Before iPhone 14 satellite connectivity, THIS company did it first! Beats Apple

iPhone 14 has long been rumoured to come with satellite connectivity but prior to that, one of Apple's biggest rivals did the same and beat it. It is Huawei, who unveiled its Mate 50 series flagship smartphone yesterday and announced support for satellite connectivity services. The Mate 50 and Mate 50 Pro smartphones will be able to send short texts and utilize the satellite for navigation. Given that Huawei is largely restricted to China, it will rely on the BeiDou satellite network.

The satellite connectivity feature will come handy in places where there is no network connectivity, and could be of massive help in remote locations. In the case of Huawei, the Mate 50 series smartphones will be able to only send the text messages via satellite connectivity; it may not be able to receive messages. In the US, however, T-Mobile's network will allow users to do text and picture messaging, while voice calls and data services will come on later. Note that T-Mobile will be using SpaceX's Starlink satellites to achieve the same.

iPhone 14 beaten to satellite connectivity already

In the US, there remains a high chance of the upcoming iPhone 14 able to support satellite connectivity services on T-Mobile's network. Additionally, we won't be surprised if Apple restricts this connectivity to its own iMessage service, or FaceTime calls. This could also be largely region restricted.

While the satellite connectivity feature is more likely to remain restricted to the US and a few markets, the iPhone 14 series will have other features for everyone to enjoy. The standard iPhone 14 will be more similar to the iPhone 13 but could be using the enhanced A15 Bionic chip, new camera sensors, larger battery, and probably a faster 90Hz refresh rate display. The iPhone 14 Plus is expected to be just a bigger version of that – a larger 6.7-inch display and a larger capacity battery.

The iPhone 14 Pro, on the other hand, will get rid of the iconic display notch finally, and will replace it with a wide pill-shaped cutout for the camera and the Face ID sensors. Additionally, the display panel is expected to support a variable refresh rate of 1Hz to 120Hz, thereby allowing Apple to introduce the Always On Display feature. The Pro models will also get the A16 chip, a new 48MP main rear camera, a new ultrawide camera sensor, and possibly support for faster 30W wired charging.