Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Tipped to Launch in Q3 2023, Ahead of New Galaxy Z Foldable Series Release

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE has made the headlines frequently over the past few months. Reports alternating between the possible launch of the handset and its production being completely scrapped by the South Korean tech giant have surfaced at different times. Expected to succeed the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G, the cancellation rumours of the phone were centred around the company following suit from last year, which did not see the release of a Galaxy S22 Fan Edition model. Some believed that the chip shortage issue forced Samsung to deviate from the usual launch plans back in 2022. Now, a tipster suggests that the launch may happen sooner than was previously expected.

Tipster Revegnus (@Tech_Reve) shared in a tweet that Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S23 FE in certain regions, way before the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5, likely within the third quarter of the year. The leak adds that the model could be released by July or August. Earlier reports suggested that the phone will launch alongside the company's upcoming foldable smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2023 in a second Galaxy Unpacked event.

The tipster, however, suggests that this decision to prepone the release of the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is prompted by the "sluggish sales" sales of the S-series models launched earlier this year. Samsung released the Galaxy S23 series that included the base Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra models. The Fan Edition version has been expected to launch with some of the most popular features of the series within a relatively budgeted price range compared to the high-end phones of the lineup, just like its predecessors.

Notably, most smartphone makers faced a fall in sales in the first quarter of the year, which affected companies like Apple and its chief assembler Foxconn as well. However, in India, Samsung managed to beat fellow Android rival Xiaomi in regard to year-on-year sales of higher-end handsets.

Previous reports suggest that the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE is expected to be powered by an in-house octa-core Exynos 2200 5G SoC, instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. The phone is also likely to be available in configurations of 6GB and 8GB of RAM paired with 128GB and 256GB of inbuilt storage. The purported triple rear camera unit of the smartphone could sport a 50-megapixel primary sensor. The handset is said to be backed by a 4,500mAh battery unit with 25W wired fast charging support.