FCC listing confirms Galaxy S21 to come with Snapdragon 888

Damien Wilde | Dec 9 2020 - 5:05 am PT

With the Galaxy S21 series starting to leak bit by bit, an FCC listing has now confirmed that those in North America can expect the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset in the upcoming flagship series.

There is a caveat here though, as only one of the upcoming Galaxy S21 devices was listed on the FCC regulatory site. Model number SM-G991U was the only model that has so far passed through the US regulatory agency, but this is a good indication for the other S21 series devices.

According to this listing, this device — which we believe is the base model Galaxy S21 — is set to come packing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. During the Qualcomm announcement, Samsung was a notable absentee from the upcoming device list for this new processor. Part number SM8350 is listed in the FCC filing though, which puts to bed any rumors of a fully global Exynos-powered Samsung Galaxy S21 series.

Other important data we can glean from this listing is the inclusion of mmWave 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6, and the standard NFC support too for wireless payment systems. Although the Galaxy S21 coming with the Snapdragon 888 is good news for US and North American fans, we’re still expecting global regions to get the Exynos 2100 chipset.

The staggered chipset availability is one that has seen fans petition for Qualcomm’s hardware in Galaxy devices over the past 12 months. However, we’ll likely learn more at the proposed January 14 launch event for the entire Galaxy S21 series.

Further regulatory listings in Brazil hint that the Samsung Galaxy S21 is to drop the charge brick from the in-box included accessories with this release. The rest of the specifications have already been detailed, but getting confirmation of the Snapdragon 888 will be music to many potential Galaxy S21 series buyers’ ears.