Earlier this year, Samsung finally launched the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, which is essentially a more affordable variant of the S21 family, and a follow-up to the very popular Galaxy S20 FE from 2020. The phone was released just a month right before the S22, which puts it in a somewhat awkward place and timing in Samsung’s device line-up.
Nevertheless, it is a cheaper option when compared to the newer Samsung flagship phones, which are a bit on the expensive side, although it does mean that there will be a compromise when it comes to hardware and performance. With that said, is the S21 FE worth the slightly more affordable price? Let’s take a look.
Design and Screen
Let’s start off with the physical aspects of the phone. The S21 FE features a design that resembles other Samsung Galaxy S phones like the S22 and the S21, with metal sides and a triple-camera module on the upper left corner. The back however is made out of plastic, although it does come with a matte finish that feels nice to the touch.
The bottom of the phone houses the USB-C charging port, speaker grille, microphone, and SIM card slot. There’s no headphone jack or microSD card slot, which has unfortunately been the trend with a lot of smartphones these days. Overall though, the phone feels sturdy and even comes with an IP68 rating which is nice.
There are also speakers on the top and bottom of the phone which are pretty loud. With that said, however, I did find the bass sound a bit lacking on them.
The AMOLED screen measures 6.4 inches, which is the same size as on other phones like the Pixel 6. The S21 FE feels a bit more compact though because of the very slim bezels around the Gorilla Glass Victus panel. The screen maxes out at a 120Hz refresh rate, although you do get an option to turn it down to 60hZ to conserve battery life. There’s also an in-display fingerprint sensor, which is very fast and responsive.
I do like the quality of Samsung’s AMOLED panels. Content consumption is very enjoyable thanks to the fluidity, great-looking colors and contrast, and overall it’s a great-looking display.
Software
As for software, the S21 FE currently runs on Samsung’s One UI 4.1 with Android 12. If you’re no stranger to Samsung’s custom user interface, then you’ll feel right at home here — there are a lot of Samsung-centric apps to suit dedicated fans, as well as a wealth of customization options so you can personalize your phone in a more in-depth manner. There is Bixby of course, but you can always choose not to use it — for example, I just stick to the default Google Assistant, which I prefer more in comparison to Samsung’s own voice assistant.
On the other hand though, if you’re after a more streamlined Android experience with less bloat and third-party software, then One UI might not be to your liking. There are a lot of apps that I had to either disable or uninstall, and in short, it will be a vastly different experience from devices like Google Pixels or Nokia phones, for example.
It should be said however that Samsung has improved its update schedules — a lot of its newer phones now get regular software updates, and so far I’ve gotten decently-consistent updates on this phone.
Internal Specs and Performance
Moving on, let’s talk about the internal hardware and performance. The S21 FE comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 5G chipset, and you can get the phone either with 6 or 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of internal storage. The one I have with me is the base model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, but don’t let the somewhat “basic” specs fool you.
For everyday use, the S21 FE can easily power through stuff like web browsing, video and music streaming, social media apps and such. And while the Snapdragon 888 has been replaced by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the 8 Plus Gen 1, it’s not exactly a slow chipset, and it’s still a cut above Qualcomm’s mid-range 700 and 600 series SoCs.
I was able to play some graphically-intensive games on the phone like Trials of Mana and Monster Hunter Stories, and during my time gaming on the S21 FE, I didn’t experience any lags or freezes. The slightly small 6GB of RAM wasn’t really an issue, and the Snapdragon 888 definitely proves its worth here.
Perhaps the only issue I have with the S21 FE so far is the 4500 mAh battery. Initially, I was only able to get around 3–4 hours of screen on time during my first week with the phone. It has improved since then though, but it’s rare that I get around 6 hours of SoT as I do with the Pixel 6. On the other hand, it does have a high-performance chipset, as well as a 120Hz display, so the battery limitations are a bit understandable.
Thankfully, it has support for fast charging, and based on my observations it was able to charge a lot quicker than my Google Pixel 6.
Camera
Let’s talk about the camera — the back of the phone has a triple camera set-up with a 12-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel telephoto lens, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens. The hole punch in front houses a 32-megapixel selfie camera, which should be more than enough to get good-quality video calls and selfies.
I have gotten used to the camera quality on google Pixel phones. But I have to say that the S21 FE does have good camera quality. Dynamic range on the phone’s cameras was mostly good, although color saturation was a bit strong. Of course, this is a subjective affair but if you’re used to the way that Samsung’s camera software processes photos, then you’ll find little to complain about this one.
Night mode was a bit disappointing though. It didn’t brighten up images as I’d hoped, and it was barely different from photos taken on the standard camera mode. However, a bit of exposure adjustment got me the results I wanted, and after that, it was almost on par with Night Sight photos shot on a Pixel phone.
Moving on, video quality on the S21 FE is definitely one of the phone’s strong suits. Video stabilization was impressive, and overall, footage shot on the phone was pretty good. There were some instances though where contrast was a bit too strong, so darker parts of clips were almost entirely black. In general, though, the video quality on the phone’s main cameras was enough to meet my needs (see video link at the top).
Final Thoughts
With all that said, is the S21 FE worth your cash? Well, it’s not exactly a cheap phone coming in at around 699 dollars in the US (or pounds if you’re in the UK) for the base model. For that price, you can probably get last year’s Samsung Galaxy S21 which will of course come with better specs. It’s not exactly a bad phone given the price-to-spec ratio, but it will take some consideration as to whether or not you’re willing to spend this much on a Galaxy Fan Edition model.
On the other hand, if you’re dead-set on getting this smartphone, then the Snapdragon 888 Chipset, 120Hz AMOLED display, good cameras, and overall fast performance should make your experience enjoyable. As with everything though, personal preference will ultimately be the deciding factor in getting this phone.
Originally published at http://teamvry.com on July 17, 2022.
