I've got the H525. The H525 is the same as the H520, but has a row of colour buttons beneath the number keys.
Received mine last Tuesday from Logitech UK having returned an H885.
Seems heavier and better balanced than my recently returned H885 (all the weight is at the back). Also, stays put in my hand (the 885 slithered around when you pressed buttons because of its rounded shape).
The remote creaks a lot at the longitudinal joints as you stretch your thumb to the top buttons, but otherwise build quality and fit are good. It looks an expensive piece of kit, more so in the 'flesh' than in photos.
A rubber flap at the front of the remote covers the USB connector and blends in with the form of the IR emitter (on the H885 this connector is open and looks messy)
Screen display is not as clear or well lit as the H885 (black print on indigo background), nor is there a tilt sensor to automatically activate the backlighting (you press the 'glow' button instead), but illumination of the keys is much better than H885 and it lights through to the face of the majority of the keys to highlight the icons. UPDATE - there is a sensor which brings on the backlighting after a long period of inactivity (tens of minutes), but it does not trigger every time you pick the remote up.
No battery charging to worry about (poor fit-up to the charging cradle, hence intermittent charging, was the main reason for me returning the H885). The 525 comes with two sets of batteries (one set already loaded into the remote). This is because the packaging is designed for display on supermarket racking, and provides access to the 'Activities' key so shoppers can view a mini-presentation on the screen. So, potentially, the first set of batteries could have had some stick. Presumably not the case when buying 'direct' via the web!!
I loaded the included software onto my PC and went to retrieve my H885 set-up from my Logitech account. First thing that happened was a firmware upgrade to 2.1. My previous set-up then became available for download. No problems with any of these 'transactions'.
I've noticed that configuration downloads are made available almost instantaneously now - I think Logitech have done some work on their servers recently to speed this process up.
I do have issues with controlling inputs on my Panasonic TX-26LXD50 LCD TV (two screens of options requiring use of colour keys to make selections, and TV remembers previous selection after power off/on), however, customer support have been working on this for me. Those guys (based in Canada) are second-to-none, and are accessible via a freephone number. I can't get over the level of support for such an inexpensive piece of kit....
UPDATE.... After more than 2 hours (over two nights) working through my set-up on the phone with me, and downloading different configurations to my remote for tryout, it seems that customer support are not going to get the TV inputs working consistently for each device, nor for each permutation of accessing that device (i.e. from tuner, from other active device, from everything off etc). They've created some new TV/AV status commands which are supposed to ensure the TV isn't on tuner when it should be on AV and vice versa. BUT, their mods don't do the job properly (I would have created macros on my old Pronto to get round this; unfortunately the Harmony isn't sufficiently flexible in this regard). UPDATE - I've sorted the input logic myself by creating pseudo macros (see...
[Link: avforums.com])
Back to the hardware...
The only keys which may cause confusion are the volume and channel up/down keys; the labelling is very small and subtle. However, you will soon become familiar with their locations (being on opposite sides of the remote).
The keys above, and running either side of the LCD are a bit of a reach with a thumb, and don't forget to press the 'glow' key first before pressing one of the 4 screen keys (until you become familiar with which activity relates to each key). There are scroll keys beneath the screen which allow for more than one screen of activities (and for more screens of additional commands after an activity has been selected).
A big plus point (over the 885) is the different shapes of keys for the various functions, making them easier to locate by touch. Only downside to this is that some shapes of key have longer 'throw' than others, so not consistent. Further, as well as the varying 'throw', some have a 'click' action, while others are just 'plain spongy'. Anyone with really large fingers may have trouble pressing the correct button - some of them are quite close to one another.
The number keys are not too clever - my wife managed to push the '4' key too far and wedged it beneath the casing. Soon teased it back out...
So far I am quite impressed with the hardware (particularly having had experience of the more expensive H885), but am frustrated by Tech Support's struggle to get my TV inputs working properly, despite more than 2 hours spent on the phone with one of their senior technicians over two nights.
