Samsung is hosting an Unpacked event on January 4, and one of the devices that is heavily rumored to make an appearance is the Galaxy S21 FE, aka Fan Edition. The upcoming budget flagship has been a staple in the leak arena for a while now, and whatever remained to be told has now been dumped online in its entirety by Roland Quandt of WinFuture. Quandt appears to have got his hands on the official product renders, specifications, and even the asking price of Samsung’s next offering.
Price is still a selling point, but maybe not as much
It’s worth starting with the price tag as that’s the key selling point for Samsung’s Fan Edition portfolio. Quandt says the Galaxy S21 FE starts at 749 euros ($842) for the base 6GB + 128GB configuration. However, Quandt says that Samsung might tweak the pricing in the days leading up to the official launch. Earlier this month, Quandt predicted that the Galaxy S21 FE will be up for grabs in the U.S. for $699. If that pans out, the Samsung offering will go up against two venerable rivals — the iPhone 13 and Google Pixel 6.
Just about the perfect package!
Let’s talk hardware now. A flat 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display with Full-HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate occupies the front. The screen is said to be protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, the best Corning has to offer. A 32-megapixel selfie camera (f/2.2 lens, 0.8-micron pixel, 1/2.8-inch sensor) sits at the top, following in the footsteps of Samsung’s Infinity-O display aesthetics. Quandt says Android 11 will handle things on the software side, but a previous leak predicted the phone would be running Android 12 out of the box.
On the back is a 12-megapixel main camera (1.8-micron pixel, 79-degree field of view, f/1.8 lens) with Optical Image Stabilization in tow. It sits alongside a 12-megapixel ultrawide-angle shooter and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom output. Qualcomm’s 2021 flagship, the Snapdragon 888 system on a chip, runs the business inside in tandem with 6/8 GB of RAM and 128/256 gigs of onboard functionality. Unfortunately, Samsung appears to have nixed the microSD card slot for the Galaxy S21 FE.
Samsung is said to have equipped the phone with a 4,500mAh battery that supports its proprietary reverse wireless charging tech. The build is IPP68 certified, but the design has been lifted straight from the vanilla Galaxy S21 FE. That’s not necessarily bad, as the monotone matte finish is quite easy on the eyes. Color options on the table are graphite, lavender, olive green, and white. Finally, 5G support is part of the package, but it is unclear if the phone can latch on to mmWave 5G airwaves in all markets where it hits the shelves.