The rumour mill was right. The S21 FE 5G is here and it has our attention. The leaks and buzz might be dominated by Samsung’s upcoming S22 series but the S21 FE is the brand’s first major announcement of 2022. The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was one of the most impressive smartphones we checked out last year; it delivered a flagship experience without a premium flagship price tag. The S21 FE looks set to stick to the same template. While pricing for India hasn’t been officially announced, the device has appeared on Samsung’s UK website with a 699 GBP (Around Rs 70,000) price tag. The India pricing could be lower than that figure, if last year’s S20 FE pricing is a reference point.

Here’s all you need to know about Samsung’s new flagship class smartphone:

Sleek design: stays with the design template of the S21 trio with our favourite design element – the contour-cut frame that seamlessly integrates with S21 FE 5G’s camera housing for a stylish, unified look. We totally approve of the new olive colour option. It’s a slightly pale version of olive green. It also comes in  lavender, white and graphite that are all finished with a stylish haze finish. It’s just 7.9 mm thin and weighs under 180 gm.

Solid hardware: the S21 FE is tipped to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor or the Exynos 2100 processor depending on the market. There’s a choice of hardware variants that start at 6GB/128 GB and max out at 8GB/256GB. Despite its lightweight form factor, there’s a 4500 mAh battery under the hood with 25W quick charging.

Ultra-smooth display: the display on the S20 FE was our favourite feature. The S21 FE boasts of a 6.4-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display with a 120Hz refresh rate and up to 240Hz touch sampling rate. It comes with Android 12 layered with Samsung’s much improved One UI 4 out of the box.

Capable shooter: the S21 FE has a dependable rear cam that can hold its own. Samsung claims to have made improvements in the lowlight photography department (vis-à-vis the S20 FE). The rear cam combines a 12MP wide angle cam (f/1.8) with a 12MP ultra-wide cam and an 8MP telephoto camera with 30x space zoom. A 32MP selfie cam completes the camera package.

In addition to flagship class hardware, the S21 FE 5G includes handy features like IPS68 certification for dust and water resistance and Samsung’s Wireless PowerShare feature for wirelessly charging other devices. While Samsung hasn’t announced an official launch date for India, it might launch alongside other global markets on January 11, 2022.