Samsung's EI-T5900 SmartTag Draws Fire as 1 Billion Android Phones Stay Outside Its Network
Updated
Updated · Android Police · Sep 27
Samsung's EI-T5900 SmartTag Draws Fire as 1 Billion Android Phones Stay Outside Its Network
1 articles · Updated · Android Police · Sep 27
Summary
EI-T5900 has surfaced in press renders and FCC filings, but criticism centers on Samsung keeping SmartTag tracking limited to Galaxy devices rather than the tag’s new shell.
Tracking works only with Galaxy phones or tablets on Android 9.0 or later, with 3GB of RAM, a Samsung account and SmartThings, leaving mixed-brand households unable to share tag finding.
Samsung’s last public count was 300 million opted-in devices in 2023, far below Google’s Find Hub network of more than 1 billion active Android devices that can relay competing tags.
UWB precision finding is also restricted to Samsung’s pricier phones; even the base Galaxy S26 lacks it, reducing SmartTag’s best close-range feature to a premium add-on.
That leaves Samsung trying to defend Apple-style ecosystem walls without Apple-scale reach—Apple says its Find My network spans more than 2.5 billion active devices.
Could dropping the built-in loop and keeping Galaxy exclusivity make Samsung’s next SmartTag less practical than newer Android-friendly rivals?
Why refresh SmartTag hardware while leaving mixed-device families, non-UWB Galaxy owners, and low-density-area users with the same tracking compromises?