Brands might be cooling on satellite features, and that's bad news for cheaper Androids
TL;DR Chinese brands are scaling back satellite communication and keeping it for top-end models only.
A reliable tipster says past high-end sat-com flagships sold poorly and were dropped.
This could make global brands less likely to bring the feature to affordable phones.
Satellite communication has been one of the most talked-about phone features in the past couple of years, and it's no longer just for emergencies. Just this week, our APK teardown showed how Google's Find Hub is getting ready to let you ping your location over satellite, hinting at a future where this tech is more of an everyday tool than a last resort. All that said, there are wider signs that some phone makers seem to be gradually losing interest in the tech.
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According to a Weibo post from reliable leaker Digital Chat Station, Chinese OEMs are dialing back their satellite communication ambitions, especially for mid-range and iterative flagship models. According to the post, the feature is now being reserved for the very top memory configurations — and not even all of those. The tipster also noted that previous flagship models that bundled sat-com with maxed-out 16GB RAM and 1TB storage didn't sell well and ended up being discontinued.
That's not great news if you were hoping to see satellite features trickle down to more affordable Androids. Apple already offers it on the iPhone, and Google looks set to equip the Pixel 10 series with it, but in the Android camp, it's mostly been a flagship perk, like on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. If Chinese mid-rangers won't bother, all of the biggest manufacturers have even less reason to add it to more affordable models.
For now, satellite connectivity is still on the slow climb from niche safety net to genuinely useful feature. Until more brands commit to putting it in phones people buy in big numbers, you'll still need to shell out flagship money to get it.
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