Huawei recently announced their latest smartphone – the Huawei Pura 70 series. For the most part it looks like your typical flagship smartphone, except for one feature. According to a post on Weibo by Huawei Device Business Group CTO Bruce Lee, the Pura 70 Ultra has a satellite communication feature that even Apple’s iPhones do not.
In case you didn’t know, Apple introduced satellite communication starting with the iPhone 14 series. This is an emergency feature that allows users to send text messages even when they’re out of range. However, the feature is limited to just text messages. With the Pura 70 Ultra, Huawei says that the handset can use satellite to even send images.
Unfortunately, it is a bit limited. For instance, users will need to use the Changlian app to send and receive images. If the recipient does not have the app, they’ll only receive a text message. Also, the use of satellites means that the images will be compressed greatly. This is presumably done to facilitate faster transfer speeds. The end result are images that will not be of the best quality.
Then again, this is designed to be used as an emergency feature. Users can use it to send images like their surroundings or location. This will help emergency services find them easily. Huawei and Apple aren’t alone in trying to leverage satellite communication on their phones. We expect that in the future, such connectivity features will become standard.