Samsung’s Galaxy S21 Ultra arrives at the FCC, confirms support for S-Pen and Wi-Fi 6E

Samsung’s next Android flagship, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, ended up in the FCC database (first identified by the Android Authority). The list confirms some of the rumors that are circulating.

First, the FCC confirms that the Galaxy S21 has support for S-Pen. Rumors are circulating that the Galaxy Note line would be phased out to focus on Samsung’s growing folding line, and cultivating the Note’s only unique feature would certainly fit that narrative. There is still some controversy as to whether the Note is really dead. Reuters quotes an anonymous source claiming that the Note is dead, while Yonhap, South Korea’s largest news agency, cites an anonymous source claiming that the Note is alive.

What is not in dispute is that the Note is no longer the only Samsung phone with pen support. As a tester of all things wireless, the FCC says the S21 Ultra has “two different modes of inductive coupling for S-PEN motion detection (Hover and Click).” It looks like Ultra will work just like the Note, but remember, there is no place to store the S-Pen on a Galaxy S21. We know what the phone looks like, and it doesn’t have a giant pen storage gap like the Note did. Like an Apple pencil or Surface pen, you will probably have to buy the pen separately and find out where to store it.

Another snack in the report is confirmation of the compatibility of the Wi-Fi 6E with the Ultra model. The FCC seems just as excited about Wi-Fi 6E as we are: it wrote a 23-page report devoted entirely to supporting the new Wi-Fi standard on the S21 Ultra. We could talk forever about the new tricks and optimizations in 802.11ax / Wi-Fi 6 standard that hit phones from 2019, but Wi-Fi 6E is easy to understand: it just adds a large part of the 6 GHz spectrum to the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz spectrum that we use today. More spectrum means more bandwidth for you and your neighbors.

Rumored that the Galaxy S21 will be launched in mid-January (during the virtual CES?), The S21 Ultra will be one of the first Wi-Fi 6E customers of any kind to hit the market. You’ll also need a new access point to make Wi-Fi 6E work, and so far, none have hit the market. Asus announced the “world’s first 6E Wi-Fi gaming router” in September, the incredibly called “Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 gaming router”, but there is no release date and it is not yet on sale. A perpetually sold out Newegg listing is priced at $ 550.

We know almost everything about the Galaxy S21. In the United States, it will be the first phone with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. It has a larger fingerprint sensor on the screen. The Ultra model should have a 5000mAh battery and a 120Hz OLED display of about 6.8 inches. Official photos have already been leaked, showing the usual full-screen design and a rear camera block that makes the questionable decision to wrap the phone’s side and corner. I wonder what will happen if you drop it around the corner!

Nothing is official yet, but the phone is expected to be announced on January 14.

List image by Evan Blass