We took what you love most and built the ultimate fan-inspired phone so you can experience your everyday passions to the absolute fullest.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
We took what you love most and built the ultimate fan-inspired phone so you can experience your everyday passions to the absolute fullest.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
This relatively affordable almost-flagship phone keeps the “fan-favorite” features of the S21 series, including a Snapdragon 888 processor, 120 Hz display refresh, triple rear cameras (including wide and tele), IP68 water rating, wireless charging, and the “contour cut” design with a metal frame. Other key features include a 32 megapixel selfie camera, fast charging, NFC, and Wi-Fi 6.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G: Prices, Colors, Sizes, Features & Specs
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Galaxy S21 FE 5G review: Flagship specs, excellent reception and Samsung goodies
The smartphone landscape has changed a bit since then, and if the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G had launched in September 2021, then it might have been easier to recommend. The FE in the name stands for Fan Edition, and in late 2020 that meant buyers picked up a phone with mostly flagship specs, a microSD card slot for storage expansion, wireless charging, 5G support, and more. It has a few muted color options, but they aren’t as flashy as the S20 FE, so maybe the 32MP front-facing camera is what sets it apart from other Samsung phones.
The time to buy it is now with some great launch offers that currently include $100 instant Samsung store credit or free Galaxy Buds Live or $30 Galaxy Buds Pro, and fairly generous trade-in offers for your existing phone.
It is great to see a flat glass panel with minimal bezels and a small center hole-punch front-facing camera. I purchased a Pixel 6 Pro in December but returned it after experiencing terrible cellular reception performance.
Calls sound great, download speeds are fast, and you can trust a Samsung phone to get the job done. : Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Main display : 6.4-inch, 2400 x 1080 pixels resolution, Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 120Hz refresh rate
: 6.4-inch, 2400 x 1080 pixels resolution, Dynamic AMOLED 2X with 120Hz refresh rate Operating system : Android 12 with OneUI 4.0
There isn’t much to differentiate the S21 FE from the S21 series of phones besides the plastic back panel and lower resolution cameras. The November 1, 2021, Android security update is present on our review unit, but that tardiness could be due to T-Mobile or the fact that the device is not yet publicly available. DeX wireless support is provided so you can connect the S21 FE to a PC or monitor and enjoy a PC-like experience powered by the phone.
The Single Take option in the software has also been enhanced with the ability to toggle what types of results you want the phone to create, including highlight videos, Boomerang clips, filtered photos, collages, and more. Other modes in the camera include dual recording, portrait video, hyperlapse, AR doodle, super slow motion, and more. The Gallery app can also be setup to automatically create curated collections of photos and videos and present them as stories. The phone has DeX, a fabulous display, and solid battery life, so it’s a great choice for this person. : This person likes the Samsung UI, ecosystem, and additional apps, as well as all of the customization options in the settings and advanced camera software. The phone has DeX, a fabulous display, and solid battery life, so it’s a great choice for this person.
I never had the chance to test drive the Galaxy S20 FE, but several family members have it, and so I have tried it out occasionally over the past year. The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G slides right into that same spot with improved specifications across the board, the latest Android software, and the same $699.99 starting price.
I think it would be a killer option with a starting price of $599.99, but some launch specials make it equivalent to that if you need a Samsung accessory.
The phone is also fairly light, despite having a very large 4,500 mAh battery, so the plastic back was a good move by Samsung, in my opinion.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G Specs
With these three lenses, the Galaxy S21 FE is a great choice for all-things photography.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE review
Why you can trust Tom’s Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what’s best for you. After going on sale in January, the Galaxy S21 FE is available through both carriers and retailers as well as through Samsung’s own online store. While there is a bump holding that strip of vertically aligned lenses, it blends seamlessly into the side of the phone, making the array seem less prominent.
I wish the sides of the Galaxy S21 FE were a little bit more prominent, though — instead, they’re fairly slick, making the phone hard to hold on to.
An overlay that appears when the phone is locked makes the sensor easy to find, and I’ve certainly found it more responsive than the Pixel 6’s pokey unlocking feature. The smaller panel doesn’t feel particularly cramped, and I’d go so far as to say it probably makes the S21 FE easier to use with one hand than the previous model.
That means scrolling will look smoother on the Galaxy S21 FE’s display, which leads to a better overall experience with the phone. That said, it looks like you can only toggle between 120Hz and 60Hz manually; the other phones in the Galaxy S21 lineup have adaptive displays that adjust on the fly.
Both Samsung phones recorded Delta-E ratings of 0.29, so colors are just as accurate on the Galaxy S21 FE as they are on the more expensive model. The 8MP telephoto lens is easily the biggest trade-off between the Galaxy S21 FE and Samsung’s standard flagship. I don’t have either an S21 or S21 Plus on hand, but I imagine photos taken with either phone’s telephoto lens will look a little sharper than what you get from the Galaxy S21 FE. Considering those two devices rank among the best camera phones , it’s worth seeing how the Galaxy S21 FE’s photographic output measures up.
The cilantro leaves topping the tacos in the Galaxy S21 FE shot stand out a bit more distinctly, and the texture of the lime green wall in the background is more detailed. Moving outside to a covered vegetable stand, we see the Galaxy S21 FE exhibit a familiar trait for Samsung camera phones — it likes to amp up colors, even if the end result teeters on over-saturating the shot. I think the Pixel 6’s warmer tones lead to a better composed shot — the tomatoes may not look as vibrant as they do in the S21 FE’s photo, but the overall image is balanced throughout. Not that the S21 FE’s bias toward colors doesn’t pay off in some instances, like in this shot at a nearby marina with downtown Oakland in the background.
The bend seems more pronounced on the Galaxy S21 FE’s shot, but I think that’s partly because people are walking into the frame just as I hit the shutter button. Once again the Galaxy S21 FE has highlighted the colors, particularly the blue sky, but it’s washed out some elements of the movie theater’s art deco facade.
The Galaxy S21 FE’s portrait mode does an adequate job blurring the background of shots to highlight your subject, even if it aggressively smooths out faces. Samsung says it improved the Night Mode on the Galaxy S21 FE, and I think that’s evident from this shot of a skeleton we have hanging in our basement workshop.
The skeleton emerges clearly from the shadows in the Galaxy S21 FE shot, and Samsung’s phone even does a good job balancing the ambient lighting streaming in from the right side of the picture. On the bright side, the Snapdragon 888 is the same system-on-chip that powered the entire Galaxy S21 lineup, so you can expect comparable performance with those models. Samsung includes less RAM, with the 128GB base model of the Galaxy S21 FE sporting only 6GB to the 8GB found in the standard S21. I played PUBG Mobile on the Galaxy S21 FE, and the game ran smoothly without sacrificing any of the first-person shooter’s detailed graphics.
The Pixel 6, which is powered by Google’s Tensor silicon, lags the Galaxy S21 FE with a 2,696 multicore score. You get a 4,500 mAh battery inside the Galaxy S21 FE, which is the same size as the power pack in the phone’s predecessor.
With a slightly smaller screen and a more power efficient chipset running the new phone, you’d be inclined to expect some improvement in battery life over the Galaxy S20 FE’s so-so performance. However, in our demanding battery test — we have a phone surf the web continuously over 5G until it runs out of power — the Galaxy S21 FE fell flat.
Disabling that feature improves things considerably, with the Galaxy S21 FE lasting 9 hours and 15 minutes. That’s better than the Pixel 6’s time of 8 hours and 13 minutes with its 90Hz mode turned on, though it stinks that you have to disable a marquee feature to squeeze more battery life out of the Galaxy S21 FE.
There are perfectly sound environmental reasons for that move, but it puts the burden on consumers to already have a charger that can support the Galaxy S21 FE’s speeds or to buy one along with the phone. The delayed Galaxy S21 FE launch has a silver lining in one regard — you won’t have to wait for an update to Android 12. Instead, the Galaxy S21 FE ships with Google’s latest software already installed, along with Samsung’s updated One UI 4.0 interface.
One UI 4 introduces a number of ways to customize the look of your phone’s home screen, icons, wallpapers and more. Samsung also adopted many of the privacy features Google built into Android 12, so that you can get alerts when an app tries to use the Galaxy S21 FE’s microphone or camera. Additionally, the launch of the Galaxy S22 has prompted Samsung to extend software support for its top phones to four years.
The Galaxy S21 FE is a fine addition to Samsung’s S21 lineup, retaining the very best features of those flagship phones for a more modest price. The tradeoffs you have to make to save $100 aren’t major ones, with the biggest sacrifice being the lack of an adaptive display as that can impact battery life.
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