Are manufacturers (Samsung), OS vendor (Google) and mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, etc) to blame for this? A conspiracy theory? If FM radio is available as an option, it might give people reason to use it instead of paying for data/streaming music. Google also wants to sell streaming/downloaded music (through its Google Play Music platform). The problem of "FM dying on Android" stems mostly from North America / USA, where most mobile carriers are interested in having their subscribers pay more for data plans. Connecting it to ground effectively prevents the developer community from even implementing a software solution. If Samsung spent a penny or two and connected the antenna pin to the headphone socket, a simple software change would easily make the FM radio available for the end user. However, in Samsung's wisdom, they simply connected the chip's antenna pin to ground, effectively crippling the ability for it to function. It's a selling point of Broadcom/Qualcomm's chips.
#Fm radio for samsung galaxy s6 upgrade#
At that time of the S4's release, I was ready to upgrade my handset, but the lack of an FM radio put me off.Īnother year on, the Galaxy S5 is released with the same glaring omission - No FM Radio! It is Deja Vu with the S6 in 2015.Īlmost every Bluetooth/WiFi chip used by smartphones also have an FM broadcast receiver built in. But little did I know the S3 was the last Samsung Galaxy where the beloved FM radio existed.Ĭome the release of the S4, Samsung no longer felt it was necessary to include an FM radio, despite the minimal costs to implement it. However, with my trusty SII still serving me well at the time of the S3's release, I had no reason to upgrade. Samsung were good enough to incorporate a broadcast receiver in their Galaxy S3 flagship. All other media (audio files, streaming) incurred a battery drain penalty due to the processing/decoding/data downloading that needed to occur.
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It was perfect - it had minimal battery drain compared to other media because FM is analog and all signal processing was done by a dedicated wireless chip. The FM radio was one feature I used for hours each week.
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They were also bristling with features - including an FM radio broadcast receiver. But their phones were easy to become accustomed to. Sure, Samsung packaged their much maligned TouchWiz interface into the finished product.
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The legendary Galaxy S and Galaxy SII sat amongst some of the best smartphones at the time.
#Fm radio for samsung galaxy s6 android#
Why I ditched Samsung in favor of HTC: FM Radioīack in 2010/2011, my first experiences with high end Samsung Android smartphones were positive: an alternative to a fruity brand, highly customisable and reliable.