I would be tempted to get the S22 for the 2022 tech, including the Qualcomm SD Gen 1, 4nm processor and Adreno 730 GPU. And it is in that ‘red ocean’ where there are some great phones like Google Pixel 6 ($999, 8/128GB), Vivo X60 Pro (12/256GB $899), ZTE RedMagic 6 Pro ($999, SD888, 16/256GB), and in a few weeks OPPO’s FindX5 upper-mid-range Neo (may be called a Reno7) and who knows what announcements we will see at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. Read Don’t buy a grey market phone to ensure you get the Australian model.
We run more than 70 tests (many repeated three times) over a week to ensure accurate data you can rely on.
You won’t find more accurate data on phone reception signal strength (a city or rural capable phone), battery life, Wi-Fi performance, CPU/GPU performance, throttling under load and importantly, how it sounds. It’s a 6.4″ screen, 7.9mm (thin) x 177g (light) and well-made with Gorilla Glass Victus on the front, an aluminium frame, and a fingerprint-resistant matte glastic back.
Nor can it mount an external SSD or Flash drive as internal storage, making it unsuitable for videographers and vloggers. It drops back savagely by 44% over 15 minutes, but the average user won’t push it this hard.
The S20 FE had a Qualcomm SD865 Chipset, and there was a reasonable expectation that we would get the SD888 SoC (26 trillion operations per second – TOPS) and X60 modem. Joe and Jane Average don’t, but many tech journos seem to get their knickers in a twist over what amounts to a scant few per cent difference either way. If you want to listen to music, you will need Bluetooth headphones or speakers where the Dolby Atmos EQ helps give you a wide sound stage and decent frequency response. We strongly recommend using the Google app alternatives to make it easier if you ever want to exit the Samsung world.
Samsung Knox hardens Android and offers things like secure and hidden folders. It has an under-glass optical fingerprint reader; you can use Face ID (2D and not as secure) and PIN, Pattern etc. Daylight and office light shots are fine with natural colour, fast focus, and exposure. Daylight and office video was above average with solid colours, exposure, good autofocus (primary lens) and OIS. I would be sorely tempted to spend more on the Galaxy S22, and I am afraid that more new models will out-class it after Mobile World Congress in late February. Brand Samsung Model Samsung Galaxy S21 FE (Fan Edition) Model Number SM-G990E single SIM (DS dual SIM not for AU) Price Base $999 Price base 6/128GB $999 Price 2 8/256GB – $1099 Warranty months 12 Tier Upper mid-range Website Product Page Manual here From Samsung Online and approved retailers Country of Origin Vietnam Company Samsung Test date 12/02/2022 Ambient test temp 24° Other models not for Australia (Don’t buy) SM-G990B, N, U, U1, W or any model ending in DS (dual sim)
Size 6.4″ Type AMOLED 2X Flat/Curve/2D/3D Flat with centre 0-hole (the Ultra has curved edges) Resolution 2340 x 1080 (it is seen as a FHD phone) PPI 402 Ratio 19.5:9 Screen to Body 85.30% Colours bits 16m 8-bit Refresh Hz/adaptive 60 or 120Hz and 240Hz touch – not adaptive Response 120Hz 10.5 GtG and 2.4ms BtW Nits typical/test Approx. Daylight readable Yes Always on Display Yes Edge display Yes Accessibility Full suite of vision and sound enhancements DRM Widevine L1 1080p HDR10 Gaming Game mode Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Comment Lovely bright, colourful screen, but lack of Adaptive refresh puts it slightly behind the leaders.
Brand/Model Samsung Exynos 2100 nm 5 Cores Octa-core (1×2.9 GHz Cortex-X1 & 3×2.80 GHz Cortex-A78 & 4×2.2 GHz Cortex-A55) Modem Samsung AI TOPS 26 Geekbench 5 Single-core 1046 Geekbench 5 multi-core 3226 Like About 5-10% faster than the S21 with Exynos 2100 so reflects later tuning GPU Mali-G78 MP14 854Mhz GPU Test Open CL 7605 Like About 5% faster than the S21 Exynos 2100 Vulcan 5950 RAM/type 6 LPDDR5 Storage/free/type 128 UFS 3.1 (95GB free) micro-SD No CPDT internal seq.
Wi-Fi Type/model 6 AX HE80 BCM43571 Test 2m -dBm/Mbps -31 to -35, 1200 variable, not stable Test 5m -59 to -60, 866-1134 variable Test 10m -63 to -70, 680-816 variable BT Type 5 GPS single/dual Single (10m accuracy) USB type 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ALT DP/DeX/Ready For Yes – USB-C to HDMI cable only and will mirror to a TV NFC Yes Ultra-wideband No Sensors Accelerometer Yes – combo with Gyro Gyro Yes – combo with Gyro e-Compass Yes Barometer Yes Gravity ? Probably Ambient light Yes Hall sensor Yes Proximity Yes Other Comment It’s a shame to limit the Wi-Fi speed to 1200Mbps when others have 2400Mbps. GFX Bench T-Rex 502.8m (8.38hrs) 3351 frames Drain 100-0% full load 6 hrs 30 minutes Watt full load 9W Watt idle 1.5W Estimate battery loss at 120Hz Negligible Estimate typical use maximum 24 hours typical use but carry a charger Comment No charger is penny-pinching, and heavy users will need to charge twice a day.
AMP 2 x Cirrus Logic CS35L41 each 5.3W, 1% THD, 8 ohm Dolby Atmos decode Yes, downmix to two speakers Hi-Res 32-bit/384kHz (not tested) 3.5mm No BT Codecs SBC, AAC, Samsung Scalable Multipoint Can connect to two devices Dolby Atmos (DA) Yes – auto, movie, music, voice and games mode EQ Normal, Pop, Classic, Jazz, Rock and Custom – makes more of a difference in headphones as inbuilt speakers limit what they can do. Mics 2 – with background noise suppression Test dB – all on EQ flat DA off Volume max 80dB fine for personal use Media (music) 73 Ring 75.5 Alarm 73 Notifications ?
Sound quality Deep Bass 20-40Hz No Middle Bass 40-100Hz No High Bass 100-200Hz Slowly Building Low Mid 200-400Hz Slowly Building Mid 4000-1000Hz Slowly Building High-Mid 1-2kHz Slowly Building Low Treble 2-4kHz Flat Treble 4-6kHz Flat High Treble 6-10kHz Decline Dog Whistle 10-20kHz Steep decline from 13khz Sound Signature type Analytical: (bass/mid recessed; treble boosted) – crisp but not pleasant for most music Soundstage 2D (no 3D spatial height, but DA gives a wider sound stage.
(Ignore the white line) – Recessed bass and mid make this harsh for music but fine for hands-free
Size (H X W x D) 155.7 x 74.5 x 7.9 Weight grams 177 Front glass Gorilla Glass Victus Rear material Glastic Plastic matte finish grippy Frame Aluminium IP rating 68 Colours Olive, Graphite, Lavender, White Pen/Stylus support No In the box Charger No USB cable USB-A to USB-C Buds No Bumper cover No Comment Well-made, IP68 and should be a keeper OS Android 12 Security patch date 1/11/2021 UI One U1 4.0 OS upgrade policy Three OS upgrades Security patch policy Regular security patches four years Bloatware Samsung alternative to Google suite. Rear Primary MP 12 Mode Wide Sensor Samsung S5K2LD Focus Dual Pixel PDAF (fast focus) f-stop 1.8 um 1.8 FOV° (stated/actual) -67.4 Stabilisation OIS Zoom 8X digital Rear 2 MP 12 Mode Ultra-wide Sensor Sony IMX258 Focus Fixed f-stop 2.2 um 1.12 FOV (stated/actual) 123° (104.3°) Stabilisation No Zoom No Rear 3 MP 8 Mode Telephoto Sensor Hynix Hi847 Focus PDAF f-stop 2.4 um 1 FOV (stated/actual) ?
Flash 1 Auto-HDR Yes Object eraser QR code reader Yes Front MP 32 (Bins to 8MP) but delivers 5.2MP Sensor Sony IMX 616 Focus FF can result in out of focus shots f-stop 2.2 um .8 (bins to 1.6) FOV (stated/actual) (69.7°) Stabilisation EIS Flash Zoom 4X digital Video max 4K@60fps – it is above average with good colours and sound. Ratings Features 8 No microSD, 3,5mm, Charger, single sim and fixed refresh rate screen but a very strong processor Value 7 There are perhaps more <$999 options to look at, like Pixel 6 and OPPO Reno or Vivo Performance 8 It should be stellar, but throttling and heat let it down Ease of Use 9 Long OS update and security patch. One UI 4.0 is easy to use Design 8 It is a glass slab with no distinguishing features Rating out of 10 8 Pro 1 AMOLED 120Hz fixed-rate screen 2 Nice in-hand feel 3 Qualcomm SD888 is hard to beat 4 Great camera all around 5 It is a Galaxy S series and all that goes with it Con 1 No Charger and other price compromises 2 Throttles 3 No 3.5mm jack or microSD 4 There is a lot of <$999 competition 5 Final comment A worthy successor to the S20 FE – better display, SoC, camera and battery life.
Samsung S21 FE 5G smartphone review
80 % VERDICT With the Galaxy S21 5G, Samsung has delivered an attractive device that ticks all the boxes and offers a superb experience across the board. The Samsung has packed in all our favourite features into the Galaxy S21 FE 5G – an attractive smartphone that’s suited to a wide range of users. That says to us the Samsung is offering customers the best of last year’s tech in a single device for those who don’t want a more affordable smartphone but still a high-quality set of features.
The rear panel has a smooth matte finish, so it won’t be littered with fingerprints and it’s available in four colours – graphite, white, lavender and olive. On the back is the camera system that merges smoothly with the rear panel – certainly less pronounced than the more expensive Galaxy S21’s prominent bump. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G has a triple camera system which is made up of 12-megapixel ultra-wide, 12-megapixel wide and 8-megapixel telephoto with a 30x digital zoom.
And the fact that the device has a 32-megapixel front selfie camera should tell you who the S21 FE 5G is aimed at – young, savvy users who don’t mind take pictures of themselves and their friends. If you have no loyalty to the Samsung brand, there are a few other cheaper Android options that have similarly sized displays and equally powerful camera systems.
Don’t Buy the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE
There seems to be no element of fan service to it whatsoever, and I can’t imagine what devoted Samsung user would pull the trigger on this phone today just for a slightly lower price. Some people might be OK with that, but with the smaller Google Pixel 6 offering a better camera for $150 less, you have to really want a Samsung phone to choose this “fan edition.” The volume rocker and power button are both on the right side of the device, and the speaker grill and SIM tray are at the bottom. I love watching videos on this smartphone — even my 720p TV shows look good on the Galaxy S21 FE.
That’s mid-range living if you’re an Android user, and there’s a slightly noticeable performance difference in the day-to-day between this device and the OnePlus 9 I use daily, which has the same processor paired with 8GB of RAM. It’s minimal, but the difference crops up in minuscule ways, like whether an animation is stuttering or fluid in intensive apps like Pokémon Go. On synthetic benchmarks, the Galaxy S21 FE’s numbers were on par with Samsung’s foldable phones, which have the same processor. Samsung swapped out the 64-MP macro sensor on the Galaxy S21 for this 8-MP one, so photos taken with its 3x optical zoom aren’t very sharp — and that was with the aid of a tripod.
In some cases, the Galaxy S21 FE photo of a scene would have more blown-out elements than the one shot with the Pixel 6 Pro. I took two subsequent photos of a flag flapping in the wind, and both times there was a blob of what looks like unprocessed pixels floating around the scene.
The nighttime capabilities of the Galaxy S21 FE were also average in terms of performance, because it doesn’t have the Pixel 6’s smarts. The Pixel 6 camera system automatically switches into an extended exposure mode when it senses it’s on a tripod, which helps grab detailed photos at night.
Samsung has promised up to four years of security updates on its smartphones, so if you can live with the Galaxy S21 FE’s camera for that long, it has that going for it. However, there are other little features you might like (or hate), including the slide-out dock that hides in the corner of the screen where you can pin apps and things.
The Galaxy S21 FE 5G may be for Samsung super-fans, but it’s arriving way too late and with too few features to make it worth buying. With the Galaxy S22 launching soon with a a slew of new features, including what will probably be better nighttime photo-taking abilities, you’re better off waiting a little while longer than spending $1,149 on this repackaged but ultimately underwhelming flagship.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Review: Right phone, wrong time
Other than a poor battery, the overall package is pretty good, but if you’re considering the Galaxy S21 FE, it’s best to wait until it’s cheaper. A touch too expensive The essentials Performance: Great for the most part, but a few small hitches on the 6GB RAM model. Disabling the 120Hz display extended this out to around four hours of screen time, which still isn’t great. Out of the box, the Galaxy S21 FE was only hitting around three hours of screen time.
Disabling the 120Hz display extended this out to around four hours of screen time, which still isn’t great. No matter a phone’s individual strengths and weaknesses, it doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
While the phone itself is clearly an important part of the equation, the market conditions its launching in are also critical. Now, it stands in the shadow Galaxy S22 family, set to be announced on February 10, ahead of an expected March 4 release date.
While that may sound perfectly reasonable on paper, that’s a pretty high price, especially when you consider the Galaxy S21 launched this time last year. Even if it ticks the right boxes, waiting just a little longer to see what Samsung’s new latest and greatest has in store is almost certainly worth it. For example, the Galaxy S21 FE’s display is still the same kind of high quality screen you’d expect from Samsung. It holds onto its pricier sibling’s 120Hz refresh rate, which makes all motion look that little bit smoother.
Disabling the 120Hz refresh rate helps eke out some more battery life, and extended it to around four hours of screen time per charge. Photo quality is one of those features where performing similarly to the Galaxy S21 is both good and bad. The same holds true with the Galaxy S21 FE, and night mode even looks a little more natural instead of brightening images at the expense of contrast. The Galaxy S21 FE still has similar weaknesses, however, where it isn’t always great at capturing moving subjects, and the secondary lenses do a poor job in low light. There’s also the fact it’s been over a year since the Galaxy S21 released, and in that time, we’ve seen a number of excellent camera phones hit the market. While it doesn’t have a zoom lens, the phone’s primary and ultra-wide lenses are a clear step above the Galaxy S21 FE. I did however encounter a few odd stutters here and there, and had apps reloading from scratch (rather than resuming from where I last left off) more than I expected. It’s a small annoyance, but when you’re spending almost a grand, you shouldn’t have to worry about your phone’s performance.
The 256GB Galaxy S21 FE includes 8GB of RAM, however, if you’re keen to splash out on extra storage.
Devoid of market context, the Galaxy S21 FE is a solid overall device let down by lacklustre battery, which, admittedly, has been the trend with high-end Android phones lately.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review
On paper, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is a fine mid-range phone, with adequate features like an attractive screen, powerful processor and capable cameras for those looking for a handy, less expensive mobile. However, the launch price is still far too high for what you get, not to mention issues like slow charging speed, laggy software and an unimpressive battery life. This is purportedly the budget member of the Samsung Galaxy S21 range, offering features and specs from the main S21 family, but at a lower asking price because of a few select downgrades that average phone users likely won’t notice. You can pick up the Galaxy S21 – a now older phone with more impressive specs and features – for less (assuming you find a good, sub-$600 deal).
We also found the software to be rather laggy, and swiping between menus, closing and booting up apps, and simply unlocking the phone often took longer than it would have on another mobile. That’s a surprise given the phone’s processor, screen refresh rate and RAM, but this isn’t the first time we’ve found Samsung’s One UI to behave like this.
To be clear, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE isn’t a bad phone, which is why we gave it a mixed score as opposed to a negative one. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE went on sale on January 11, 2022, after being unveiled at CES 2022 a week before, and retailers in the US, UK and Australia offered various incentives to encourage purchases, including free headphones or in-store credit.
What’s more, many mid-range phones like the Realme GT, Moto G200, Pixel 5 and iPhone SE (2020) cost a lot less, and most come with comparable specs that make them more tempting mobiles.
You’d be forgiven for confusing the Galaxy S21 FE with its non-FE siblings, because other than its size, it’s a dead ringer for the vanilla and Plus members of its family.
That’s right, this is a plastic phone – or maybe we should call it Glasstic, which is Samsung’s marketing term for it, even though its similarities to glass (a common smartphone material) end with the name. Colors, contrast, and brightness all look great, and it made streaming TV shows or playing games on the phone a treat.
This telephoto snapper may be lower-res than the S21’s, but it’s actually paired with the same lens, which allows for 1.1x optical or 3x hybrid zoom; this seeming downgrade therefore won’t make a huge difference for most people. We found pictures taken on the main camera to be very colorful, which is pretty standard for shots taken on a Samsung phone – it’s apparent the brand’s scene optimization software has never heard of oversaturation.
Still, the main camera capabilities make shots look instantly social media-worthy, especially pics taken in well-lit situations. If we have a criticism, it’s that on the rear camera, the autofocus was a little iffy for close-up subjects, both ones that were very close like flowers, and ones taken at a medium distance like pets. We took the phone for a spin playing games, and it performed admirably, with quick loading, top graphical options available, and no significant lagging or freezing. The RAM, processor and screen refresh rate should make navigating the FE’s menus a breeze, but in our experience, that wasn’t the case.
We found that swiping between home pages, opening apps and unlocking the phone felt a little sluggish, especially when using gesture navigation. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE has a 4,500mAh power pack – that’s a fairly standard size for a mobile – but we still found the battery life disappointingly lacking. With average use – that is to say, some social media browsing, music streaming and maybe the odd game and photo capture here and there, we found the battery just about limped to the finish line and barely survived a whole day between powering. That’s with the fastest-charging cables we had at home, but since a charger isn’t included in the box, you’ll have to power at the speed of whatever plug you already own or choose to buy. While the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE has similar screen specs to its siblings, it sits at a nice middle ground between them in terms of size. We found the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE comfortable to hold in the hand, with a thin body and light weight, so if you don’t want a chunky device it’s a good option.
We often found we needed to augment our behavior to get the Galaxy S21 FE to last a full day between charges – if you want a reliable one-day-plus mobile, it’s not going to be great for you.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE
Table of Contents A Familiar Face Premium Power Network Niceities A Clear Camera Right Phone, Wrong Time? Samsung’s Galaxy S21 FE brings a critical niche feature to the US: dual SIM card slots to let you carry two cellular subscriptions at once.
But considering it’s so similar to the previous model and coming out so close to the Galaxy S22 launch, it’s hard to recommend unless you’re specifically looking to buy a dual-SIM phone. The Galaxy S21 FE comes in four attractive colors: dark gray, green, purple, or white. The phone sports an IP68 waterproof rating and has a 6.4-inch, 120Hz 2,340-by-1,080 display with an optical fingerprint sensor underneath. Just like the Galaxy S21, the S21 FE uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and runs Android 12 with Samsung’s usual extensions.
The phone appears to be more aggressively thermally throttled than other Samsung models we’ve tested recently. In real-life use, the S21 FE got noticeably warm when playing the extremely high-powered mobile game Genshin Impact, and while the controls were very responsive, we felt like the frame rate was slightly jerkier than it should be.
We get the feeling that some software optimization is still needed, but that’s what happens when you test a phone before it launches (the S21 FE officially hits store shelves January 11).
More importantly, the Qualcomm X60 modem in the S21 FE supports the new C-band networks launching this month from AT&T and Verizon.
We recently benchmarked Google’s Pixel 6 Pro against the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, which uses the same Qualcomm modem as the S21 FE. The S20 FE fixed that, six months later, delivering a reasonably priced phone that worked beautifully.
But the S21 line was terrific, and the S21 FE is coming out right before the S22 launches; the current expectation for the Galaxy S22, which may have a $799 base model with mysterious, fancy new features, is February. If you’re reading this in January and are shopping for a Samsung phone, our advice is to hold tight and wait for the S22 launch. Then we’ll see what new features the S22 family has to offer and how prices on used S21 units drop, potentially below the $699 the S21 FE lists for. That said, the Galaxy S21 FE is a perfectly good phone, and if you need to use two lines at once, it’s currently the only dual-physical-SIM flagship designed for US networks.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review: Too pricey for what it is
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G sits on the more premium end of mid-range phones, offering an alternative to the flagship S21 devices. When it comes to design, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G looks almost exactly the same as its regular S21 counterpart, including the left-justified camera bump with 3 lenses. On the colour front there are 4 options: Graphite, White, Olive and Lavender, with the latter 2 being particularly pleasing to the eyes.
The device is incredibly thin and light, which is a refreshing change after rolling with the hefty iPhone 13 Pro Max over the past few months.
When it comes to performance, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is surprisingly impressive, especially when it comes to the 120Hz AMOLED display. This makes light gaming as well as simply scrolling the web and social a fun and swift experience.
Despite being stuck with the Exynos, I found that it had few issues handling any apps that I threw at it, and gaming was fine too. This also occurred with the autofocus on the rear camera at times, which is something even the flagship Samsung devices have struggled with over the last couple of years.
But because it’s the same price as the Google Pixel 6, which has excellent low light and general camera functionality, it gave me pause.
After spending 10 days with the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, I found that for the most part the camera did a better job with natural light than artificial. On the plus side, the S21 FE cameras do come with some premium features such as Single Take (which lets you take multiple photos at once with different lenses) as well as Dual Recording, where you can record video with the front and rear cameras at the same time. But after general use throughout the day (social media, web browsing messenger apps, taking photos and listening to music) it had dropped to 18% by 8:30pm.
Firstly, if it hadn’t been a weekend I would also be using my phone for work related apps which would flog the battery even harder. I streamed video on the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G for an hour at full volume and 50% brightness. In fact, it only managed to beat out the iPhone 13 Mini by 1%, which is another expensive phone in this bracket that had a terrible battery life. And unfortunately for the S21 FE, it’s entering the chat mere months after Google dropped its truly sensational Pixel 6, which I personally think was the best phone of 2021.
Not to mention the fact that it goes beyond basic point and click and can take awesome low light shots and offers Google’s new Magic Eraser functionality. The good news is that Samsung has been putting in a concerted effort to up its low and mid-range game. My advice: If you want a slick device but don’t require all the flagship bells and whistles, take a look at the Samsung A72 or A52. But if you’re happy to drop $999 on an Android device and want the absolute best bang for your buck, you can’t go past the criminally good Google Pixel 6.
At the time of writing some retailers, such as Amazon, are also throwing in a a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 for free with the purchase. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G was tested extensively over a 10-day period as the author’s daily driver.
You can buy the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G on a 12-, 24- or 36-month repayment period with a mobile plan from Telstra or Optus.
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