What you need to know
- Samsung officially announced the Galaxy S21 FE at CES 2022.
- It includes some of the flagship specs found in the higher-end models such as a Snapdragon 888 SoC.
- The flagship killer will be available on January 11 for $699.
Despite earlier speculations that it would be canceled, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is now official, adding to the flurry of Samsung's Galaxy S21 models.
Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S21 FE has been stripped of some of the more expensive parts of the regular S21, while keeping some of the key flagship specs and features. For instance, it is powered by Qualcomm's 5nm-based Snapdragon 888 chipset, the same processor found in Samsung's best Android phones last year, specifically those sold in the U.S.
The phone sports a 6.4-inch FullHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display that features a 120Hz refresh rate for super smooth animation and gaming experience. That's slightly smaller than its predecessor's display, so it makes sense that the phone is slightly more compact than the S20 FE at 74.5 x 155.7 x7.9 mm. The S21 FE is also lighter than the previous FE model, coming in at 177g versus 190g.
It packs a 4,500mAh battery that supports 25W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging. With this capability, Samsung claims you can charge the phone by more than 50% in just 30 minutes. That said, you'll still have to buy the charger separately.
Round the back, the Galaxy S21 FE includes a triple camera setup consisting of a 12MP ultra-wide shooter, 12MP wide camera, and an 8MP telephoto camera. The front shooter is a 32MP camera. Of course, the camera bump is patterned after the Galaxy S21's design, blending into the phone's right side frame.
As a budget phone, the Galaxy S21 FE naturally has a plastic back and metal side rails, with a matte finish. Samsung will offer the device in four colorways: olive, lavender, white and graphite. It'll ship with One UI 4 (Android 12) out of the box.
It will go on sale on January 11 for the same price as the Galaxy S20 FE: $699. The base model has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, but an 8GB/256GB configuration is also available.
