Thanks to eagle-eyed Remote Central reader Lowpro, we finally have some details for the two new Philips Pronto remote control models to be released later this year, through information published in the August 2007 issue of Electronic House.

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The first new model is the Pronto TSU9200, which is a traditional handheld remote control with a large color LCD screen positioned at the top, paired up with 41 backlit hard buttons. As you can see from the scanned photograph, there are no buttons directly adjacent to the LCD, leading me to believe that all remote navigation is done through the silver circular wheel and “checkmark” button beneath. It remains to be seen how efficient the wheel will be for navigating a system or accessing secondary device functions. Also of interest are the [Media], [More], [Fav] and [Home] quick-link buttons. According to the specifications chart it will be computer programmable with 16mb of memory, includes a rechargeable lithium ion battery and features a new “2-way digital RF” system. Retail price has been set at $400.

The second new model is the Pronto Professional TSU9400 – which we were able to previously tell you will be based on a portrait-oriented LCD screen with 240x320 resolution (the same shape as the ProntoPro NG TSU7500) and will include nearly all of the features from the present top-of-the-line TSU9600. Although no photo is yet available for the TSU9400, new information from the specifications chart confirm that it will include 64mb of memory, has WiFi communications for use with the RFX9400 and RFX9600 basestations, a rechargeable lithium ion battery and dock, plus 19 hard buttons. It is set to retail for $900, $400 less than the TSU9600.

I’ve included the full specifications chart below:

	TSU9400	TSU9200
Memory	64mb	16mb
Macros	Defined by memory	Defined by memory
# of Hard Buttons	19	41
Touchscreen	3.5 inch QVGA portrait display (240x320)	No
PC Programmable?	Yes	Yes
Infrared (IR) or Radio Frequency (RF)	IR, WiFi RF, 2-way RS-232, 2-way IP	IR, RF, 2-way digital RF
Range	Limited by WiFi	300 feet
Power	Rechargable lithium-ion battery; dock included	Rechargable lithium-ion battery; dock included
Easy Buttons	DVD, DVR, Favorites, All On/Off	DVD, DVR, Favorites, All On/Off
Backlighting	Yes	Yes
Dimensions (HxWxD)	7.9” x 3.1” x 0.9”	9.4” x 2.0” x 1.1”
Weight	0.63kg	0.25kg
Price (MSRP)	$900 USD	$400 USD

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New remote from Marantz

Spotted over at CEDIA UK by the good folks at multiroom.fr is a new touchscreen remote control from Marantz, obviously based on the Philips Pronto Professional TSU9600. Marantz has a long history of licensing customized versions of the Pronto, so it’s nice to see the tradition continuing. The as-yet unidentified model is housed in a jet black case with silver button highlights, although the case is reportedly somewhat thicker than the Philips version. Also on exhibit at the Marantz booth was a Marantz-badged version of the RFX9400 WiFi extender.

This release cycle is a little more delayed than usual for Marantz, although that will probably work out to be a good thing since the company is less likely to provide updated software or firmware, and the TSU9600 has already had the time to become a stable platform. No word yet on pricing or availability.

Talk about these new remotes!