Well, I've played with the XSight Touch a little bit but not enough for a complete report. Initial impressions in no particular order:
(1) Initial programming from the remote itself is easy and there's a pretty large library of codes pre-loaded;
(2) As with most UEIC setup codes, they are somewhat inadequate in their lack of discretes (power and inputs both) and other odds and ends;
(3) Programming using the usb-PC-internet interface is straightforward, but also relies on built-in setup codes (or at least setup codes in UEIC's library which I suppose may get downloaded during the process);
(4) First major complaint: you cannot supplement a UEIC setup code directly with learned signals as you can a Harmony. While programming at the PC, you can learn new functions to your Harmony directly and supplement your setup code/upgrade. In the XSight, you have to complete your PC setup, disconnect it, and then you can learn additional functions to the remote. Then you have to go BACK to the PC, be careful to download the setup from your remote and not the setup that you just saved, and use those new functions in macros and "activity" setup. It's a much more torturous path;
(5) Setting up activities is straightforward, not unlike the Harmony;
(6) I won't go into the look and feel much. It's not unlike the Harmony ONE. If you like one (as do I), you're likely to like the other - I do not dispute that it is a fingerprint magnet, but it feels solid and looks good (to me) and I like the button layout. The XSight gets bonus points for having dedicated color buttons;
(7) Seems to work well. Pointing is not crucially important;
(8) Charging cradle holds the remote sort of upright (at and angle), while the Harmony ONE cradle holds the remote horizontal. I personally prefer the Harmony design since when the XSight is sticking up in the cradle, it's possible to knock it over, while the Harmony is already lying horizontally, it has nowhere to topple.
(9) Second complaint (not as major as the first, but significant): An extremely limited library of icons for favorite channels. Perhaps this is simply due to its newness, as the Harmony has a phalanx of third-party icon-makers and the XSight hasn't been out there very long, but their default icons for the major networks are poor;
(10) Requires a touch to activate the backlight/touchscreen (The Harmony is motion-activated);
(11) Has a weird new (at least I've never seen it before) "slide bar" beneath the Touchscreen. Works like the "slide bar" on the side of a laptop's touchpad for scrolling between pages of the touchscreen. Great idea, but finicky in how well it works. Sometimes I have to rub and rub and rub until finally the page changes. Got to see whether there is a sensitivity setting for this (like there is for the touchscreen);
(12) I have no comment about the RF capability. I have not bought the extender that is supposed to come with this European XSight so I cannot test it. I find it interesting that the US model is claiming direct RF control of DirecTV boxes, and this European XSight has DirecTV available in its code library, so I wonder if it will transmit DirecTV codes ...uhhhh.... directly, like the US version is supposed to. I have no way to test that (unless I walk around the neighborhood and find a house with a DTV antenna on its roof and ask the owner if I can come in and test my remote
;
Overall, I'm predisposed to wanting to like it, and in general I do, but item (4) above really makes it a PITA to program. You have a setup code that works mostly, and all you want to do is learn a few discretes to fill it out, but you cannot. You have to disconnect, supplement the setup code with learned signals, then RE-connect to the software, save your remote's image as your NEW file, and only THEN can you use those learned codes in your Activity and Macro setup. In the Harmony, you learn while it's plugged in and it adds the functions to the device you're programming real-time.
Hopefully the US edition for Acoustic Research will have some of these issues addressed.
Edit: added 7March2009
(13) Activity setup is nice. You can build a macro of significant length (I did not test how many steps, but I used up to 10) and individually tailor delays between each step.
(14) Macros: You can build a macro of any sequence on any button or have it create a new soft button for you. Nice for the power OFF function which is NOT automated on the Power button, like in the Harmony. Unfortunately, the macros are ONLY device-specific, so you have to build the same macro from scratch for each device. There is a de facto workaround, if you assign your "all off" macro to a function that is always mapped to the same device, like in every activity, my receiver is active for some buttons, but I have yet to find a button that can perform this function "organically". (I'm NOT going to assign an "all off" macro to one of the volume keys!). So given that you have to build the same (or a very similar) macro in several device modes, it would be nice if there was a "duplicate macro@ capability, but there is not, so you have to build each macro sequence step-by-step.
(15) AFAI can tell, it does NOT remember the device state! For those devices that do not have discretes, this is a HUGE problem. Out-of-sync conditions are extremely likely. (I guess I should just leave the d@mn#d FIOS box "ON" continuously - folks have measured that its "shutdown" power draw is only about 5% less than when it's "ON")
(16) It may have been just me and my computer/internet connection last night, but the PC/Web interface seems to take a LOT of bandwidth. As the setup got more complex, the internet interface got REALLY slow, like you click to add a command to a macro, and it would take literally 30secs before that showed up on the screen and you could add the NEXT command. (and I've got FIOS! could be a limitation of my upload speed (?) limited to 5Kbs whereas download is 20) Will watch this closely.
(17) You cannot arrange (add, remove, move to front page) the soft keys for a device or activity (or if you can, I haven't figured out how to do it), so that you may not have those function that you will most readily want access to on the first page of soft buttons and have to go hunting for it through a bunch of superfluous ones.
Anyways, after more playing last night, I like it a LOT more, but still the PC interface is clunky.