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• Very attractive design – especially in the Limited Edition Black Finish.
• Great ergonomics combines a large touchscreen, a stylus, labeled hard buttons, soft buttons and additional navigation controls including a scroll wheel and home button.
• Backlight activation with touchscreen or backlight on/off button.
• Standard mini-USB connection for PC programming plus WiFi programming now available with NevoStudio 2.0
• NevoStudio programming software includes many different templates, buttons and background images
• Huge IR library and updated codes available through mynevo.com

Pros for the Pros

• NevoSL is one of the few controllers available now that is being marketed directly to a high-end home user and custom installation professionals. NevoStudio 2.0 adds many programming features for CIs including:
• NevoXpress Wireless Download with capability to upload five projects on mynevo.com for easy customer installation.
• PCF/CCF quick convert for Philips Pronto programmers who want to add the NevoSL to their product list
• Fast Device swapping, more advanced and discrete codes, and more.

Cons

• NevoStudio software programming limited to Windows XP (Home, Pro or MCE). Sorry no Mac compatibility and Vista is questionable at this time.
• Uses Microsoft Active Sync software for PC connection, which often became confused with my Windows Mobile Smartphone that I frequently connect to the same machine.
• Best touchscreen response comes with use of the stylus requiring two-handed operation. Poor tactile feedback with hard glass touchscreen and delayed response.

Physical Design

The Universal Electronics NevoSL is available in a standard grey finish and was also released for a short time in a Limited Edition High Gloss Black Finish like the one pictured in this review. I personally prefer the Black Finish but UEI is reporting that there are very few of this limited edition release left - if any at all. If, after reading this review, you decide that you want to purchase the NevoSL I would search a bit for a black one (especially if you have a Sony Playstation 3 since they have the same finish and look AWESOME together) but don't think twice about "settling" for the standard grey. It still looks awesome and functions exactly the same.

*Note - The Sony Playstaion 3 is only mentioned as a comparison to the high-gloss black finish of the NevoSL Limited Edition version. The Nevo will not actually control the PS3 since it is a Bluetooth and not an IR device.

The first thing I noticed about NevoSL is that it has more buttons than the average touchscreen controller. Just below the 3.5” Bright Color TFT LCD screen itself there are four (4) unlabeled “soft” buttons which add to the programming flexibility of the controller. These can easily be assigned to be transport keys in PVR mode. A, B and C buttons for the cable box, an aspect button for widescreen TVs, surround modes for AV receivers or anything else you could imagine. Below these are thirteen (13) more labeled hard buttons including channel control, volume control, page up/down and a four-way directional pad with center select. On the left side of the remote is a small button to jump back to the home page. On the right side are a backlight button and a scroll wheel.

The backlight button is a great convenience that is not found on a lot of remotes these days in lieu of a tilt sensor. But, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve picked up the remote to channel surf and was interrupted by the wife and kids only to find myself doing a quick wave to re-activate the screen with a tilt sensor. NevoSL's backlight button prevents me from looking like and feeling like a dope while I magically wave the controller in the air trying to re-activate the backlight. The backlight may also be activated by touching any part of the screen or one of the hard buttons.



The scroll wheel is located in perfect reach of the thumb on the right side of the remote. This navigation tool is very reminiscent of the traditional Blackberry scroll wheel and it’s a quick and easy way to navigate through screens and pages. When I first tried to incorporate the use of the Scroll Wheel in NevoStudio I must admit that I was looking for animation tools that simply don’t exist. Then I downloaded another user’s configuration and figured out that the scroll wheel can be easily used by creating a group of pages in a Page Collection folder with the same background image and buttons that move up or down from one page to the next. Each page becomes a frame in the animation creating the effect I wanted which is truly unique to the NevoSL. (Thanks to RemoteCentral user Jeff Nelson for posting his complete configuration file).



There is protective plastic flap on the bottom left side of the NevoSL that hides a microscopic On/Off switch, a Reset button and a standard mini-USB connection. I’ll start by saying that I love the mini-USB port and despise any device that uses proprietary connections – including the iPod! The On/Off switch is very small and recessed which makes it difficult to tell what position the switch is in and since it is shipped in the OFF position you’ll need a small tool to flip the switch. Hmmm… perhaps something like the included stylus with a narrow tip designed to fit in this recessed area perfectly! A Palm-Type PDA stylus is tucked away in the bottom right of the remote and may be used for the obvious task of selecting options on the screen as well as accessing the on/off switch and reset button. The stylus is useful tool for the user who likes to cram as many buttons on a page as possible or simply prefers the Palm/PDA type control. I am not personally a fan of using a stylus or anything else that would require two hand operation of a remote however I found that the NevoSL was much more accurate and responded better to the stylus than my big sausage fingers.

As I mentioned, NevoSL is programmed by connecting a mini-USB to USB cable to a Windows PC with the NevoStudio software. When you first open NevoStudio 2.0 you are greeted with a welcome screen and a button to create a “New Project.” I selected that button and named my new configuration “Review Unit” which brought me to my new project’s home page.

The first step in programming any new remote is to add your home theater’s devices. In NevoStudio 2.0 you just click the “Add Device” icon and a wizard comes up with several choices. The first option on this list is to browse for your devices. On the next screen you choose the device type and manufacturer and if more than one code is found you are given an additional option to “Use NevoSL to identify the correct device code for the device.” Once you select this the NevoStudio software will download multiple codes to NevoSL and you just follow the instructions on the remote’s screen to find the right device code. As luck would have it, I needed to use this option twice for my devices (once for my Panasonic Plasma TV and once for my Scientific Atlanta HD DVR cable box, but in both cases the first code offered was correct and the entire process took just a few seconds. This may be a hassle if your computer is not in the same room as your components and if you don’t have a laptop available, but, for most professional installers, this is not an obstacle. Another option of course is to set up NevoSL with NevoStudio 2.0's Wifi capability to test your IR commands using this method without being tethered to a computer.

Once the devices were set-up and the pages were automatically created I decided it was time to connect NevoSL and download my project to the remote. Before we discuss this process though let me rewind a few minutes to describe a minor obstacle I ran into the first time I connected the remote to my computer. Windows XP automatically recognized the new hardware and the NevoSL installed easily but when Microsoft Active Sync first launched it confused the controller with the Windows Mobile Smartphone that I normally connect to the computer and prompted me to sync calendar, contacts and tasks. I closed this screen and re-opened Active Sync again and everything worked fine but I get the same message every time I connect which is a nuisance more than anything else.



Fast-forwarding now to the project download from NevoStudio to NevoSL … When I went to download my project I was warned that the software on my device was older and that I should run the Update utility. Downloading and installing the update took about 4 minutes (nowhere close to the 10 minutes they warn you about) and was very easy to do. It would have been nice if the remote checked for updates automatically when it was first connected to the PC but only because I was so anxious to use my new remote at this point that I just didn’t want to wait for the update.

Now that I am holding a fully programmed NevoSL in my hands it’s time for the part that you’ve been waiting for! First let me reiterate that this is one nice-looking remote… the LCD screen is bright, the Black finish is as high-tech as it gets and the assortment of buttons and controls are right at your fingertips. I honestly LOVE the overall design of the remote and the only thing that would stop me from giving the NevoSL a perfect 10 in this area is the touchscreen itself. The screen on this particular remote is hard glass and gives no tactile feedback at all. I also found that when I selected buttons with my fingers that there was a bit of a delay before the command was actually executed. However, if you can commit to regularly using the stylus neither of these relatively minor problems are an issue. I also found that after I installed a plastic anti-glare screen protector on the remote that I liked the touch screen better because it had a softer, more natural feel. I also went back into the NevoStudio software to customize my configuration and move the most common commands to one of the four soft buttons under the LCD screen which is one of the biggest advantage of a touchscreen controller to begin with – customization. The combination of the powerful NevoStudio 2.0 software and the NevoSL’s touch screen, soft buttons and ergonomic design make this the perfect remote for the person who prefers a hard-button remote with one hand operation but wants the flexible programming options a touchscreen provides.

Once you’re done with the NevoSL it’s time to place it in it’s charging base which is also very nicely designed and, more importantly, securely holds the controller for reliable charging. Without a charge the remote lasted for about three days of moderate use with programming but since it uses a LiIon battery there’s really no reason why it can’t be charged every night to ensure that you always have the NevoSL when you need it.

Finally, I’d like to point out that the NevoSL also has a wireless extender available – the NevoLink. Technically, the NevoLink is an “IP addressable intelligent bridge for wireless home theater control in the networked home.” In English this means that the NevoLink will allow you to control hidden components through walls and without direct line of sight using the NevoSL’s WiFi capability.

Go to mynevo.com for more on the NevoSL with NevoStudio 2.0 and to find a dealer in your area