Facepalm: With the Galaxy Note 7 debacle now years in the past, Samsung probably never expected to experience similar, if non-explosive, design issues in its products again. But the Galaxy Fold review units proved otherwise. If that wasn't bad enough, it appears there's also a flaw in its recent Galaxy Tab S5e.
Back in February, Samsung unveiled what it said is its thinnest, lightest tablet ever: the $399 Tab S5e. Sadly for the company, the tablet appears to suffer from a major design drawback. As reported by SamMobile, several users have reported experiencing Wi-Fi disconnections whenever their hand covers the lower-left corner of the device. This occurs when using the Tab in landscape mode with the front-facing camera on the left.
It appears that when a user's hand is in this position, it blocks the Wi-Fi signal from reaching the tablet's integrated receiver. You can always remedy the issue by switching the Tab around so the front-facing camera is on the right, or use it in portrait mode, but it's still something Samsung should have caught in the testing phase.
One Instagram user posted a picture showing the disconnection issue. He also claimed that this is the second Tab S5e to experience the problem. Being a hardware fault, it can't be addressed with a software update.
It's worth noting that this doesn't seem to be affecting every unit. SamMobile tried to replicate the issue but never lost the Wi-Fi connection, though the signal strength did drop by 50 percent.
Samsung hasn't commented on the matter---it's probably busy trying to fix the Galaxy Fold---but maybe it'll take Steve Jobs' approach to similar complaints about the iPhone 4 and tell people they're holding it wrong.