Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review

The Galaxy S21 series will not quietly disappear into the night. On the contrary, it will make one last splash before the Galaxy S22 takes the spotlight: the last model in the S21 series combines all the essence of the Galaxy S21 in one powerful, no nonsense smartphone for the brand’s true fans! . Yes, this is the Galaxy S21 FE 5G. Samsung focused on three fan-favorite features for this fan edition: display, performance, and camera. And it has tried to offer more for less, a task best suited to flagship-killer stuff. We certainly aren’t calling it that, but the S21 FE looks pretty promising as a flagship that is almost there. we will presenting the all details in out Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review.

The S21 FE updates the display with the S21’s screen panel, a 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X with native HDR10+ support and a refresh rate of 120Hz.The Galaxy S20 FE’s Super AMOLED was initially released with HDR 10 features, which was disappointing at the time, but these were enabled later in 2021. Next is performance, and quite predictably, the Galaxy S21 FE has the same hardware as the rest of the S21 series, namely the Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 chipset.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Design

The S21 FE is similar to the Galaxy S21 with a contour-cut camera module, but with minor changes. The covering around the camera is plastic, the display is flat, has a thin metal frame, and the plastic back flows seamlessly into the camera island. The back is plastic with a soft matte finish. It doesn’t feel cheap, but it doesn’t keep dirt away either.

The back is also slippery, so a case is recommended.The Galaxy S21 FE is available in a variety of attractive colors, including white, lavender, graphite, and olive. Turning to button placement, the volume rocker and power button are on the right edge of the smartphone, the USB Type-C port, primary microphone, speaker grille, and hybrid dual-SIM tray on the bottom, secondary microphone on top, and the left side is blank.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Display

The Galaxy S21 FE flaunts a 6.4-inch FULL HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) Super AMOLED display supporting 120Hz refresh rate and a central punch hole for the 32MP front camera. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus; unlike the S20FE, the S21 FE has evenly thin bezels on all sides. Next, you can choose to set the display to a 60 Hz refresh rate or leave it at 120 Hz (High); there is no support for adaptive refresh rates OneUI offers a variety of display settings to suit your preferences.

OneUI offers a variety of display settings to choose from, depending on your preference. When it comes to display quality, Samsung’s AMOLED panels are known for their bright, vibrant colors and deep blacks, and the Galaxy S21 FE is no exception. It is a great panel that is quite bright even outdoors and offers a great overall experience.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Software

The software runs well and offers a Samsung-like experience with plenty of shortcuts and customization. The frame rate of the interface randomly drops and gestures and animations seem very choppy. This will be fixed after a while. This happened several times when we started reviewing phones and also after applying the first OTA update. We will have to wait and see if more people report this bug, as it may be an issue with my device only.

Hardware and Performance

At this point, the Snapdragon 888 chip in the S21 FE is quite well known. This chip delivers fast performance and supports features such as 4K video recording on all of the phone’s cameras. However, the base S21 FE has only 6GB of RAM while the regular S21 has 8GB, which sometimes made the FE seem slower, such as when processing night mode photos.

Of course, this is a fairly minor difference and you may not notice it unless you use the two phones side-by-side. But for those who do memory-intensive tasks such as gaming or video editing, the FE’s less base RAM is probably the biggest reason to pay $70 to upgrade to the 8GB model or choose the standard S21 or S21+.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Camera

The Galaxy S21 FE does not change much in terms of its camera compared to the previous generation, at least in terms of hardware: like the S20 FE, it has a 12MP main camera, plus a 12MP ultrawide lens and an 8MP telephoto lens, the latter with a 30x space zoom The latter offers a 30x space zoom. The apertures of these three lenses are also unchanged from the S20 FE.

The 8MP telephoto lens is the biggest trade-off between the Galaxy S21 FE and Samsung’s standard flagships; both the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus had higher-resolution telephoto cameras, specifically 64MP. We don’t have either the S21 or S21 Plus on hand, but we imagine that photos taken with the telephoto lens on either model will look a bit sharper than those obtained from the Galaxy S21 FE.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Battery life

Now, let’s talk about battery life: the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G has the same 4,500mAh battery capacity as the Galaxy S20 FE 5G, but sadly, the HD video battery loop test did not fare much better We were unable to; the device ran for only 11 hours and 44 minutes, while the Galaxy S20 FE 5G with the Snapdragon 865 SoC completed over 18 hours.

Coincidentally, the 4G version of the Galaxy S20 FE with the Exynos 990 SoC, the flagship of the S20 generation, also recorded a significantly lower runtime of less than 13 hours in the loop test. However, this model could be used for a wide variety of purposes and, in most cases, could comfortably last an entire day on a single charge. This included playing small games, using social apps, and taking photos.

Price and Availability

The Galaxy S21 FE is on sale in the UK from 11 January, starting at £699 for the 128GB model and rising to £749 for the 256GB variant. The regular Galaxy S21, launched 12 months ago, costs either £769 or £819 for the same storage options, meaning you’re only getting a really small discount of £50 or £60 here.

Of course, since it’s a year old now, you might even be able to pick one up for roughly the same price as this year’s FE, if you shop around. However, at the time of writing this review, the Galaxy S21 seems to be out of stock at many retailers, so it’s quite possible that it’s nearing the end of its life. As for contract pricing, the S21 FE starts at £35 a month at Carphone Warehouse, giving you 20GB of data per month at iD Mobile.

Conclusion

The Galaxy S21 FE is a great addition to Samsung’s S21 lineup, retaining the very best features of those flagship phones at a more modest price. the trade-off you have to make to save $100 is the biggest sacrifice, as it affects battery life The lack of an adaptive display is not a major one, as it can affect battery life.

That said, this is a solid phone that performs on par with the top Android flagships of a year ago and offers photos that rival some of the best camera phones we’ve tested. But don’t just compare it to previous models; the Galaxy S22, as its name implies, is jet black. the Galaxy S22 casts a very large shadow that the Galaxy S21 FE cannot escape. even at a $100 higher price, the Galaxy S22 is better value than the Galaxy S21 FE.