Galaxy S21 FE already showing up in stores… sort of

With the Galaxy Z Flip 3 said to be doing extremely well, the Galaxy S22 series just a few months away, and the Galaxy S21 already selling for $799, the Galaxy S21 FE could have the misfortune of being dead on arrival. But that doesn’t seem to be affecting Samsung’s plans for launching the Galaxy S21 FE later this year.

We’ve seen plenty of signs recently that the Galaxy S21 FE could be here soon, including a couple from Samsung itself. And now, some store in an unknown part of the world (probably the US, based on the source of this news) has given us the latest indication that the S21 FE is close to an official launch.

Is the Galaxy S21 FE hitting retail shelves soon?

This particular store has the Galaxy S21 FE 5G mentioned next to the Galaxy S21 in its demo area, which seems a little odd considering the phone has yet to be announced. The phone itself doesn’t seem to be on display for customers to check out, which isn’t surprising, but it sure looks like some retailers are preparing for its imminent arrival.

Unfortunately, there’s no concrete information on exactly when the Galaxy S21 FE will make its debut. All we currently know is that it’s slated for sometime in the last quarter of this year, though worldwide availability is reportedly in doubt owing to the industry-wide chip shortage.

And, again, whether or not the Galaxy S21 FE will make sense at this point in time remains to be seen. An aggressive price could make it an instant hit, but that could come at the expense of multiple other existing devices in Samsung’s lineup, both costlier ones like the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and more affordable ones like the Galaxy A72.

S21 FE pic.twitter.com/ZJWfF7hRmE

— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) August 28, 2021

SamsungGalaxy S21 FE

Full Specs

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Weekly SamMobile Quiz 88 – Come test your Samsung knowledge!

Fancy yourself as a Samsung superfan? Take our quiz and see how many answers you can get right! This is a fun activity that we do with our readers every week to test their knowledge of the Korean giant. The quiz has a mix of easy and difficult questions that most fans should be able to answer without turning to Google.

We make a new quiz for you every weekend so we hope that you’ll participate and learn a thing or two about Samsung in the process! Don’t forget to share the results of the quiz with your friends and see if you can outscore them. A little competition never hurt anybody!

Remember, if the quiz isn’t loading properly, please access the non-AMP version of this webpage.

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SamMobile (V6): A decade on, we reflect and focus on building an even better future

They say that time flies. You don’t realize that until you take some time to look back and reflect on how far you’ve come. It’s been ten years since we started SamMobile yet it feels like it was just yesterday that we had this crazy idea. We had a dream to create a platform that Samsung fans could truly call their own. One that was built by hardcore Samsung fans for like-minded people across the globe.

We have come a long way since then. From finding the right people to figuring out how to actually make this dream a reality. Our journey has taken us from the first makeshift office to the front row at Samsung’s events. Experiencing the evolution of mobile technology led by Samsung and helping the community adapt to it has perhaps been the best part of this journey.

The barebones website we launched 10 years ago is now a veritable encyclopedia on all things Samsung. SamMobile now has a vast firmware and APK database in addition to our highly informative specifications library. We have even created a tool that tells you just how secure your Galaxy device is. Our membership program delivers incredible benefits to millions of members across the globe. We also reward our members with weekly giveaways of some of the best Samsung devices.

Our designers and developers have focused on improving the usability, design and responsiveness of our website. This is to ensure that our readers can enjoy a consistent user experience regardless of the device they’re on. We have also made our visual identity consistent across the website and on social media platforms to evoke a sense of familiarity in readers.

SamMobile has come a long way and we believe that the best is yet to come. We believe in the continuous improvement of our content and services. We also feel a greater responsibility to look at the bigger picture. With SamMobile (V6), we want to reduce our impact on the planet. Climate change is a threat that we collectively face as a species, therefore, we must fight it together.

I’m proud to share that our HQ in the Netherlands is now powered entirely by solar energy. All full-time employees have also been offered solar panels for home use at the company’s expense to help them transition to clean energy. This is in addition to many changes that we have made for waste reduction, water and energy conservation.

Going forward, SamMobile will be making a monthly contribution to Justdiggit. Based in the Netherlands, Justdiggit is a grassroots organization that’s on a mission to regreen Africa and cool down the planet in the next 10 years.

Through its efforts, over 6.3 million trees have already been regenerated and more than 60,000 hectares of land are being restored. And they’re just getting started! Our contribution will support the greening of of dry land, positively impacting the lives of people, absorbing countless liters of water in the ground, and retaining tons of CO2 every year.

We’re able to largely make this commitment thanks to our Premium members and feel glad that we can together help make the world a better place. To all of you who have been with us through this incredible journey, we thank you and will strive to exceed your expectations. As I said, the best is yet to come.

On to the next decade!

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Watch drone footage of Samsung’s semiconductor campuses in Korea

Samsung Semiconductor is among the world’s biggest semiconductor chip brands. Apart from designing and manufacturing its own chips, the company also makes chips for other brands such as Google, IBM, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. To fabricate those complicated chips, the South Korean firm has multiple state-of-the-art chip factories around the world, including in China, South Korea, and the US. Ever wondered how big they are and how they look?

Well, the company has published a couple of videos that show its semiconductor chip campuses across South Korea through a bird’s eye view. The videos were shot using drones, and they give you an idea of the massive scale at which Samsung operates.

The first video takes us through five Samsung semiconductor campuses: Hwaseong Campus, Giheung Campus, Pyeongtaek Campus, Onyang Campus, and Cheonan Campus. The Hwaseong Campus is the home to Samsung’s chip R&D and manufacturing facilities. There’s an iconic A-shaped bridge that connects two buildings and signifies the collaboration between various teams. It also has three high-rise DSR towers that have 29 floors above the ground and four floors underground. Over 15,000 employees work here.

The Gihueng Campus is where Samsung Electronics first started making chips. The company successfully developed 64kb DRAM in 1983, six months after its VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) business was established. It consists of Line 1, Samsung’s first memory chip fabrication line. The Pyeongtaek Campus is the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing complex. This is where chips are made using the cutting-edge EUV process. We can see that the company is actively expanding its campus and the construction work is ongoing.

The Onyang Campus is situated in the hills and is responsible for the final stage of semiconductor manufacturing. It covers the development of semiconductor packaging, production, testing, and shipping of the end product. It is surrounded by lush green fields and hills. The Cheonan Campus is the future of chips where next-generation packaging technology is developed.

The second video footage is shot using a racing drone, complete with impressive feats in the air. We can see that all campuses shown in these videos have large buildings, big parks, and wide roads.

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Samsung quietly revises 970 EVO Plus SSD with new Gen 4.0 controller

Samsung has joined the list of SSD manufacturers that have recently replaced some of their components without communicating these changes to customers directly. OEMs like Western Digital, Patriot, Adata, and Crucial have come under fire recently as consumers realized that the TLC NAND got replaced by inferior QLC NAND solutions with recent SSD revisions. Fortunately, Samsung appears to have changed things for the better and gave the 970 EVO Plus SSD a newer, faster controller.

This change appears to have been prompted by the global semiconductor shortage. Thankfully, unlike its competitors, Samsung is changing things for the better and hasn’t downgraded from TLC NAND. Essentially, newer 970 EVO Plus releases come equipped with the same Elpis controller as the 980 PRO SSD instead of the PCIe Gen 3.0 Phoenix controller. Yes, Elpis is a PCIe Gen 4.0 controller, but it’s backward compatible with the PCIe Gen 3.0 platform.

The Elpis-based 970 EVO Plus SSD has different firmware, and benchmarks show that it benefits from a bigger 115GB SLS cache, up from the original model’s 42GB SLS cache. This seemingly comes with a drawback, at least in synthetic benchmarks, as discovered by a YouTube channel 潮玩客 and later related by Tom’s Hardware.

970 EVO Plus SSD real-world performance beats benchmarks

The new 970 EVO Plus version has a 173% larger SLS cache, but benchmarks suggest it has poorer sustained write speed. In HD Tune Pro, the newer SSD revision topped 2,500MBps compared to the old version’s 1,750MBps, but after the 115GB SLS cache got filled, the write speed on the new 970 EVO Plus dropped to around 800MBps.

However, benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, as demonstrated by the newer 970 EVO Plus SSD performing better in a real-world writing test when copying a single 154GB file (exceeding the SLS cache by 39GB). In the real world, these changes balance out in favor of the new revision, and it turned out that the Elpis-based 970 EVO Plus finished writing the file faster than the older model.

One last side-effect worth mentioning is that the revised SSD seemingly runs hotter by 10-20 degrees Celsius — with variations depending on load — than the older version.

The old 970 EVO Plus SSD has the MZVLB1T0HBLR PSID on the label, and Samsung customers can identify the new Elpis revision by PSID: MZVL21T0HBLU.

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Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 have tablet-like battery protection feature

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 ship with a newer version of Samsung’s proprietary skin for Android OS. It’s called One UI 3.1.1, and while it isn’t a massive upgrade over One UI version 3.1, it does introduce a few new key features. Among the various new minor additions, we found that One UI 3.1.1 for the Z3 foldable phones includes a Device Care option that, up until now, was reserved for Galaxy tablets.

The new feature is called Protect battery. It can be found in the Settings app by accessing Device Care and tapping Battery, followed by More battery settings. As to its purpose, Protect battery is supposed to do exactly that: Protect your Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Z Flip 3 battery in the long run by preventing the battery from recharging beyond 85%.

It’s ill-advised to charge your device’s battery to 100%

Many studies in recent years have shown that charging a lithium battery to its full capacity won’t do battery life any good in the long run. Recharging to 100% puts more stress on the battery, leading to a shorter lifespan and increasingly poorer battery life on a single charge. Protect battery puts an 85% limit on charging, ensuring that your foldable phone’s battery will never be pushed to its limits while charging.

The Protect battery feature is new for Galaxy smartphones, but it’s been around for Galaxy tablets for a while now. Samsung has now added it to its latest foldable phones, though oddly enough, it doesn’t seem to have been included in the recent One UI 3.1(.1) update for the Galaxy S21 series.

It’s unclear if Protect battery will remain exclusive to Samsung tablets and foldable phones or if this Device Care feature will be coming to more standard smartphones. We’ll keep you posted.

Galaxy Z Fold 3 review | Galaxy Z Flip 3 review

Galaxy Z Fold 3

• Model: SM-F926B
• Dimensions: Unfolded: 158.2 x 128.1 x 6.4 mm
  Folded: 158.2 x 67.1 x 14.4~16 mm
  
• Display: 7.6 inch / mm Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• CPU: Snapdragon 888
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

Galaxy Z Flip 3

• Model: SM-F711B
• Dimensions: Folded: 86.4 x 72.2 x 15.9~17.1 mm
  Unfolded: 166 x 72.2 x 6.9 mm
  
• Display: 6.7 inch / 170.18 mm Dynamic AMOLED Display
• CPU: Snapdragon 888
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

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Samsung’s new foldables are doing surprisingly well in this price sensitive market

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are not cheap phones by any stretch of the imagination. Although Samsung’s foldables are a tad more affordable than their predecessors, not everyone can fork out $999, let alone $1,800, for a smartphone in several markets. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 from being a resounding success in one of the world’s most price-conscious regions: India.

Bloomberg analyst Sohee Kim says that the day one pre-order numbers for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 in India were nearly 2.7 times more than that of the Galaxy Note 20 launched last year. This is quite an interesting anecdote, given that the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra sits squarely between the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 in terms of price, while the base Galaxy Note 20 is cheaper than both foldables.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3’s relatively affordable price tag could be the reason for its success in India

While the pre-order figures do not break down the individual Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 pre-order figures, we can reasonably assume that the latter did better due to its more affordable price tag of Rs 84,999. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 costs an eye-watering Rs 149,999 in India. Both phones technically fall in the ‘premium’ segment of the Indian market, and it’ll be interesting to see which phone sold more, once — and if — the data becomes available.

We found the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to be near-impeccable in our review, although it could do with a few quality-of-life improvements. Similarly, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is an excellent device in its own right, but its prohibitively high price still puts it beyond the reach of most consumers. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is the closest thing we have to an ‘affordable foldable’ right now, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.

Galaxy Z Flip 3 review | Galaxy Z Fold 3 review

Galaxy Z Flip 3

• Model: SM-F711B
• Dimensions: Folded: 86.4 x 72.2 x 15.9~17.1 mm
  Unfolded: 166 x 72.2 x 6.9 mm
  
• Display: 6.7 inch / 170.18 mm Dynamic AMOLED Display
• CPU: Snapdragon 888
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

Galaxy Z Fold 3

• Model: SM-F926B
• Dimensions: Unfolded: 158.2 x 128.1 x 6.4 mm
  Folded: 158.2 x 67.1 x 14.4~16 mm
  
• Display: 7.6 inch / mm Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• CPU: Snapdragon 888
• Camera: 12MP

More specifications

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