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Winners and losers: Foldable rumours excite but it’s bad news for the Galaxy S21 FE
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OPINION: It’s the weekend, which means it’s time to share our round up of this week’s winners and losers in tech.
Some big highlights this week included theAmazon launch eventand it’s creepyAstro robot, the news thatIMDb TV is coming to the UK, and a Bloomberg report claiming the 4K-enabled Switch Pro may have been in production all along (or not, according to Nintendo).
The final week of September also brought with ittwo new pairs of wireless headphones from Sonyand rumours that Apple is working ona new entry-level phonefor 2022.
This week though, our winner and loser both fall into the mobile category. More specifically, we’ll be looking at the rumour that Google and Huawei have new foldable phones in the works and the increasing likelihood that Samsung has ditched itsFEmodel for 2021.
Winner: Foldable fans
This week we sawnew leaksabout thetwo Pixel foldablesGoogle reportedly has in the works, as well as talk of Huawei developing its next foldable witha flip-style hinge.
We’ve seen a number of rumours over the past few months suggesting that Google has a foldable (or two) in development. The Pixel Fold – codenamed “Passport” – is rumoured to have a 7.6-inch display with LTPO technology, allowing for a 120Hz refresh rate.
Now,XDA Developershas spotted a number of foldable features in the Android 12.1 beta. These include new foldable APIs, dual-pane layouts for notifications and settings, a size-adjustable lock screen and a pin-entry keypad that can shift to the side of the screen.
The report also mentions a taskbar function for quick access to multitasking, app switching and split screen features.
Recently,9to5Googlefound references to a second Pixel foldable named “Jumbojack” in the Android 12 beta that it suspects is being used to test Android features on a folding display. There’s no word on when Jumbojack will launch if it is a consumer product, but Passport is expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Then, there’s Huawei rumoured foldable.
According to Weibo userPanda is bald, the Chinese tech giant will launch the Huawei Mate V later this year – possibly at the company’s global launch event on October 21.
Unlike the HuaweiMate Xand theMate Xs, the Mate V is expected to be a flip-style foldable, with a design comparable to theGalaxy Z Flip 3and theMoto Razr 2020. Little else has been revealed about the phone, but it will apparently be powered by the Kirin 9000 chipset.
If you’re considering upgrading to a foldable, 2021 is looking to be a very good year to do so.
Loser: Those expecting an S21 FE soon
As always, we need to pick a loser and this week it’s Samsung.
Here we’re not talking about foldables, which Samsung is arguably the king of, but about the Galaxy S21 FE. While Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed thatthe FE is cancelled, the signsweren’t looking good this week.
On Monday, Korean siteDDailyreported that Samsung had cancelled the S21 FE due to the ongoing chip shortages. In this case, the Snapdragon 888 was rumoured to be powering the affordableS21alternative.
Other rumoured specs included a 6.4-inch 120Hz OLED display, a triple camera, a 4370mAh battery with 45W fast charging, 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage.
Reports have also pointed to the success of the Galaxy Z Flip 3, suggesting Samsung doesn’t want to give the foldable any more competition as it’s selling so well.
A Samsung Electronics official did mention that the company was reviewing the smartphone launch, so there’s a chance the phone could simply be released at a later date, but we’re not going to get our hopes up.
SamMobilelater noticed that Samsung has closed initial support pages for the S21 FE in several locations, including Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, Levant and more. While we have yet to see the FE officially, cancelled, it certainly isn’t looking good for the affordable S series phone.
Hannah joined Trusted Reviews as a staff writer in 2019 after graduating with a degree in English from Royal Holloway, University of London. She’s also worked and studied in the US, holding positions …
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Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
