Samsung Galaxy S21 FE release date, price, features, and news

Samsung even commented for Bloomberg that it is not postponing anything on account of chip shortages – “While we cannot discuss details of the unreleased product, nothing has been determined regarding the alleged production suspension” – which apparently has changed as the Galaxy S21 FE announcement is expected at the CES expo that starts January 5. Samsung’s CES keynote, however, is scheduled for January 4, and that’s when the S21 FE is expected to be announced for preorders. 

The actual Samsung S21 FE release date is expected to be on January 11, according to Evan Blass from @evleaks, who also posted the AT&T model with the same tip, indicating that both the unlocked version on Samsung’s website and the carrier S21 FE variants are expected to launch on January 11, too, or exactly a week after the official unveiling.

Still, despite its potential higher price compared to the S20 FE on America carriers, the top-shelf model with 8GB RAM is expected to be available to the US public as well, unlike last year when the S20 FE with the top memory and storage options was only accessible to folks in Europe and Asia who got the Exynos model. 

Previously, we heard that the display of the S21 FE won’t differ much from what’s on the S20 FE, namely a 6.5″ panel, but the latest leak, courtesy of Roland Quandt from WinFuture, right after the official S21 FE color press renders appeared, pegs it at a shorter, 6.4″ diagonal. While that may be the result of an up-down rounding of the exact number, it is also said to arrive with a 2340×1080 pixels resolution, rather than the 2400×1080 pixels of the S20 FE, indicating a shorter, more compact handset.

Indeed, the 6.29 x 2.93 x 0.33 inches (159.8 x 74.5 x 8.4 mm) dimensions of the S20 FE sit tall against the more elegant 6.13 x 2.93 x 0.31 inches (155.7 x 74.5 x 7.9 mm) size of the S21 FE. The leak mentions that Samsung has narrowed the bezels in comparison, and that explains why such a negligible difference in display diagonals may have produced a more compact S21 FE. It also jibes with the rumors about the changes in the S22 series design, namely a thinner uniform bezel all around a stubbier body. Speaking of the S21 FE body design, it will be available in four colors at launch – black, white, green, and violet – so there will be something for everyone to pick from. The sloping corner sides of the camera design that fuse with the frame may have not been borrowed directly from the S21 series, where that fusion is much more pronounced, but we can say that they look much better this way compared to the S20 FE.

On top of that, the 6.4″ display of the S21 FE is said to be completely flat which many users already prefer, and Samsung has reportedly placed a fingerprint scanner beneath the screen panel that is now protected with the latest Gorilla Glass Victus cover. The screen is rumored to be capable of higher, 1000+ nits of peak brightness, too, indicating that it may be a newer LTPO panel of Samsung’s 6th-gen OLED lines. That bodes well for its adaptive refresh rate abilities and battery life, as the S20 FE would have a narrower dynamic refresh range when the “Motion Smoothness” option is turned on in the display settings.

While nothing impressive in terms of scores for this early S21 FE testing – certainly higher than the S20 FE, though, and in the 6GB RAM version at that – the comforting thought is that there will be a top version with 8GB RAM, just as there was an 8GB RAM model of the S20 FE. The latest Roland Quandt leak confirms this, and claims there will be 6GB/128GB as well as 8GB/256GB memory and storage models to choose from, just like before. The kicker here is that it will evidently be paired with the Snapdragon 888, rather than only with the Exynos models, so, unlike the S20 FE, the top-shelf S21 FE version is likely to see a release on US carriers. In fact, Mr. Quandt confirms that the European version of the S21 FE comes with Snapdragon 888, too, so Samsung may be limiting the Exynos 2100 models to even fewer locations, if there will be such at all.

A recent 3C certification filing unearthed by MysmartPrice proves that there will be another upgrade in the S21 FE vs S20 FE specs fight besides the processing power, and that is the charging speed. 

Dubbed SM-G990B, the model number tips a Galaxy S21 FE as this internal coding also leaked in benchmarks, purportedly from the S21 FE’s Snapdragon 888 processor. The 3C database filing is actually for the eventual S21 FE box charger – EP-TA800 – which is none other than the tried and true 25W brick that a lot of Samsung high-end handsets ship with.

Not the Galaxy S20 FE, though, one of whose few drawbacks was that it came with a 15W charger in the box, so in that regard the S21 FE will also see an upgrade. Not that the S20 FE is a slouch in terms of charging speeds, especially compared to the iPhone crowd, yet it charges much slower than other top-shelf Galaxy models.

• Black, white, green, violet

As for the exterior, there will be a few design changes, as you can see from the leaked Evan Blass renders here – a matching camera island on the back which will hopefully see some upgrades when it comes to the sensors and lenses, and a Samsung Infinity-O design at the front with a centered punch hole for the front shooter.

This isn’t the case in other Galaxy S21 phones, as their camera modules use different materials, finishes and colors from the rest of the body. This choice of design is similar to what Samsung introduced with its Galaxy A52 and A72 mid-range phones a couple of months ago.