The Samsung Galaxy S24 might again miss out on a key iPhone feature
No satellite connectivity?
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If the rumors are right, we’re just a few weeks away from the official unveiling of theSamsung Galaxy S24range – and in the meantime, unofficial leaks continue to give us some idea of what to expect from these flagship phones.
According toETNews(viaSamMobile), the Galaxy S24 phones won’t be coming with satellite connectivity for emergency messaging, a feature thatAppleadded to the iPhones with the launch of theiPhone 14series last year.
The idea is that if you’re in trouble somewhere without any Wi-Fi or even cellular network coverage, you can still send an emergency SOS message to share your location and to get help – and the functionalityworks pretty well, too.
Where one of the big phone manufacturers goes, the others usually soon follow, but if this latest report is correct, thenSamsunghasn’t been able to add satellite connectivity to the Galaxy S24 range – and it’s not immediately clear why.
It’s been coming
If the Samsung Galaxy S24 series does indeed launch without the ability to talk to satellites, it would be something of a surprise. The feature wasoriginally rumoredto be arriving with the Galaxy S23, launched after the iPhone 14 range.
That didn’t happen of course, but then it seemedeven more likelythat satellite support would be built into the Samsung Galaxy S24 phones, with a Samsung exec going on the record to say that the company was developing the technology.
Those comments might give us a clue as to why the tech isn’t ready yet: Samsung is apparently trying to integrate two-way satellite support into its phones, rather than the one-way communications that the iPhones offer.
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Perhaps the functionality isn’t quite ready – or perhaps this latest report is inaccurate. We’ll know for sure when the Galaxy S24 series launches, and thatalmost certainlyseems to be happening on January 17, 2024.
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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.
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