Samsung’s Fan Edition phone series may come out of retirement

Samsung might revive the Galaxy Fan Edition (FE) smartphone lineup. You may have heard this rumor before, and now it's making a comeback. The Korean tech giant presumably wants to rethink some facets of its mobile strategy in 2024. And although it could reportedly shrink the Galaxy A lineup as a result of this revamped strategy, it may bring back the Fan Edition smartphone series to make up for releasing fewer Galaxy A models.

The Galaxy S20 FE was announced out of the blue in September 2020. The Fan Edition smartphone probably surpassed even Samsung's expectations in terms of the popularity it gained, and the company followed up with the Galaxy S21 FE in January 2021.

The Galaxy S22 FE never came to pass. The lineup was shelved, but Samsung may want to bring it back to compensate for shrinking down the Galaxy A lineup in 2024 — supposedly. (via The Elec)

New FE smartphone coming in 2023 or 2024?

The most recent rumor concerning Samsung's alleged plans for the FE series isn't very clear as to when the next Fan Edition smartphone will be released or what name it will bear. But it's probably safe to say that Samsung has no plans to release the next FE smartphone this month or the next. For now, Samsung is preoccupied with preparations for the imminent release of the Galaxy S23 flagship lineup, and there have been no signs that a Fan Edition device will join the S23 series at Unpacked next month.

There's a possibility that Samsung will unveil a new Galaxy FE smartphone later this year, in August-September — in which case it would probably be named “Galaxy S23 FE.” Then again, Samsung could release a new Fan Edition model in January 2024, possibly under the “Galaxy S24 FE” name.

Truth be told, the FE lineup doesn't have a lot of history, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint and predict future events. The release of the next Fan Edition device could happen at any time, whether in H1 or H2.

But in essence, Samsung supposedly wants to make some changes to its smartphone lineup for 2024. And one of those changes will bring the Fan Edition smartphone series out of retirement. Whether or not it will be worth it, only time will tell.