Brands often sell their old products in new packages to make them look new. Samsung just did that in South Korea by launching or rather re-launching the Galaxy S20 FE.
The phone remains unchanged in terms of internal specifications; however, the company has stopped offering the AKG headset that it was bundling in earlier. Thus, the retail price has been reduced.
While it is common for brands to pull up pranks, however, even GSMarena warns that this is not an April Fool’s joke as the Galaxy S20 FE 2022 has already started retailing. The phone is up for purchase with leading South Korean telecom companies like KT and LG U Plus.
According to a Korean publication, the “Galaxy S20FE 2022 is the 2022 version of the 'Galaxy S20 FE' released in 2020, lowering the price by 200,000 won and excluding AKG earphones from the components.”
Another key change is that the new variant is now only available in three colour options - Cloud White, Cloud Lavender and Cloud Navy instead of the four colour choices that the original phone was available in.
The phone still ships with a Snapdragon 865 SoC which is 5G capable and is still relevant in most markets.
Interestingly, the Indian variant of the Galaxy S20 FE which is listed on Samsung’s website already ships without the earbuds and there has been no change in the pricing. And while Samsung is busy removing the charging brick from the retail packaging of both premium and affordable phones, the Galaxy S20 FE still has a charging brick in the Indian listing - we aren’t really sure if that’s the case with its Korean counterpart though.
Will Samsung reduce the price in other markets as well?
While we’ve seen a lot of brands re-introduce their phones and this isn’t an odd practice. It not only helps the brand clear the unused stock and helps gain some new customers. For the consumers though, it lets them enjoy flagship features that would not be otherwise affordable.
This is normally done by offering an additional discount on the existing price for a limited period or permanently reducing the price making the phone affordable till the time stock lasts.
Even chipset makers are seen following the same tactics and Snapdragon 860 or Snapdragon 870 are the perfect examples of the same. In case you're not aware, these are the overclocked versions of Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 865, respectively.
Now that the Galaxy S21 FE is already out, Samsung might want to clear the old stock. However, what seems strange is that KT or Korean Telecom is bundling the same AKG earbuds free with any Galaxy S20 FE purchased till April end.
The change would have made more sense had the company offered the phone at a reduced price. Anyways, we are still waiting to hear from the company if it plans to slash the price of the Galaxy S20 FE in the international markets as well.
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