ReviewSamsung has given its top piece of last year a new look with the Galaxy S21 FE. Does Samsung hit a sweet spot with the ‘welcome phone’? And isn’t the device too late now that the S22 is at the door?
This is an abbreviated version of a review previously posted appeared on Tweakers†
Samsung has served virtually every market segment in the smartphone industry for many years. The company has also been releasing a device for a number of years that falls between the high-end flagships and midrange devices, which they previously also called Lite versions, such as the Galaxy S10 Lite. Being ‘welcome devices’, created to move aspiring mid-range smartphone buyers to the higher end.
Today, the company markets these devices as smartphones for fans. Last year the phone was even called Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, where FE stands for Fan Edition. This device is more powerful than the regular S20, but it does have a less luxurious housing and camera setup. The phone was therefore a bit cheaper.
This year, Samsung is doing the same with the Galaxy S21 in the form of the Galaxy S21 FE 5G. The company seems to be making the same ‘mistake’ as it did with the S10 Lite. The late introduction of that smartphone resulted in the device being snowed under by the next generation of smartphones, the S20 series. That’s one of the reasons why the S10 Lite never became the success that the S20 FE was.
Housing
When you pick up the Galaxy S21 FE, you immediately notice how much this device resembles the popular A52s. The housing of this smartphone is made of the same plastic as the midrange device and if you put the two smartphones next to each other with the screen up, they are almost indistinguishable from each other.
Where the A52s is equipped with a headphone jack, this is missing on the S21 FE. Something that unfortunately no longer surprises us in this more expensive segment. The option to expand the phone with a microSD card is also missing. The smartphone is also waterproof and dustproof.
AMOLED screen
The AMOLED screen is completely flat and has the well-known camera hole in the middle. The 6.4-inch image refreshes at a maximum of 120 frames per second and has a resolution of 1080 by 2400 pixels. On top is sturdy Gorilla Glass that protects against blows.
The screen switches back to a refresh rate of 60 frames per second when the battery is almost empty. In this mode, it lasts longer on a single battery charge. The overall experience of the smartphone is good. Scrolling is nice and smooth and we have not seen any hitches or stutters.
Camera
Like the S21 and S20 FE, the Galaxy S21 FE has three cameras on the back of 8, 12 and 13 megapixels. The front camera has a resolution of 32 megapixels.
The first thing that strikes us when taking photos is that Samsung has not been idle when it comes to software post-processing. The photos of the S21 FE are just a bit more detailed than those of the S20 FE. There is also less noise and a better contrast ratio. Especially in the shaded parts, it is easy to see that more detail is captured without this being accompanied by extra noise.
The more colorful photos show that the S20 FE seems to boost the colors a bit more than the other devices, for the rest it seems to go fairly evenly. Fine print is easy to read in the photos, however, if we look at the other details, we have to conclude that the S21 FE comes out as the winner again. The photos have negligible noise and details are clearly visible.
Software
The Galaxy S21 FE is the first smartphone to come with Android 12 and OneUI version 4. As we are used to from Samsung, the user interface of the Korean company is different from the standard operating system of Google. The icons look different, as do the menus and navigation buttons. Samsung does supply the standard Google apps, but there is a Samsung version for a number of standard Android apps.
In addition, there are also a few other Samsung apps that do not replace a standard app or action: Game Launcher, Samsung Free, Facebook, OneDrive and AR-Zone. Quite a few possibly unnecessary additions. Almost none of these apps can be uninstalled. Game Launcher can be hidden at most and for the rest only Facebook and Tips can be deleted.
Processor
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and, depending on the model, has 6 or 8GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage.
We were able to use all the heavy apps that we ran on the device without any problems. However, we did notice that when playing the heavier games, problems started to appear after a while, causing the amount of frames per second to decrease. Nothing serious and not disturbing, but worth mentioning.
Battery
The battery of the Galaxy S21 FE has a capacity of 4,500mAh. During our tests, the phone managed to last longer than the earlier S21 and OnePlus 9 when visiting websites. When using 4G internet, it does about the same as its competitors, while watching videos it drained relatively quickly.
Samsung also does not include a charger with the phone: only a USB-C cable is included in the box. The device does support fast charging, up to a capacity of 25 watts.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is marketed by Samsung as a lighter version of the S21, with a few cuts being made to make it more affordable. This can be seen from the housing and the slightly smaller screen. Little is known about the cuts. The smartphone is dust and water resistant, has a better camera and the same powerful processor.
Because of this, the price is the only thing that makes you doubt. At the moment, this smartphone costs about the same as the more luxurious S21, so that you would lean towards the ‘real flagship’ for just a little more functions. When it comes to longer software support and taking beautiful photos, the Galaxy S21 FE is the better device.
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