-narrow design that should feel more like that old remote you used to fight with your brothers over for control of back in the day.
With a user interface similar to the ones on current phones, the Ray Super Remote lets you navigate it using a familiar setup, complete with tactile keys on the side for volume, mute, and sleep/wake. It can jump onto your home WiFi network for easy setup and automatic updates, with both Bluetooth 4.0 and infrared allowing it to work with a wider range of devices. During use, the device can download programming information for any service you’re using, so you can easily search specific content. It can even learn the programs you like to watch over time, giving it the ability to adjust your program guide automatically.
On launch, the remote will work on over 200,000 devices across 1,200 brands, including modern devices like the Apple TV, the Roku TV, and the Xbox One. Like most high-end universal remotes, it can learn IR codes, so you should be able to make it function with other devices that aren’t natively supported.
The Ray Super Remote is now available for preorder, priced at $199.