Samsung Galaxy S21 FE tipped to debut with Android 12 — why that’s a big deal

Samsung Galaxy S21 Atomic number 26 tipped to debut with Android 12 — why that's a big deal

Unofficial renders of the front and back of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, showing all four rumored color options (Black, White, Lavender and green)

(Image credit: Roland Quandt/WinFuture)

It seems that the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE's troubled evolution process — which encompassed 2 rumored cancellations and a whole lot of delays — may have a positive side effect should the telephone arrives as expected in January.

SamMobile claims to take got concur of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Iron's firmware, and the upcoming device runs Samsung's new One UI four.0 congenital on Android 12. That means that out of the box the software experience will exist the same as the original Samsung Galaxy S21, which started receiving the Android 12 and 1 UI iv.0 update back in November.

Manifestly having firsthand access to Android 12 is a positive in its own right, given it brings along useful features similar the new Privacy Dashboard as well every bit the Material You design language (albeit slightly toned down past I UI.)

But there's some other perk with the Galaxy S21 FE running Android 12: it could mean the phone gets Android 13, 14 and 15, besides.

When the Milky way Note 20 launched back in Baronial 2022, Samsung pledged that select phones would receive a guaranteed three generations of Android updates. While the word "select" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, the phrase "upcoming S series devices" was explicitly included in the list of handsets covered.

That's also probably skilful news for owners of handsets from the existing Samsung Milky way S21 family. Although the S21 has already received i of its promised three Bone updates, information technology's hard to believe Samsung would cutting it off at Android 14 if the S21 FE is getting the adjacent generation. After all, the phones are rumored to utilise largely the aforementioned hardware, right down to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset — if the S21 FE can run it, then then tin the S21.

The Galaxy S21 FE is expected to launch in January, just a month ahead of the Galaxy S22. That would worry me if I were a Samsung executive. Like the Galaxy S20 Iron before it, the S21 FE is thought to be a less expensive version of the S21 flagship that sacrifices some of that phone'due south college-stop features for its lower toll. Even though one rumor suggests a much college price than fans had been hoping for. Alleged specs for the phone have at present leaked for the Milky way S21 Atomic number 26 and we've as well pulled together a list of the 5 biggest upgrades we expect on the Galaxy S21 Atomic number 26, if you want to know more than near information technology.

While information technology's tempting to wonder whether the S21 FE will slip over again, all the signs betoken to this release date being met this fourth dimension. Earlier this week, official cases appeared on a British retailer site, and the phone besides appeared on Samsung's UAE site before hurriedly being taken down again.

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When non weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games excess. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.