TiVo Premiere QWERTY Remote Requires ANOTHER Dongle

When we saw Vizio’s gargantuan QWERTY remote at CES, we knew a new era was upon us. Now TiVo debuts their premium QWERTY remote slider and, yes, the day in which you change the channel with a Sidekick has come.

Joking aside, TiVo’s upcoming QWERTY remote is an interesting evolution of their classic peanut. Popping out like a slider, the backlit keyboard allows easy text entry for new TiVo Premieres.

It’s a bit large in your hand, which means it feels a tad less perfect than the classic TiVo remote. But the Bluetooth connectivity means you don’t need line of site, which is always nice.

However, when it’s available later this year for an undisclosed price, there’s a big catch: It will come with a USB dongle. The Premiere doesn’t have Bluetooth for reasons we don’t really understand (it’s not expensive at all to stick a Bluetooth chip into even small devices like mobile phones now). So, somewhat anticlimactically, TiVo’s flagship remote will require a Bluetooth dongle (on top of the Wi-Fi dongle you’ll probably need). I wouldn’t call this a dealbreaker, but for a company that designs a very small ecosystem of hardware, it’s not the best thought-out plan, is it?