Over the past couple of weeks, our Samsung remote control started behaving in a very queer fashion. Every time we pressed the volume up button it would turn the TV off.
The fault wasn’t with the TV, because the Sky remote’s volume control worked perfectly well with the television set. I tried new batteries in the Samsung remote, but that didn’t fix it, so the only option was to replace the duff remote.
A straight replacement for the Samsung BN59-00939A remote control would cost £30 on Amazon. I headed onto eBay, to see if I could pick up a second-hand one instead, and came across this Universal Replacement Remote Control for Samsung TV priced at only £3.95.
My tight arse took over and I pressed the Buy button (with my finger, I hasten to add). At worst, I was frittering away the cost of a pint – a half if you live in London.
Did the gamble pay off? It did, although with some notable caveats.
The Splinktech ‘Samsung’ remote control
Although the Universal Remote Control looks very similar to a Samsung model – so similar, I imagine Samsung’s lawyers are twitching – the £4 model is in fact made by a company called Splinktech.
According to the Splinktech website, they are based in Shenzen, China, and they are a “sofisticated [sic] technical team, we are fast in proofing, so that the customization for your products becomes easier”. I think they’re proofing their website a little too quickly…
On eBay, the remote is distributed by a firm called Justop based in Nottingham. They sent the remote control through the post, wrapped in what looked like a bin bag, with no padding or protection. Not ideal.
Still, it got here in one piece, although as you can tell from the picture, that piece is decidedly smaller than the official Samsung remote it’s replacing.
The remote is pretty low quality. The battery compartment doesn’t quite sit flush with the rest of the body, the numbers on the buttons look they’ve been added with Letraset, while the Splinktech remote doesn’t have all the buttons of the official remote it’s replacing.
That said, it’s not missing anything major – and it works. I can turn the volume on the TV up again without a blackout, all the buttons are correctly labelled, and I’ve got an additional £26 in the bank.
I can’t vouch for its longevity. I’ve no reason to suspect it will keel over after falling down the back of the sofa, and though its build quality isn’t perfect, it doesn’t feel flimsy either.
Overall, if you’re looking for a new Samsung remote and don’t want to stretch to an official replacement, this will do the job.
Add Comment