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Huawei has endured a difficult few weeks. The threat of increased U.S. sanctions cutting its silicon supply chain, reports that the U.K. is revisiting a decision to allow the Chinese firm a role in its 5G plans, CFO Meng Wanzhou losing her extradition appeal in Canada, and related reports Huawei “hid business operations in Iran.”

Those are the serious issues, increasing the company’s reliance on the Chinese marketand a government-mandated rejig of the domestic supplier base. And, in turn, China has shown willing to fight its tech champion’s corner (again). But given the lack of clarity on any of the weighty issues, this does seem the perfect time for some form of distraction. Cue the Honor Play 4 Pro.

Huawei has achieved fantastic success building up a smartphone brand that, at its height, looked set to topple Samsung at the top of the charts for device volumes shipped annually. Despite U.S. sanctions beginning in May last year, Huawei still took Apple’s number-two slot and held on for a while against the odds. It’s only really this year, 2020, that its smartphone business is taking a hit.

The primary issue for Huawei, of course, is the loss of Google from new devices. This isn’t an issue in China, where Google is banned anyway, but it has flatlined sales in international markets, and that was where Huawei had been busy building its brand before U.S. President Trump signed that executive order.

Until the U.S. threatened its silicon supply chain, this loss of Google was the biggest threat to Huawei’s long-term success. Smartphone sales had soared, contributing huge profits and driving the company’s growth. And so it’s little surprise that Huawei is committing serious investment into its AppGallery and Huawei Mobile Services replacements for Google’s alternatives, as well as clever moves into maps and automotive integration to provide sticky solutions for its users.

Cue that Honor Play 4 Pro. Initially available only in China, which is best viewed as a testbed for exporting overseas, this is a new device with a radical addition—an infrared temperature sensor. And while you can theoretically use the onboard app to check the temperatures of anything, the idea is this is used to self-monitor for one of the reported symptoms of coronavirus. A phone for its time, then.

The IR sensor can detect temperatures from 20°C (-4°F) all the way up to 100°C (212°F), and is super simple to use. There are now numerous options being deployed to sample temperatures as the world eases out of lockdown and returns to work, school and leisure. This is the first developed for the mass market, though, and raises the interesting prospect of people checking themselves before they leave the house as a matter of routine, rather like a quick look in a hallway mirror.

The Honor Play 4 Pro runs on the custom Huawei Kirin 990 chipset, one of those fabricated for Huawei’s HiSilicon by TSMC and put at risk by the threat of increased U.S. sanctions. Beyond that, the phone is a flagship for Huawei’s lower-priced Honor brand, complete with 5G connectivity and multiple cameras. The device may not be able to carry Google as and when it makes its way overseas—which most other devices do have, but it does have something no other device has.

This addition of a temperature sensor to a smartphone could easily catch on as IR cameras find their ways onto more devices. Beyond coronavirus, it’s not unhelpful for parents and to have easy access to a temperature checker without rooting in kitchen cupboards or medicine cabinets for the thermometer. In the meantime, this will be a welcome distraction for Huawei as it generates headlines worldwide.