The HTC One is a phone with many features tucked away in its svelte body, including an infra-red blaster that lets it double as a remote control for Sky, Virgin Media, Freeview and Freesat.
We’re used to mobile phones doubling as second screens to enable our addiction to twittering throughout TV shows and managing recordings on the go these days. But the HTC One adds an old-school twist, letting us control the TV volume and change the channel.
In a genius piece of product design, the little black power button on the top of the HTC One also houses an IR unit (see below). Tapping the volume rocker on the phone also lets you adjust the volume of your TV. Nice.
We’ve had a quick play around with it and are impressed by the simplicty of the set-up process and the fact that there seems to be infra-red profiles for a large number of TV sets from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba’s ranges. It even had IR profiles for our crusty, 5-year old non-smart TV.
So far we’ve only tested out how it works with a Freeview TV and will be testing out with Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat set-top boxes in due course.
Expect a full review of the HTC One’s TV app here very soon, as well as a full review of the HTC One itself on our sister site Recombu Mobile.
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