Samsung introduces Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition for defence operations

Modern flagship smartphones are often perceived as delicate, but Samsung stands behind the design and security capabilities of its Galaxy S20 so much, that the South Korean giant has announced a special new version of it, tailored for operations in the federal government and Department of Defense.

The Samsung Galaxy TE (Tactical Edition) sports customized software and features in order to be mission-ready, and "supports the requirements of tactical and classified applications." The S20 TE also has what Samsung calls DualDAR architecture, a Samsung Knox security feature, that provides two-layer data encryption based on NSA standards, in order to be able to secure even "top-secret level data."


In order to design the Galaxy S20 TE, Samsung says to have worked with feedback from Department of Defense customers and partners.

Samsung Electronics America's General Manager Taher Bahbehani sums up the device as follows: "The Galaxy S20 Tactical Edition provides the warfighter with the technology that will give them an edge in the field, while providing their IT teams with an easy-to-deploy, highly secure solution that meets the demands of their regulated environment."

Among the interesting features the S20 TE gets are a night-vision mode, allowing for operators to use it while wearing night vision, a stealth mode which disables LTE and RF broadcasting, Samsung DeX for writing reports in a desktop environment, and the aforementioned embedded defence system that meets "the most stringent regulated industry requirements."

This isn't the first instance where Samsung has impressed with its defence-grade mobile security, as just a week ago the company shed light on the Galaxy S20's secure processor, and how it works to protect user data against physical tampering. In addition, the S20 is running Samsung Knox, which provides real-time data protection on the software level.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 TE will be sporting 12 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage, Android 10 with One UI 2, and is to be released in the third quarter of 2020 "through select IT channel partners."