Do I really have eight HDMI devices on my desk alone? Well, seven, but who's counting?
I really needed to get a handle on things, and switching items back and forth when your monitor only has a few inputs is tiring.
I'd tried other company's HDMI switches and they sometimes worked, and sometimes didn't. Some of them were self-powered (with a power brick) and others were powered by the HDMI devices - which is sub-optimal.
This HDMI switch? It's the one I've always dreamed of, with all the features I need, and even a few I didn't realize were possible in this form factor.
First off: EIGHT HDMI inputs. That's so many HDMI inputs! So there you have it. Eight. And then one HDMI output. So you know, it's super easy to plug stuff in, and you really just have to label everything because you know you're going to forget which one is which when you've got eight devices hooked up.
But...it gets better!
This HDMI switch has auto-switching. So when you turn a device on, it switches to that device! I believe that's the extent of it, so it won't turn other devices off when you turn one device off, which is nice. It just does what you'd expect it to do. If you're just using one thing at a time, the auto-switching feature works like a dream. If you're going to be turning on multiple devices, and switching things around, you're probably going to want to label things, just so you know where the devices are.
Now, ignoring auto-switching for a moment, you have the remote, and you have the buttons on the switch itself. It's nice that, if you want to cycle through with the two "arrow buttons" you can do that. But if you know that you want to switch between 2 and 6, you can just push those two buttons on the remote or the switch. It's very responsive.
I've seen a few folks complaining in their reviews about auto-detection or whatever, but honestly, I use good cables and solid output devices, so I've had no issues whatsoever switching between: Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Apple TV 4K, and a gaming computer. It's possible that some of the lower end "sticks" might have difficulties, but so far, all of my higher end consumer electronics have been rock-solid. I do use good cables between the switch and the monitor, in addition to between the switch and the devices, so it's possible that the quality of the cables, and the devices, mean I have no issues. Try to run a Roku Streaming Stick or Fire TV Stick with a 50' cable, and you'll probably have issues. My suggestion, from experience, is to use the shortest cable necessary and for longer lengths, use higher quality cables to reduce signal loss.
Overall, I am very happy with this purchase, and I'm glad that I finally found an HDMI switch that both has enough ports, but is also durable - with a metal case - and an external IR sensor for the remote. It really is the perfect HDMI switch, at the perfect price.