Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus may currently be touted as the best smartphones of the year, so far, but there does seem to be a problem with some of the devices’ built-in FM radio. Namely, the unlocked U.S. variant of Samsung’s flagship devices – which feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC instead of Samsung’s in-house Exynos SoC – won’t play FM stations at all. Although the problem had been initially been reported by various sources as something that was still unconfirmed, that has now changed. In fact, according to an image captured on the support page for the popular live and local FM streaming app called NextRadio, it’s been confirmed by Samsung. That also means it is not a problem with whatever app a user is trying to listen through, but a problem with the devices in question.
Of course, as of this writing, no solid details have been released with regard to what the problem actually is. However, thankfully, it doesn’t appear to be a hardware issue since the company has said that the next system update will fix the problem. Moreover, NextRadio’s choice of words in the matter, indicating that the devices were supposed to arrive “FM-enabled,” seems to confirm that it is simply a setting that was toggled incorrectly upon configuration. Having said that, the company has not actually provided a date or even a range of dates for when users can expect the next update to arrive. Given that everything points to this being a fairly straightforward issue to rectify, that’s not likely to make users who enjoy FM radio very happy. That’s especially true since Samsung has not always been the fastest company to push updates, let alone the most regular.
In the meantime, it’s a very good thing that this isn’t a hardware issue in either Qualcomm’s chipset or in more proprietary parts. That means that, at very least, Samsung probably won’t need to issue a recall or refunds in order to set things right. Better still, with any luck, the problem will provide Samsung with a sense of urgency to get the software updated. For Galaxy S9 users, that could mean that the next update will ship more quickly than it might otherwise have been sent out.
