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Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e loses Wi-Fi signal if you’re holding it wrong, could be a hardware flaw

Wireless connectivity is one of the most important parts of every device we own, and that’s especially true for tablets. It seems, however, that Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab S5e has a serious design flaw that causes the Wi-Fi to easily lose strength, quite literally if you’re holding it wrong.

Some users of the Galaxy Tab S5e have noticed that in certain conditions, the tablet loses its connection to Wi-Fi entirely, or the strength of the connection is lessened.

The cause for this is the user’s hand covering the lower-left corner of the device (when held horizontally, front-facing camera to the left). SamMobile speculates that this is due to the Wi-Fi components being placed in this section of the tablet.

If that is the case, Samsung can’t issue a simple software update to fix this. Unless we get an iPhone 4-esque statement from Samsung telling users they’re “holding it wrong,” a hardware revision will probably be required to fix this. Of course, users can simply hold the tablet in the reverse orientation to keep the Wi-Fi working at full strength since it would be at the top in that case, uncovered by a hand. Still, this is something that never should have made it past Samsung’s internal testing of the product.

The difference in signal varies from user to user. One example from Instagram, below, shows the signal being lost entirely during a match of Fortnite. Meanwhile, SamMobile tested their own unit and noted a 50% dip in signal strength.

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