Samsung announces Galaxy S23 and Galaxy XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition smartphones

21 September 2023

Samsung has expanded its portfolio of Tactical Edition devices with two new smartphones - the Galaxy S23 Tactical Edition and the Galaxy XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition.

These are rugged smartphones aimed at military personnel and others with a similar job profile. Both smartphones share the specs with their standard versions but come with additional features that make them suitable for use in a tactical environment.

For starters, the Galaxy XCover 6 Pro Tactical Edition is MIL-STD-810H certified, allowing it to withstand extreme weather and have water resistance in up to 5 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. The Galaxy S23 Tactical Edition, on the other hand, is IP68-rated and comes in a rugged military-grade case that can be chest-mounted or worn on the forearm.

Both smartphones also have a night vision mode to accommodate use with night vision optic devices. Additionally, they have auto-touch sensitivity that lets you operate the handsets with gloves, while the auto-rotating lock screen facilitates use with flip-down chest mounts.

The Galaxy S23 and Galaxy XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition smartphones also support external GPS for accurate location data from the field, and they can also connect to drone feeds and laser range finders to increase mission effectiveness.

Talking about the communication capabilities, both tactical devices have purpose-built drivers to support tactical radio and mission device protocols, and they also support conventional cellular capabilities, including LTE, CBRS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

The smartphones also feature a Stealth Mode that disables LTE and e-911, which mutes all RF broadcasting - including GPS - from a hardware level, allowing the operators to have secure, completely off-grid communications. The illumination can also be turned on and off on the devices when wearing night vision devices to remain unnoticeable.

Since we are talking tactical edition smartphones, cybersecurity also needs to be accounted for, which is handled by Samsung Knox with hardware-level encryption. There's also Knox Dual Data at Rest (DualDAR) that protects confidential data by providing two layers of encryption even when the smartphone is powered off. Additionally, the S23 and XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition support serverless license activation, facilitating flexible deployment in different operator environments.

On the software front, the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition run Android 13-based One UI 5.1 out of the box with the Android Team Awareness Kit (ATAK) and the Battlefield Assisted Trauma Distributed Observation Kit (BATDOK). ATAK enhances real-time situational awareness for operators through mapping, messaging, and geo-fencing, while BATDOK gathers and disseminates real-time patient encounter information.

Both smartphones support Samsung DeX and dual VPN chaining, with the latter allowing the use of multiple VPNs for extra security. You can also automatically accept and record calls in speaker mode and prevent outgoing calls if you want to.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Tactical Edition comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, while the Samsung Galaxy XCover6 Pro Tactical Edition has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage onboard.

The pricing of these smartphones is unknown since they are not available for regular buyers and will be only sold to military operators.

Source