With the Galaxy Note 5 last year, Samsung decided to ditch the handy IR blaster from its flagship devices. The trend continued with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge earlier this year, and sadly despite the criticism from a vocal niche of users, the company has not included an IR blaster on the Galaxy Note 7 as well.

It remains unclear as to why Samsung has not included an IR blaster on the Note 7. Is it due to the IP68 certification of the handset or the company noticed that only selected users were using it and decided to reduce its BoM (Bills of Materials) by removing it altogether. Whatever the case might be, the exclusion of an IR blaster on the Galaxy Note 7 is definitely going to disappoint a lot of users. Samsung’s Note series of devices are known for being filled to the brim with the very best of technology being available in the market, so there really is no excuse for the company to remove the feature from its flagship devices.

IR blasters might seem like a gimmick at first to many, but it is incredibly useful if you have multiple devices around you that can be controlled via a remote control. On the Galaxy S6 and previous Samsung flagship devices, the inbuilt IR blaster was used by the Peel remote app to control TVs. And with third party apps, the IR blaster could be used to control other devices.

Will the lack of an IR blaster on the Galaxy Note 7 deter you from buying the handset? Or will you just buy the device and learn to live without it? Drop in a comment and let us know!