Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra being made in Bangladesh

The Galaxy S21 Ultra, the latest flagship device of Samsung, is being made in Bangladesh, in what can be viewed as growing confidence of the South Korean tech giant in the country’s manufacturing prowess.

The 5G-compatible handset, which was unveiled on January 14 globally, will be made in the state-of-the-art manufacturing plant of Fair Electronics in Narsingdi, Mohammad Mesbah Uddin, chief marketing officer of Fair Electronics, Samsung's local assembly partner, told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.

The first batch of the locally-assembled S21 Ultra -- which will have components from Vietnam and South Korea -- will be shipped from the first week of next month. 

While Fair Electronics has been manufacturing the budget to mid-priced Samsung handsets sold in Bangladesh since 2018, its foray into assembling flagship devices began with the Note 10+ last year. It was followed by Note 20 Ultra 5G and Note 20.

Fair Electronics will be assembling double the units of the previous two flagship devices, according to Uddin.

“Thanks to the pandemic, the illegal handset imports have come down a lot. So a market has been created for us. We expect the sales to be brisk.”

The handset, which will be compatible with S Pen, will retail at Tk 139,999. Were it brought in from abroad, it would have cost about Tk 1.7 lakh, according to Uddin. 

The total duty and tax on handset imports stand at 57 per cent. For local assembly or manufacturing, the tax is 18 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G comes in two colours -- Phantom Black and Phantom Silver -- with a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, a 5,000mAh battery that can charge 50 per cent within 30 minutes. 

The device consists of a quad rear camera -- 108MP pro-sensor, 12MP ultra-wide, and Telephoto lenses of 10MP (3x and 10x zoom). It also comes with 100x Space Zoom.

For the first time on a Galaxy smartphone, users will be able to capture shots in 4k at 60fps across all lenses -- both front and rear cameras. 

The device can be pre-ordered via Grameenphone with Tk 20,000 advance payment.