Hot rumor: Galaxy S23 FE will arrive late this year with a surprising chipset under the hood

The last time we checked in on the Galaxy S23 FE (Fan Edition), reliable tipster Roland Quandt said that it "sure doesn't look like there'll be an S23 FE this year." But a fresh report from SamMobile says that the device will be released during the fourth quarter of 2023. But there is a major surprise in store. Instead of using the same chipset that powered the Galaxy S23 series (which was the  overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy), the Galaxy S23 FE is expected to be powered by the Exynos 2200 in all regions.

The last Fan Edition mode, the Galaxy S21 FE, was powered by the Snapdragon 888 which was the same SoC used by the flagship Galaxy S21 line. If this latest rumor is legit, the Galaxy S23 FE will use the 4nm Exynos 2200 SoC which was found inside the majority of Galaxy S22 models released last year. Some suggest that the Exynos 2200 did not deliver the performance that one would expect from a chipset powering a flagship line, especially AMD's GPU. This could explain why the Galaxy S23 series used a Snapdragon chip everywhere.

SamMobile says that we could see a 50MP image sensor backing the primary rear camera on the Galaxy S23 FE which would be quite an upgrade from the 12MP image sensor used to drive the primary rear camera on both the Galaxy S21 FE and Galaxy S20 FE. The Galaxy S23 FE will supposedly be available with 128GB or 256GB of storage. We could see the phone equipped with 6GB or 8GB of RAM.

The same 4500mAh capacity battery found on the last couple of FE models should also keep the lights on the Galaxy S23 FE. Both the Galaxy S21 FE and Galaxy S20 FE offered 25W fast charging and we expect the same for the Galaxy S23 FE.

Interestingly, the rumor says that the Galaxy S23 FE will have the model number SM-S711x. The SM-7xx model numbers are used for the Galaxy Z Flip which is Sammy's way of acknowledging that while the Galaxy S23 FE is a high-end phone, it is not a true flagship model.

On again, off again, on again. At this point, we have to say that until we actually see Samsung release the Galaxy S23 FE, we have to go with the response from our Magic 8 Ball. We asked whether Samsung will release the Galaxy S23 FE this year and the response was "Hazy. Try again."