Samsung phones as a car key still have many limitations

Samsung now lets its Galaxy flagships as key work on BMW and Kia cars. However, there are still many limitations for this function. It only works in combination with NFC technology and also only in the home country of South Korea.

Digital car key Samsung

Samsung smartphones have been equipped with support for ultra-wideband technology for years. This allows you to determine the location of the phone much more accurately compared to bluetooth. Samsung has been talking about the possibility of using your phone as a digital car key thanks to ultra-wideband for some time. If you come close to your car with your smartphone in your pocket, the door will unlock automatically.

That’s how it should work in theory, because although the functionality has been talked about for a long time, the possibility is long in coming. Samsung would be the first to roll out the function in its home country of South Korea by the end of 2021. The function is now available there for models from BMW and Kia, TizenHelp knows. These are: the BMW 1-8 series, the Z4, X5-X8, iX3, iX and the Kia Niro.

Only with NFC

However, there are still restrictions and not just because these cars only unlock with a Samsung phone in South Korea. The digital car key only works with NFC technology with these models. This means that you have to hold your phone very precisely against a place on the car to unlock it. It also does not work with all Samsung devices that have NFC, but only with the flagships, namely: Galaxy S21 and S22 series, the Note 20 Ultra, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Fold 2.