Samsung Galaxy S21 FE showcased in colorful new unofficial renders

Intrigued by what the forthcoming Samsung Galaxy S21 FE could look like? Then feast your eyes on these colorful new renders of the budget flagship.    

They come from consistently accurate leaker Evan Blass, who shared the eight unofficial renders of the phone on his EV Leaks twitter channel. Earlier this week, Blass also tweeted that Samsung will position the Galaxy S21 FE as the replacement for the almost-certainly shelved Galaxy Note 21 — and based on these shots, it looks every inch a flagship phone in its own right.

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With flagship phone prices continuing to spiral to four figures and beyond, it’s hardly surprising that Samsung found some success with last year’s Galaxy S20 FE (or “Fan Edition”). Building on the S10 Lite of the previous year, Samsung cut unnecessary extras and focused on something that delivered the core experience of the company’s flagships without breaking the bank.

The Galaxy S21 FE is expected to continue that approach, and unsurprisingly, these renders make it look an awful lot like the Samsung Galaxy S21 that inspired it. 

It's true that the larger size makes it look a bit more like the Galaxy S21 Plus, but the pinhole camera, bezel-free design and traffic light-style camera are all present and correct. The key difference, as predicted a few months ago, is that the camera bump is integrated into the plastic backplate, unlike with the S21 where it extended from the handset’s metal frame. 

Should this concept turn out to be accurate it would mean the end of the two-tone design, which would be a pity. However, Blass speculates buyers could get a choice of color options by presenting renders of the S21 FE not just in the traditional black and white color schemes, but also with lavender and olive green shades.

Samsung’s success with the FE range has so far been built on not scrimping on the core specs. In years gone by, ‘Lite’ or ‘Mini’ versions of handsets tended to be weaker models sold on the reputation of the full-fat handsets, but the S20 FE bucked this trend by packing the same Snapdragon 865 processor as the S20. 

The 2021 edition looks like it’ll follow suit: recently leaked benchmarks suggest that the S21 FE will use Qualcomm’s top-of-the-range Snapdragon 888 processor, just like the S21 flagships it's based on. The RAM is said to drop from 8GB to 6GB, but in our experience such a reduction has minimal impact on the benchmarks or day-to-day performance.  

If the Galaxy S21 FE manages to match or better the S20 FE’s $699 launch price, then Samsung should be on to a winner. The appearance of these renders suggests that a launch may not be too far away — although we should stress that we don't know how accurate they are at this stage — and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the phone make an appearance alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 when they emerge later in the summer.  

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