Samsung officially presented the new Galaxy S21 range on January 14, a range made up of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus y Galaxy S21 Ultra. In addition, we could also see the location beacons Galaxy Smart Tag and the new headphones Galaxy Buds Pro.
These new terminals include an ultra-wide band chip (UWB for its acronym in English) like the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 range, although Apple at the moment has not released any product that can get the functionality that it offers us, something that Samsung did with the location beacons.
But in addition, they will also allow us to make use of the Digital Key system, a system that manufacturers are gradually introducing into their vehicles and that allow us to use our smartphone, in this case the Galaxy S21 range to open our vehicle, in addition to starting it obviously, thanks to the NFC chip and guiding us to it thanks to the UWB chip.
This has been possible thanks to Samsung's collaboration with the Car Connectivity Consortium and the FIRa Consortium. Thanks to this functionality, leave the keys to a friend If you have a smartphone with an ultra-broadband chip, it will be a breeze. The vehicles that will begin to implement this functionality in the coming months are Audi, BMW and Ford.
If we look at the fine print, we can read as, sadly, the Galaxy S21, the cheapest model is off the list of the phones compatible with Digital Key, but we do find, in addition to the Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
All these terminals must be managed by Android 11 with the One UI 3.1 customization layer. This functionality will begin to be available from July.
