Do the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro Feature an IR Blaster?

BY Ben Patterson

Published 27 Mar 2019

Huawei P30

Earlier today, Huawei launched the P30 and P30 Pro at an event in Paris. The company’s latest flagship handsets are filled to the brim with top-notch specs including an impressive 40MP camera setup. The P30 Pro, in particular, is packed to the brim with features including an IR blaster, though that’s not the case with the smaller P30.

The Huawei P30 Pro features an IR blaster but misses out on a 3.5mm headphone jack. The smaller P30 is the exact opposite. It features a headphone jack but misses out on the IR blaster.

The inclusion of an IR blaster on the Huawei P30 Pro makes it among the very few flagship phones in the market to feature an IR blaster. In fact, with the Galaxy S10 series and LG G8 missing out on an IR blaster, the P30 Pro is the only flagship handset announced this year so far with an IR blaster. Given that other OEMs have almost given up on the IR blaster, it is unlikely that we are going to see any other flagship phone launch anytime soon with an IR blaster.

Huawei includes an IR blaster on the Mate 20 Pro and P20 Pro as well so it should not be surprising to see the company include an IR blaster on the P30 Pro as well.

At this point, it looks like if you really value having an IR blaster on your flagship smartphone, you should stick to flagship phones from Huawei. Xiaomi does include an IR blaster on its devices but that’s limited to its budget Redmi devices which are available in only limited markets.