The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE was unveiled on January 3, and the rumors around its successor have now officially begun to arrive – with one tipster predicting that Samsung and chipset maker MediaTek will team up again.
That's according to tipster It's Fat on Chinese social media network Weibo (via Notebookcheck.net), who says that the flagship MediaTek Dimensity 9000 processor is likely to appear in either the Galaxy S22 FE or the Galaxy A53 Pro.
The Dimensity 9000 is one of the fastest chipsets on the market at the moment, but it would be a departure for Samsung to include it in the Fan Edition of one of its phones. These handsets usually take the processor of their namesakes, so the Galaxy S21 FE has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 options as the Galaxy S21 series.
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On the other hand, if the MediaTek processor were to find its way into the as-yet-unannounced Galaxy A53 Pro, it would be a step up from the recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy A53 5G phone – that runs one of Samsung's own Exynos 1280 CPUs.
While the A series phones may not attract as much attention as S series flagship phones such as the Galaxy S22, Samsung sells a lot of these well-priced handsets. However, we haven't yet seen a Pro edition of an A series device, so it's perhaps more likely that the Dimension 9000 is heading for the Galaxy S22 FE.
The same source goes on to say that the upcoming handset will feature a 4,500mAh battery, and that matches up with the battery capacities that we've previously seen on both the Galaxy S21 FE and the Galaxy S20 FE. The A series tend to have slightly larger battery capacities based on recent models.
Analysis: MediaTek's influence continues to grow
As we've written about previously, MediaTek is quickly emerging as a more influential player in the smartphone chipset market. The electronics company, previously regarded as more of a second-tier outfit, sold more processors than Qualcomm last year.
MediaTek continues to push out mobile CPUs with ever-improving specs, and that extends to the Dimensity 9000 as well. The chipset is made using a 4-nanometer class production process, which should make it one of the speediest and most efficient yet.
Launched late last year, the chipset has yet to show up in any handsets, but it's rumored to start appearing in phones from the likes of OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo in the coming months. If Samsung picks it for the S22 FE too, then MediaTek's reputation will continue to grow.
Samsung has gone back and forth with using MediaTek processors in its phones in the past, and the latest move is another sign of how competitive the mobile chipset market is at the moment – Samsung, Apple and Google are all continuing to manufacture their own processors to try and stay ahead of the competition.
