The HD8600 remote is medium sized, with a sleek shiny black look, with bright blue LED lighting. In fact, the lighting is excellent, just right, making the buttons easy to read, yet without being blinding in a darkened room.
I personally like both the size and the feel. It's definitely one of the easier remote controls to operate casually with one hand.
The range, however could have been better. If you have a large room, it may be tough to get a bounce off the screen to a projector mounted toward the back. Sitting 11 feet back from the screen, I really can't get a reliable bounce off the screen and wall to the projector which is 16 feet back.
On the top right are the Power, and Off buttons with the Off, right below the Power. The other seven buttons in the top part of the remote provide direct access to different image controls: Brightness, Contrast, Iris, Color, Pure (dynamic features) controls, and the Advanced menu.
Next comes the four navigation arrow keys in a round configuration with the Enter button in the center. Below to the left is the Menu button, and to the right, the (image) Mode button. The next row has two wide buttons, one for overscan the other, for the alternative; edge masking.
Then, a feature I don't recall seeing before on a remots - buttons for 12 volt trigger On and Off. Then comes four aspect ratio settings buttons, and finally seven input buttons.