Phones with an IR blaster: What are your best options?

An IR blaster can be an asset on your phone, allowing it to double as a universal remote, giving you control over various electronic devices in your home. Unfortunately, phones with IR blasters aren’t as common as they used to be. Companies like Samsung have more or less ditched the technology altogether, but you can still find it on other smartphones, especially from Chinese brands.

The best phones with an IR blaster:

Editor’s note: We will regularly update this list of the best phones with an IR blaster as new devices launch.

What is an IR blaster, anyway?

The “IR” in IR blaster stands for “infrared.” The hardware itself is also equally simple to understand. If your phone has an IR blaster, it allows you to send commands via infrared rays to another device, such as a television, set-top box, or stereo compatible with IR remotes. The main advantage of using an IR blaster-based device is that you don’t have to go through a cumbersome Bluetooth pairing process and that you can use it with older devices that don’t offer Bluetooth or wireless connections.

1. vivo X80 Pro

The vivo X80 Pro is a great device. It’s secured its spot as one of the best phones with an IR blaster thanks to its excellent main camera, a fantastic 120Hz display, stereo speakers, outstanding performance, and a bundled charger. Not to mention its sleek design.

However, even great phones have their flaws. In the X80 Pro’s case, it’s the barrage of bloatware and bare minimum security update commitment that hold it back.

The phone isn’t readily available everywhere, and chances of it coming to the USA are slim to none. It launched in China and India, but there are ways to import it.

vivo X80 Pro specs:

2. HUAWEI P50 Pro

Despite the lack of Google Play Services, Huawei’s P50 series offers some impressive hardware. The fact that the P50 Pro is a phone with an IR blaster is just some extra icing on top. It revamps the cameras from the P40 with new, circular bumps and cranks them even closer to perfection.

The P50 Pro is about as refined as HUAWEI has ever made. Build quality is excellent, and overall specs are outstanding. One benefit to choosing HUAWEI’s P50 Pro is that you’ll get the 5G-ready Kirin 9000 chipset. It also includes up to 512GB of storage with 12GB of RAM.

As for those cameras, the P50 Pro offers four Leica-tuned rear options. There’s a 50MP primary lens, 64MP periscope telephoto, 13MP ultrawide, and a 40MP black and white sensor for good measure. While the selfie camera only weighs in at 13MP, it still delivers solid results. HUAWEI’s P50 Pro packs a 4,360mAh battery with 66W fast wired charging or 50W wireless speeds.

HUAWEI P50 Pro specs:

3. POCO F4 GT

The POCO F4 GT is all about getting yourself in the game, and its IR blaster is the icing on top. It’s a great performer with shoulder triggers to give you better control over the action. POCO’s gaming phone is quick to charge, which is good given the power needs of gamers.

Aside from being one of the few phones with an IR blaster, it’s also pretty durable. You get an IP53 rating, which is in line with the price range, and POCO tapped Gorilla Glass Victus for the build. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor offers reliable performance, and you can pair it with up to 12GB of RAM.

Unfortunately, the POCO F4 GT is tough to get support for in the US, but it should be easy to use throughout the rest of the world.

POCO F4 GT specs:

4. Xiaomi 13 Pro

It may have been overshadowed by its Ultra sibling, but the Xiaomi 13 Pro is still one of the best phones you can get with an IR blaster. The flagship is premium from top to bottom, sporting a glossy ceramic finish that bleeds right into a Leica-tuned camera bump.

Xiaomi’s latest flagship continued its trend of packing the best internals on the market. In this case, that means loading the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space. The hits continue with a 6.73-inch display, a 120Hz refresh rate, and durable Gorilla Glass Victus. Xiaomi also packed its 4,820mAh battery with blistering 120W wired and 50W wireless charging.

As for the camera setup, you’re looking at a trio of 50MP lenses — a primary, an ultrawide, and a telephoto — all tuned by Leica with two color profiles. Around the front, you get a 32MP selfie shooter for good measure.

Xiaomi 13 Pro specs:

5. Xiaomi 11T series

The Xiaomi 11T series offers a few phones that bring high-end specs at a very competitive price. The Xiaomi 11T and Xiaomi 11T Pro come with excellent 6.67-inch 12HZ OLED displays, powerful processors, a triple rear camera system, a massive battery, dual speakers, and even Wi-Fi 6.

While not rocking the “T” moniker, these phones also launched alongside the Xiaomi 11 Lite NE. This budget device isn’t as powerful; it shares the feature this post is all about. All three are phones with an IR blaster on board.

You guessed it! These phones will be hard to get in the USA. Here are some links if you want to get them imported, though.

Xiaomi 11T Pro specs:

Xiaomi 11T specs:

Xiaomi 11 Lite NE specs:

6. POCO X4 Pro

POCO first made waves a few years back with the POCOphone F1, and it’s evolved in many ways since then. Its portfolio has grown exponentially, and the POCO X4 Pro is one of its best efforts yet. Further, this phone with an IR blaster also offers major bang for the buck. It’s not a true successor to the POCO X3 Pro, but it does bring some key improvements.

For starters, the device packs an excellent OLED panel. It’s bright and crisp, and it’s backed up by two days of battery life. Hadlee was also impressed by the solid primary camera, though the peripheral options left something to be desired. You should have no problems taking the X4 Pro on adventures — the IP53 rating promises a degree of water and dust resistance.

While POCO’s offerings are not meant for the American market, they are readily available from Amazon. You can get the X4 Pro through the links below.

POCO X4 Pro specs:

7. Redmi Note 11 Pro and 11 Pro Plus

Another pair of affordable phones with IR blasters for your consideration is Redmi’s Note 11 Pro and Pro Plus. They’re much improved over the Note 10, earning points for design, battery life, and some seriously great prices.

The beautiful design is the first thing you’ll notice in the Note 11 series. It skips the bold gradients and wild colors of other budget-friendly phones and instead sports a clean and classic look. You’re also bound to notice the camera array with its 108MP primary lens. The peripheral lenses haven’t received much kick, but we can’t ask for the world at this price.

More importantly, both models shine as phones with IR blasters. The batteries are plenty large with impressive wired charging speeds of over 60W. That said, these phones indeed manage to stand out in a rather crowded category.

Redmi Note 11 Pro specs:

Redmi Note 11 Pro Plus specs:

8. POCO M4 Pro

Our last phone with an IR blaster brings us back to POCO one more time. We told you the portfolio has been growing, and the POCO M4 Pro might be one of the brand’s best efforts yet. The design is brilliant, and MIUI offers plenty of control over your customization.

We have to applaud POCO for its impressive battery life, speedy charging setup, and we can’t ignore the rock-bottom price. After all, this is one of the most affordable ways to get your hands on 5G speeds.

POCO grabbed a midrange MediaTek Dimensity 810 processor to pair with its 50MP primary camera. The ultrawide camera is a complete afterthought, though. There’s a lot to like about POCO’s M4 Pro, and we’ll never complain about an IR blaster.

POCO M4 Pro specs: