It’s more than a month since Samsung’s August Unpacked event, where it announced a pair of new foldable, new smartwatches and new earbuds. It was also expected that Samsung would announce the Galaxy S21 FE (Fan Edition), but that did not end up happening.
Samsung has not yet acknowledged that it will be a fan version of its flagship S-Series in 2021, but Google has inadvertently listed the device as supported by Android’s Depth API, as seen on Google’s AR Core support site.
This may mean that Samsung is ready to release the Fan Edition Galaxy S21. Fan Edition should deliver the same flagship experience as the Galaxy S21, but with a significantly lower price point due to production cost savings and component deviations.
Last week, Google confirmed that there would be two variants of the Galaxy S21 FE, including an Exynos variant believed to be powered by the Exynos 2100. The Qualcomm version is believed to use the Snapdragon 888. The Galaxy S21 FE was listed on Google’s Play Console last month.
Previously leaked image of Galaxy S21 FE
Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE is expected to have the same features as its flagship counterparts, including ultrasound in the fingerprint scanner in the display, IP 68 water and dust resistance, high refresh rate, wireless charging, Samsung Pay, Wireless DeX and Dobly Atmos.
Samsung has not yet confirmed when the Fan Edition will arrive. We suspect it should arrive in time for the holiday shopping season. An optimal time frame for it could be October, but this is only speculation. We expect it to arrive at some point before the end of the year.
