Samsung Galaxy S21 FE: Everything you need to know

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE has arguably been one of Samsung’s top-performing smartphones in the last calendar year. It combined high-end specifications from the Galaxy S20 series with fan-favourite features at an affordable price tag. A year on from its release, the much awaited Galaxy S21 FE has a lot to live up to.

Design and build

The Galaxy S21 FE is set to borrow its design language from the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+. According to leaks, we will see green, white, grey, black and purple variants of the smartphone with a glasstic rear panel.

But unlike the contrasting colours between the camera island and rear on the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+, the Galaxy S21 FE’s camera housing seems to be the same colour as the rest of the rear. Other hardware features to expect include IP68 certification, dual-stereo speakers and a Type-C USB port for charging.

Display

Last year’s Galaxy S20 FE had a 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED flat display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This year though, rumours point to the 6.4-inch panel with identical specifications including the centralised punch-hole front camera. We can hope for a variable refresh rate display like the one found on the Galaxy S21 series but it is unclear if Samsung will opt for this.

Hardware and specifications

In regions beyond the USA and China, Samsung usually ships its flagships with the in-house Exynos chipset. Although last year, the UAE received two variants of the Galaxy S20 FE. The slightly cheaper 4G version featured the Exynos 990 chip whereas the more expensive 5G version came with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor. We could see a similar lineup this time too.

According to rumours, the Galaxy S21 FE will come with either 128GB or 256GB of on-board storage. Unlike the Galaxy S20 FE, it is unclear whether it will support microSD card expansion. But seeing that the Galaxy S21 series has dropped support for this, expecting this on the Galaxy S21 FE is futile. A leaked benchmark has also suggested that the Galaxy S21 FE will run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip. But RAM capacity is a bit unclear, pointing at either 6GB or 8GB. We also do not know much about the Galaxy S21 FE’s battery life but it would be safe to assume a 4,500-4,800mAh capacity, with no charging brick provided in the box.

Camera

The Galaxy S20 FE featured a triple-camera setup with the same main camera as the Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S21+. But it came with a slightly lower resolution telephoto lens and a higher resolution front camera. It would not be surprising to see a similar adoption on the Galaxy S21 FE with a 12MP primary, 8MP telephoto, 12MP ultra-wide and a 32MP selfie camera. However, no rumours about the Galaxy S21 FE confirm anything about the camera system on it.

Availability and pricing

The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is rumoured to be announced on August 8. However, we have also heard reports from Android Authority about it being scrapped altogether with production halted due to a shortage in chip supply. If the Galaxy S21 FE does see the light, we expect it to be priced around Dh2,500.