Earlier this month, Huawei unveiled its monstrous new flagship smartphone: the Mate 20 Pro. The device is unarguably the most feature-packed flagship smartphone of 2018. Wondering why? Well, it even comes with an IR blaster — something that almost all other flagship Android devices are skipping nowadays.

An IR blaster on a smartphone might not seem like a big deal but it is an incredibly useful feature to have. Thanks to an IR blaster, one can use the Huawei Mate 20 Pro to directly control other electronic home appliances like TV, AC, music system etc. around them without using their respective remote. Given how frequently we end up losing track of the remote control of our TV or music system, having an IR blaster on your phone to control other electronic devices around you is a boon.

This might not seem like a big deal at first but once you get used to a smartphone featuring an IR blaster, there’s no going back.

The Huawei Mate 20 Pro is among the very few flagship Android devices to launch this year featuring an IR blaster. Other major flagships launched this year like the Galaxy S9, Galaxy Note 9, LG G7 ThinQ, LG V40, OnePlus 6/6T, and others all lack an IR blaster. OEMs like Samsung and LG used to include an IR blaster on their flagship devices a few years ago, but have had a change of heart in recent years and removed it for good.

Ironically, Xiaomi — known for its budget Redmi devices — includes an IR blaster on almost all of its budget devices like the Redmi 6 Pro, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Mi A2, and others. So, if you really value an IR blaster on your smartphone, you either buy the Huawei Mate 20 Pro or a budget Redmi device from Xiaomi.