More pricing information for the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE has been leaked, and it's hinting that while its cost isn't getting higher, this phone won't be quite as much of a bargain as its predecessor.
91Mobiles, working with leaker Ishan Agarwal, has allegedly discovered the U.K. pricing for Samsung's new entry-level flagship phone. It says that the phone's starting price will be £699 for 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, with an 8GB/256GB version also available for £749.
£699 is the same price that the 5G Galaxy S20 FE went for in the UK at launch. There was also a 4G version on sale for £599, but there are no rumors of Samsung making a cheaper 4G version of the S21 FE.
This price fits with another recent leak from Samsung's Irish website. While €769 looks like bad news for the price when converted into dollars, it is in fact also the same price that the Galaxy S20 FE sold for in euros last year. While this doesn't give us any indication of U.S. pricing, it seems increasingly likely now that Samsung's keeping the base $699 price of the S21 FE the same as last year while adding a more expensive version on top of that.
That sounds like a good thing on paper, but the issue now is that staying at the same price could compromise the S21 FE's credentials as being a value purchase and one of the best Android phones. When the Galaxy S20 FE arrived, it cost £200/$300 less than the standard Galaxy S20, making it a worthwhile compromise for people on tight budgets. The S21 starts at $799/£769, shrinking that difference significantly. If you find the S21 is too expensive for you, then you're unlikely to find the S21 FE much better were it to cost $699/£699 as the last version did.
We don't know for sure how much the new Samsung flagship phone, the Galaxy S22, will cost. If it stays the same price as the S21 models it's replacing, then users have little reason to bother with the S21 FE when instead they can have a slice of Samsung's latest and greatest. There have been rumors of a price increase for the S22 though. Hopefully these leaked cases by Samsung Hungary won't be too expensive.
Inside, the S21 FE will apparently bear a strong resemblance to the original S21. That includes using either Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 chips to run the phone, and a similar design with a "contour cut" rear camera bump. However, the size will be new, supposedly sitting between the 6.2-inch S21 and 6.7-inch S21 Plus at 6.4 inches, as will the all-plastic back and sides in a new range of colors.
We can apparently expect the S21 FE to launch in January 2022, at long last. The phone was expected to arrive earlier this year, perhaps a year after the S20 FE did in October. However, component shortages and manufacturing issues kept pushing the date back, and has also meant we may not see the Galaxy S22 launch until February.
