The Back Of The Harmony 880

{mosgoogle}Here you can see the transmitter & USB connector, 3 contacts which are the charging connection to the Base Station, and the molded grips for the fingers. You can also see just how nice the finish is on the remote. Very smooth and easy on the eyes.

The 3 Contacts

I would like to expand on the three contacts, design, and their placement. This might be considered nit-picking to an innocuous degree, however, I should briefly discuss what some of you may already be thinking.

Dust, food crumbs, lint, and just about every other form of foreign matter will soon find haven in those three little contact recesses. The contacts are actually set back inside, so they don't actually touch anything if you were to put the remote down on a flat surface. However, my concern is what will eventually accumulate inside the areas over time.

Some sort of accessory like a rubber cover for the entire three contacts would be nice as it would also serve as the contact point when lying the remote on a hard surface. However, we soon discover recharging the remote requires the rubber ring to be removed. Another design could be making a sliding cover. These are merely suggestions, and may not even apply to your situation. Therefore, I recommend cleaning the remote on a regular basis (as described below), which will probably bypass any need for my nit-picking mentionings.

The Battery Cover

Ok, this is important. The battery cover does not just slide off. If you try to slide the cover off, you will not succeed. Gently but firmly, press down with your thumb on the indented area of the battery cover (you may hear a slight "snap" which is releasing the battery cover from the remote itself), then slide the battery cover out from its position. The reason I mention this, is because if you own previous Harmony remotes, you might damage the 880's cover. Previously reviewing the Harmony 676, the battery cover just slid out. No effort at all. This has changed, but once you get used to the new method, you won't have any problems.