Samsung Galaxy S21 FE set to launch with Android 12, and will get support till Android 15

[ UPDATE 28/12/2021 17:00 ] Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is set to launch in Malaysia on 5th January 2022.

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The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is kind of like Schrödinger’s smartphone right now; it’s both coming soon and cancelled until Samsung actually confirms something. The latest news about it seems to be that it’ll launch in sometime January next year. This will also have the inadvertent effect of pushing back the Galaxy S-series to mid-February, compared to the January release of the Galaxy S21 series.

Seeing as Samsung has begun rolling out the new One UI 4.0, based on Android 12, to their latest and greatest devices, it’s now been reported by Sammobile that the Galaxy S21 FE will also come with Android 12 out of the box. One UI 4.0 of course brings with it a new look for the home and lock screen, similar to the Android 12’s Material You design philosophy. The new skin also gets a new privacy dashboard, improved camera app and overall a bunch of sleek new animations for a more modern feel.

However, this will also open up a new can of worms for Samsung. Because they’ve previously promised three generations of Android OS updates for their smartphones, this means that when the Galaxy S21 FE launches with Android 12 out of the box, it stands to get updated until Android 15 drops. This also suggests that the Galaxy S21 FE will be a full generation of Android ahead of its Galaxy S21 siblings when Android 15 rolls around. It’ll get the four years of security updates that Samsung committed to earlier this year too.

Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra users are just only getting the new One UI 4.0 rollout, and might feel a little peeved that the Galaxy S21 FE would not only get Android 12 out of the box but will also last longer from a software point of view especially when you consider that the Galaxy S21 FE is supposed to be below them in the product stack. Perhaps the best solution to this awkward situation is really just for Samsung to extend their Android 15 generational update to the Galaxy S21 series too.

Of course, this is all still going with the assumption that Samsung are launching the Galaxy S21 FE at all, and so we’ll still have to wait and see if it does.

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