The end of the year is upon us, ladies and gents, which would normally mean no more major mobile product announcements until the beginning of the following year. Of course, 2021 hasn't exactly been a "normal" year for the tech industry as a whole, which is why it's not quite shocking to hear a pretty major event might still be on the horizon.
We're talking about the once highly anticipated and long overdue Galaxy S21 FE 5G launch, which was originally supposed to take place back in August before being delayed to September, then October, and finally January 2022.
Obviously, that someone may know precisely what they're talking about considering the typical reliability of Steve H.'s inside sources, but this time around, the leaker himself cannot 100 percent vouch for the accuracy of the information relayed on social media.
Simply put, Samsung may or may not unveil the 5G-enabled Galaxy S21 FE at some point this month before putting the inexpensive high-ender on sale in January 2022. Of course, that's not radically different from what Jon Prosser, Max Weinbach, and Ross Young predicted back in October, suggesting a production start is indeed right around the corner.
It remains to be seen if a December Unpacked event is in the cards now (probably not) and just how early sales could kick off in 2022. Our guess is very early, leaving the S21 FE a little room to breathe (and try to sell a few million copies) before the S22 family enters the arena, most likely in February.
All the specs, colors, and prices you need to care about
Before it can take on the best budget 5G phones from other brands, the Galaxy S21 FE will have to fend off the impending 6.1-inch or so S22, expected to start at around $850, and especially the "regular" S21 5G, sporting a 6.2-inch display at a recommended price of $800 and up.
Unfortunately, this year's Fan Edition Galaxy S-series flagship might not be affordable enough to capture the attention of a lot of bargain hunters, at least not in the US, where Roland Quandt expects the 6.5-incher to cost $699 outright in a 128GB storage configuration also packing 6 gigs of RAM.
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That's a 2GB memory deficit compared to the base Galaxy S21 model that's been on sale several times in recent months at $700 and even $650 with no strings attached, which means Samsung will need to offer some pretty amazing launch promos for its hardcore fans to consider the S21 FE 5G.
Powered by the same Snapdragon 888 processor as the rest of the S21 family, at least stateside, the flat-screened giant (at least by regular S21 standards) is guaranteed to come in a bunch of different paint jobs, including black, white, light green, and light violet.
Depending on how production will ramp up and how strong of a global demand the handset can still generate after its numerous delays, we'll have to wait and see how many of those colors will make it to the US, but for the time being, it's certainly nice to check them all out in high-quality renders... once again.
All the other specs and features are pretty much etched in stone too, from the Full HD resolution of the aforementioned Super AMOLED 120Hz display to a 4,500mAh battery going unchanged from the S20 FE and a very familiar-sounding 12 + 12 + 8MP triple rear-facing camera system.
Basically everything points in the direction of a repetitive, instantly forgettable, and tardy product release here, but Samsung was still reportedly aiming to manufacture more than 9 million units of this bad boy last month, so maybe we're missing something... that will be revealed by the end of the year.
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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