Galaxy S21 FE production reportedly put on hold due to chip shortage

There will be no Galaxy Note 21 this year, Samsung has pretty much confirmed. In its place will be three phones, two of the foldable kind and the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition. The latter carries the torch for the Galaxy S21, which reportedly isn't selling well after all. Now it seems that even the Galaxy S21 FE runs the risk of ending up being a failure or at least missing its window of opportunity if rumors are true that Samsung has paused production due to this or that problem with a critical component.

On paper, the Galaxy S21 FE would be quite the contender in the market. Of course, it won't be as high-end as even the base Galaxy S21 model but that's not exactly the point. For a rumored price of around $630 to $720, the phone will offer at least a Snapdragon 888 and other premium components, perhaps 8GB of RAM, for example, inside a most likely plastic body.

It seems, however, that the Galaxy S21 FE is running into problems even before it sees the light of day. ETnews has deleted a post that claims that production on the affordable handset has been put on hold due to the ongoing chip shortage. Samsung has reportedly decided to allocate the processors it has towards the more expensive Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3.

Other tipsters paint different but equally discouraging pictures. Ice universe likewise deleted tweets saying that battery quality issues, a very sore point for Samsung, are to blame. Roland Quandt from WinFuture makes it sound even worse, saying that production may not have even started at all.

haven't seen any evidence supporting the allegation that they had even started making the S21 FE or parts for it yet.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) June 13, 2021

In a brief response to Bloomberg, a Samsung spokesperson clarifies that the company hasn't made any decision yet about the alleged production suspension. That indirectly confirms not just the existence of the issue but also the existence of the unnamed phone. With an expected launch in August, delayed production of the Galaxy S21 due to issues with critical components doesn't bode well for it.