Samsung's Galaxy S20 Lite 5G might go official under a different name at CES 2021
Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite
Between the Galaxy Note 20, Note 20+ (or Note 20 Ultra), Galaxy Fold 2, Z Flip 5G, and a number of largely mysterious A-series mid-rangers expected to offer at least one feature previously reserved exclusively for Samsung’s high-end devices, the company already has a full slate of interesting upcoming smartphones.
While nothing is etched in stone just yet, this almost completely secretive handset could go official sometime in December 2020 or January 2021 under the Galaxy S20 FE or S20 Fan Edition label. Those rumored monikers take us back to 2017, when Samsung unveiled a limited Galaxy Note FE edition that was essentially a rebranded version of the explosive Galaxy Note 7 from 2016 with a smaller battery in tow.
That’s definitely an odd memory to evoke after all these years, so perhaps the company is merely referring to the device this way internally before releasing it as the Galaxy S20 Lite. That would certainly make a lot more sense, especially when you consider the SM-G780 and SM-G781 model numbers of the so-called Galaxy S20 FE, which are clearly related to the SM-G770 designation of the Galaxy S10 Lite.
In case you’re wondering, the SM-G781 label reportedly designates the phone’s US variant, set to be released with 5G connectivity in tow. The “global” SM-G870, meanwhile, is expected to come in both 5G-enabled and 4G LTE-only configurations.
Unfortunately, the rumored spec sheet of the Galaxy S20 Lite 5G consists of little more than Android 10 software with One UI 2.5 on top and “at least” 128 gigs of internal storage space at the moment. Based on what the S10 Lite has going on, we can probably expect to see its sequel pack a Snapdragon 865 processor in combination with at least a 6GB RAM count, while the 6.2-inch display of the “regular-sized” S20 could well be expanded and flattened out.
It remains to be seen if Samsung will actually fly to Las Vegas to showcase the new phone at CES 2021 in January, and perhaps more importantly, if a Galaxy Note 20 Lite (or Note 20 FE) is also in the works alongside a “standard” Note 20 that’s already tipped to lose the curves of so many of its forerunners.