ThinkFlood Redeye

This pricey solution doesn't deliver on the initial promise

At £200, the RedEye remote system is by far the most expensive product in this group.

There’s also a less-expensive model called the RedEye Mini that plugs directly into the iPhone and costs a mere £50.

Rather than employing battery-draining Bluetooth, it uses your home WiFi network to control your TV and other devices from any room in your home via the supplied IR adapter (which is also a docking charger). And there’s a selection of EPGs for Sky, Freesat, Virgin and Freeview. You can even control the RedEye from a Mac or PC that is connected to your network. The developers have also produced an Android version of the app.

Unfortunately, the app isn’t very user-friendly. The initial setup process is quite fiddly as you have to wade through a series of sub-menus and options in order to configure the device’s WiFi networking. Once that’s done it is easy enough to set it up for your TV and other devices, as you simply have to enter the names of the manufacturers in order to locate the required command codes.

However, we were shocked to see that the app doesn’t display a convenient set of buttons on the iPhone screen for controlling individual devices. It merely gives you a long list of alphabetical commands – so you have to scroll down the list to ‘P’ to find the ‘Power’ command.

Fortunately, you can also create ‘actions’ that control multiple devices, and when you do this the app suddenly decides to display a more straightforward set of control buttons on the iPhone screen. But even so, these onscreen controls are quite limited.

The RedEye is the most technically sophisticated remote control in this group but the developers really need to make the app far easier to use.

PLUS
-Long range WiFi networking
n-Acts as a charging dock for the iPhone
Minus
-Expensive
-Complicated to use
-Poor documentation

Build ★★★★★★★★
Ease of use ★★★★
Performance ★★★★★★★★
Features ★★★★★★★★★
Value ★★★★

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