Samsung Galaxy S21 FE unboxed and reviewed by retailer buyer in South Africa

Samsung is expected to announce the long-delayed Galaxy S21 FE next month, though conflicting reports have us guessing the launch will take place either during (January 3 or 4) or shortly following CES 2022 (January 11). A customer has already been able to purchase the unreleased phone at a retailer in South Africa.

Reddit user u/UnknownWon posted several nuggets of useful information that most of us get to benefit from. The user posted an unboxing video that shows the initial setup of the S21 FE, and we can spot the slim box that omits the charger.

More recently, u/UnknownWon posted a mini review of the phone, confirming that the phone has a 4,500 mAh battery that supports Fast Charging and Fast Wireless Charging as per the settings menus. He also suggests that the phone suffers from a green tint but bases this off the comparison of the display on his Poco X3. He mentions there’s no way to manually adjust the white balance of the display.

u/UnknownWon also expressed that the phone’s hardware feels “lighter”, “comfortable” and “premium” compared to his Poco X3 – which feels “sticky” and “cheap” by comparison. The triple cameras also appear to use the same sensors as those from the S20 FE.

Another thing that the customer posted about in the Reddit thread was that the in-display fingerprint scanner was optical versus the S21 series’ ultrasonic sensors. Also, the phone comes with 6GB of RAM, and the dualSIM variant in his region came with a Snapdragon 888 chipset and not the Exynos 2100 from the other S21 models in that region. We wonder if Samsung would release a 4G-only version powered by Exynos as it did with the S20 FE.

Finally, the reviewer posted a few sample photos shot with the S21 FE and they can be seen here. There’s at least one sample for each camera.

As per previous reports and leaks, the Galaxy S21 FE will have a 6.41-inch AMOLED screen, and the selfie camera will be updated to a 32MP module. The phone will be available in Olive, Black, White, and Purple options with an expected starting price of $699.

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