We’ve seen devices that have different feature sets depending on the carrier, but when does such variation just become too much? Some understandably upset early adopters of the Samsung Galaxy S5 from AT&T are reporting that their devices seem to be missing the much advertised Download Booster feature.
Samsung has somewhat toned down its rather divergent ways in the Galaxy S5, focusing instead on trying to provide a better user experience with the hardware available. One such example is in the realm of Internet connectivity where Samsung has not only brought support for Cat4 LTE, with theoretical download speeds of 150 Mbps, but also something that it calls Download Booster. It is basically a feature that combines an active WiFi and an active LTE connection to, as the name says, boost speeds to up to a staggering 650 Mbps.
Unfortunately it seems that not everyone will get to enjoy that rather delectable feature, at least not those under AT&T’s banner. Hints of this missing feature first appeared in AT&T’s demo units, where the option to toggle Download Booster was noticeably missing. Now some users are actually reporting that such is still the case in the actual retail device they have received, leading to no small amount of disappointment.
The demo units might have been a fluke, but it is unlikely that this passed unnoticed in the final version of the device. It would perhaps be a bit more understandable, though not exactly excusable, if AT&T had technical reasons to disable the feature and had informed users before they made the purchase or even put in a pre-order. But so far, the carrier has remained silent on the matter, adding to confusion and ill-feelings that Galaxy S5 owners might already have.
[UPDATE] It seems that AT&T isn’t alone. FierceWirelessTech reports that even Verizon has disabled this feature. While the two carriers have not offered yet any official explanation, AT&T’s spokesperson claims that the carrier is continually testing new features to ensure compatibility with the network, which sounds like a very canned response. This leaves T-Mobile as the only major US carrier who not only supports but even advertises this feature found in the Galaxy S5.
VIA: Android Police
