We’re almost reaching towards the middle of the year and there’s still no sight nor sound of a possible Fan Edition (FE) variant of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series. Worryingly enough, several unofficial sources around the web suggest that the South Korean tech giant may be skipping a stripped down, more affordable version of its flagship smartphone series for this year. Meanwhile, others say that production of the FE variant has not begun yet and the company might only consider to release it by year’s end, or latest by early 2023 – much like the delayed Galaxy S21 FE which finally launched earlier this year.
Should the Galaxy S22 FE actually be in the works, my only request from Samsung is that they develop it as a lite version of the series’ Ultra variant. Why? Because since the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note series, which was officially confirmed by the company last year, consumers are left with no choice but to fork out over RM 5K if they wish to own what is technically a current-gen iteration of the much beloved lineup.
Granted, the high specced Ultra model of the Galaxy Note20 costs RM 5,199 (at launch) to own, but consumers are still offered with less expensive variants at that time. These include the 5G and 4G configurations of the standard Galaxy Note20 which launched at RM 4,299 and RM 3,899 respectively. However, with the series no longer sold as its own separate line and now rebranded to serve as the top-end variant of Samsung’s Galaxy S flagship phones, alternative and (importantly) affordable options of the S-Pen equipped phone model no longer exist.
And it wouldn’t be the first time for Samsung, should it decide to release a more budget-friendly S-Pen equipped smartphone. The first of which is the Galaxy Note FE from 2017 and the Galaxy Note 10 Lite that was launched in 2020. The former was introduced as a refurbished version of the brand’s infamous Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, while the latter came as an additional option for the Galaxy Note 10 series. Samsung would reuse the FE branding later on for introducing lower-end variants of its flagship products that usually debut months after their launch.
Unfortunately, Samsung did not introduce a Fan Edition for the Galaxy Note20 lineup, much to the disappointment of consumers. Hopefully this huge gap will finally be filled with the potential introduction of the Galaxy S22 FE. That is, if the tech giant is actually developing it in the first place and intends it to be a more affordable variant with an integrated S-Pen.
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