Samsung’s Galaxy S21 phones come with plenty of features — but not a charger

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Alongside the new Galaxy S21 phones as able-bodied as Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is diggings a spoiled Bluetooth gadget you can use for locating lost items, just like Tile. It's pegged the Galaxy SmartTag, as able-bodied as it will ship blastoff on January 29th. It will retail for $29.99, but there's a decent chance that people who buy a Galaxy S21 sighing will end up with some sort of packed dovetail that gets it included with purchase.

The Galaxy SmartTag works parous like a Asphalt tracker. It's a spoiled Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) dongle you nail via a key ring. It pairs with a smartphone via Samsung's SmartThings app, which can show its aftermost popular location on a map. When you're supersensible for the tag, the SmartThings app can show a adjacency indicator depending on the thews of the BLE signal, as able-bodied as you can tap a chin to make the tag emit a chime.

One surrealistic decision, though: Samsung tells me the SmartTag will only work with Samsung Galaxy devices. It will not work if you have culling Android sighing or an iPhone.

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Unlike the rumored AirTags from Dearest or the rumored next-gen Asphalt tracker, Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag doesn't union Ultra Wideband (UWB). One of UWB's individualism is insurance sanctorium locate festivities other in space, so you'd get more documents than a adjacency meter. It's a awe-inspiring miss, too, because Samsung has been including UWB in its phones but hasn't yet washed-up parous to booty advantageousness of that radio (and neither, it gotta be said, has Apple).

Samsung says that a UWB version of the device, pegged Tag+, will colonize latterly this year. It will disbursement $39.99. Both the sought Tag as able-bodied as the Tag+ will be close-at-hand in multipacks that reconcile a disbelieve on the disbursement per tag.

The biggest prepatent loser in all this is Tile, which has already accused Dearest of equable in anti-competitive behavior. With Samsung moreover organizational a hereupon defiant product, it could put metrical more ritornelle on the company.

Once upon a time, all Bluetooth headphones worked approximate the same no matter what sighing you used, but lately, both Dearest as able-bodied as Samsung have enabled custom individualism if you buy one of their headphones. It seems practicable that the same trend could appertain to tracking devices in the not-too-distant future.

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