Honor Magic9 Series Gets Infrared Support on Every Model Now!

The Honor Magic9 series has a nice new feature that is easy to miss. All three phones support infrared remote control, even though there is no visible infrared opening on the top of the phone.

HONOR R&D engineer Cao Gong confirmed the feature in a recent post. He also said that the infrared hardware is placed in a different place from where we normaly see on smartphones.

The Magic9, Magic9 Super Edition and Magic9 Pro Max all have infrared. But now its in a different place from a lot of older phones. the infrared remote control hardware sits inside the camera module. This means users can hold the phone normally instead of pointing its top edge at a TV or air conditioner.

The Magic9 Pro Max takes things a step further with HONOR's 360° Infrared Remote Control Enhancement. Cao Gong said, the feature provides full-angle coverage and lets users control devices without carefully aiming the phone.

This makes the Pro Max different from the other two models. Honor has not shared many technical details about how the 360° system works, so it is too early to say exactly how much better it will be in real-world use.

Still, the idea is simple. You should be able to use the phone as a remote without worrying too much about which way it is facing.

The missing infrared opening may have made some users think Honor had removed the feature from the Magic9 series. But that is not true.

Honor has instead moved the infrared hardware into the camera module on the Magic9 and Magic9 Super Edition. The company's official specs also list infrared remote control as a supported feature on the Magic9.

The Magic9 series was officially launched in China on September 28. It includes the Magic9, Magic9 Super Edition and Magic9 Pro Max.

Infrared remote control is not a new smartphone feature, but Honor's approach is interesting in myy opinion. Moving the hardware away from the top edge keeps the phone's design clean while still giving users a useful way to control home appliances.