Report: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE might only launch in US, Europe

The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is expected to launch later this year, but we’ve already seen one (since-deleted) report in recent weeks alleging that production was stopped due to the ongoing chip shortage. Samsung responded at the time by saying that “nothing has been determined” regarding the apparent suspension.

Now, Korea’s FNN News outlet (h/t: r/Android) has reported that Samsung is considering a launch in the US and Europe only due to the chip shortage.

“I heard that the S21 FE, which was scheduled to be released in August, will be released only in the US and Europe in October,” an unnamed official told the publication according to machine translation. “This product will not be released in Korea or Japan.”

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The official also alleged that S21 FE production was “considered to be stopped” at one point due to the chip shortage, but Samsung decided to release quantities of the device in the US and Europe. However, another industry source speaking to FNN News suggested that supply could be stifled for these markets too.

“We are talking about a release in October, but the supply and demand of chips is so serious that the industry cannot guarantee this schedule,” the source was quoted as saying. “There is a possibility that the production volume exported to the US and Europe will also decrease significantly than planned (sic).”

Samsung purportedly told the outlet that this was “only one of several measures currently being considered” and that nothing has been confirmed at the moment.

Either way, it seems like more evidence is piling up that Samsung is facing a challenge of some kind when it comes to Galaxy S21 FE production. We’ve asked the company for comment regarding this story and whether any other devices are feeling the effects of the ongoing chip shortage. We’ll update the article if/when the manufacturer gets back to us.