It seems Samsung just cannot catch a break when it comes to leaks that show off the Galaxy S21 FE before the phone is set to go official. Well, this time it's not actually device leakers that are ruining the S21 FE's upcoming launch but someone on Reddit who was able to grab hold of a unit “through a mostly retail channel” and is now willing to answer everyone's questions about the phone.
The screenshot below was included as “proof” of the phone's purchase. It shows the Galaxy S21 FE 5G retail box along with the unboxed phone running the CPU-Z benchmark. The latter confirms the Snapdragon 888 chipset.
In addition, the Redditor confirmed that the Galaxy S21 FE — even though it supports 120Hz — doesn't have an adaptive refresh rate display. The latter is one of the features we predicted Samsung is going to leave out in its pursuit of finding the best price point for the next FE device.
Does the Galaxy S21 FE run Android 11 or Android 12?
The Galaxy S21 FE unit sold to the Redditor in question appears to be an early production unit, as it runs August firmware, i.e., Android 11. But there is evidence to support the notion that the Galaxy S21 FE runs Android 12. Benchmarks aside, the Android 12-based firmware is already available for download from our website, so we're fairly confident that the final production unit will ship with Android 12 and One UI 4.
Back to the matter of hardware, do keep in mind that the Galaxy S21 FE won't be powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset in every market, and customers in most Asian countries will be getting a variant equipped with the Exynos 2100 SoC instead.
SamsungGalaxy S21 FE
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