Samsung Galaxy S21 is getting a Fan Edition — the first leak reveals an important upgrade (report)

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE smartphone
(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was one of the best smartphones of the last year and the phone buying public agreed, so it will come as little surprise that Samsung is hard at work on a follow-up.

The team at SamMobile has uncovered some details regarding the forthcoming handset from its sources, including a potential storage upgrade and an array of new color options (via PhoneArena).

One of the features Samsung cut from the Galaxy S21 lineup to reduce the price was the microSD card for storage expansion. While the leaker could not confirm that this carried over to the Galaxy S21 FE, they did reveal that there will be 128GB and 256GB storage options available. 

For those who like adding a microSD, this is definitely a net loss; the Galaxy S20 FE supported up to 1TB cards, but the reality is that most users don't use them so for most customers this is a bonus.

The Galaxy S20 FE came in a wide array of colors and it appears the Galaxy S21 FE will follow suit there as well. The leak confirmed four colors so far, gray/silver, pink, violet and white. I would give a word of warning on this one as those colors align precisely with the Galaxy S21, something that Samsung did not do with the Galaxy S20 FE. It's certainly possible that it opts to stick to its signature S21 colors with the S21 FE this year, but it would seem to really muddy and confuse the lineup.

Finally, the leaker confirmed that the phone will launch with 5G support and Android 11. Given that the Galaxy S21 FE isn't expected until this fall neither of those should come as any surprise, but it's good to have confirmation.

Perhaps the biggest question about the Galaxy S21 FE will likely go unanswered until much closer to the launch and that is the price. With the Galaxy S21 lineup now starting at $799, the Galaxy S21 FE needs to go below its predecessors' $699, but how low can Samsung go?

Sean Riley

Sean Riley has been covering tech professionally for over a decade now. Most of that time was as a freelancer covering varied topics including phones, wearables, tablets, smart home devices, laptops, AR, VR, mobile payments, fintech, and more.  Sean is the resident mobile expert at Laptop Mag, specializing in phones and wearables, you'll find plenty of news, reviews, how-to, and opinion pieces on these subjects from him here. But Laptop Mag has also proven a perfect fit for that broad range of interests with reviews and news on the latest laptops, VR games, and computer accessories along with coverage on everything from NFTs to cybersecurity and more.