IR blasters on smartphones have become almost extinct. I say almost because while major OEMs like Samsung, LG, and Motorola have given them the boot from their devices, there’s one company that continues to include IR blaster on its flagship devices. And that’s Huawei.

Huawei’s flagships from 2017, the P10 and Mate 10 featured an IR blaster and continuing that trend, the company includes an IR blaster on its just-announced P20 and P20 Pro as well. It is interesting to see Huawei being the sole major smartphone OEM which continues to include an IR blaster on its flagship handsets despite other OEMs ditching it. If anything, it shows that Huawei realizes how useful an IR blaster is on a smartphone or the company’s kitchen sink approach to adding every feature possible also includes an IR blaster.

Apart from Huawei, Xiaomi is the only other OEM that includes IR blasters on its smartphones. Xiaomi, however, only includes IR blaster on its budget Redmi handsets sold in India and China, with its flagship Mi Mix smartphone lineup lacking the sensor for some reason.

The inclusion of an IR blaster means that Huawei P20 and P20 Pro users can use the bundled Smart Remote app to control other home appliances like TV, music system, DVD players around them using their phone. The device in question does not need to be ‘smart’ so that you can control it from your P20.

The lack of an IR blaster on the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy Note 8 was a deal breaker for many. With the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro coming with an IR blaster, would you be switching over to them just because they feature an incredibly handy IR blaster?