The Galaxy S21 FE leaks its final secrets
Although its existence was at one point in severe doubt, the Galaxy S21 FE also turned out to be one of Samsung's worst-kept secrets. Perhaps it wasn't that intent on keeping the cat in the bag, considering it isn't exactly its flagship product. The phone is still interesting to some extent, just to see how well this very late phone will fare by the time it launches next year. Samsung might have its work cut out for it, though, since the last missing pieces of the puzzle have practically fallen into place.
The design of the Galaxy S21 FE is really no secret, at least if you expected Samsung to stick to its guns. The same camera design decks its back while the front retains the "Infinity-O" punch hole cutout. A new hands-on video of the actual device has been shared by YouTube channel HDblog, and it answers almost all the questions we could ever ask about the phone.
Just like its 2020 predecessor, the Galaxy S21 FE uses a combination of an aluminum frame and a "glasstic" polycarbonate back that definitely won't be mistaken for more premium material. The unboxing confirms the lack of a power brick in the package, the continued absence of a headphone jack, and the disappearance of a microSD card slot. It also confirms some of the specs, including the 6.4-inch Full HD 120Hz display, the Snapdragon 888 processor, and 6GB of RAM.
One thing that has so far been missing from most leaks is semi-official confirmation of the price. Thankfully, Walmart seems to have jumped the gun a bit by putting up the phone's price. Although it's missing everything else, the retailer indicates that the Galaxy S21 FE will launch for $699.99, at least for the 128GB model. The 256GB storage option could go for $749, following the usual practices.
This isn't a surprising figure considering the Galaxy S20 FE launched last year with the same retail price. That said, last year's Fan Edition launched on time in October, while the Galaxy S21 FE won't see the light of day until late January 2022. This gap in time has allowed the Galaxy S21 series to drop in price considerably, which puts the 2021 Fan Edition in a bit of a bind.
The Galaxy S21 FE has at least one advantage of launching with One UI 4 and Android 12 out of the box, leaving it with one Android update more than the Galaxy S21 base model. That said, the Galaxy S22 with Android 12 would be just around the corner, and with a potential starting price of $799, the Galaxy S21 FE could be easily outclassed in just a few weeks' time.