Samsung might cancel the Galaxy S21 FE 5G says company official

A few days ago we told you that the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE had entered into mass production. The device has already encountered some delays and the global chip shortage supposedly caused the device to miss an August release date. On Sunday, a Korean-language report quoted a Samsung official as saying "We canceled the Galaxy S21FE online unpacking, which was planned for mid-October," and said, "We are reviewing the smartphone launch itself."

According to the report, there are two reasons why Samsung is thinking about cancelling the device. One reason is the global chip shortage which has phone manufacturers scrambling for chips for non-flagship models; the Galaxy S21 FE was supposed to be powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset built by Samsung Foundry using its 5nm process node. To keep the price down and still have the phone powered by a flagship chip, Samsung was said to be changing the design and display of the handset.

The second reason for the possible cancellation of the Galaxy S21 FE is said to be due to the strong sales performance of the Galaxy Z Flip 3; the phone is reportedly selling well beyond Samsung's expectations. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 also uses the Snapdragon 888 chip and Samsung wants to use whatever inventory of the chip it has on the hot selling foldable instead of the Galaxy S21 FE.

It seems that Samsung doesn't want to spread itself too thin and would prefer to focus its marketing dollars on the foldable unit. And the recent release of the iPhone 13 series and the upcoming Pixel 6 line might have Samsung concerned about whether the Galaxy S21 FE could stand out among the high-end models from Apple and Google.

If Samsung decides not to cancel the device, it could launch it in limited markets allowing the manufacturer to continue to save enough Snapdragon 888 chipsets for use on the Galaxy Z Flip 3. If that is the case, we should show you the rumored specs for the Galaxy S21 FE which includes a 6.4-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 1080 x 2340 resolution.

If Samsung decides to go ahead and release the phone, a triple-camera system will reportedly appear on the back of the device (with a 32MP primary, a 12MP Ultra-wide camera, and an 8MP Telephoto camera) while a 4370 mAh battery keeps the lights on and carries support for 45W fast charging. 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage are expected to be included. If the handset is scratched, obviously none of those specs apply.