Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Review: Lives Up To Fan Edition Hype But Its Pricing’s A Hard Sell
February 7, 2022Performance: Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G, 8GB RAM
Main Display: 6.4-inch, 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2x,(2340×1080) FHD+
Weight: 177g
Storage:128GB/256GB
Battery: 4,500mAh
Features: UHD 4K (3840×2160) video recording
Rear Camera: 12MP Ultra-wide, 12MP wide-angle, 8MP telephoto
Front Camera: 32MP
Rating: 8.5/10
Price:RM2,899.00
Samsung was expecting rave reviews of its “best bang for buck” phone for 2022, the S21 FE. Instead, the phone has received a lukewarm reception from all corners of the tech world. There are several reasons for this, the most notable of the lot happens to be the time of release. We are about a week away from the official launch of the S22 flagship models.
The introduction of the S22 will herald the arrival of Qualcomm’s latest and greatest chipset for Samsung phones, which is in contrast to what the S21 FE 5G has to offer. Though it made its debut early last month, the latter is essentially the S21 in a new frock. As such, you’re getting older tech for a premium price – this doesn’t seem financially prudent.
Though these statements hold some truth, they fail to address the purpose of the S21 FE. It’s a Fan Edition phone, which means it’s a product of flagship “distillation”. Samsung meant to infuse the essence of a flagship and pair that with a more affordable price tag. It’s an amalgamation of some of the better bits of the S21, wrapped into a more conservative shell.
The Design
The S21 series won over consumers because of the exuberant color schemes and well-designed rear shells. They were glossy and inviting, which made them very desirable phones. The S21 FE has a more simplified construction. Though it draws inspiration from the original, it fuses that with the more modest A52’s matte, unibody outlook.
As a result, you get a cool, yet understated rear shell that’s enveloped by an aluminum frame. It’s available in White, Graphite, Lavender and Olive. Try as you may, the phone will never have the wow factor of the S21’s Lavender shell and contrasting gold camera frame. If that’s what you’re looking for, then this isn’t the phone for you.
The S21 FE is meant to win over power users who appreciate hardware prowess over “bling-bling”. As such it has a super AMOLED, 120Hz display that looks as vibrant and as responsive as the phone it’s based on. At 6.4-inches, it covers the middle ground left vacant by the S21 (6.2-inch screen) screen and the S21+ (6.7-inch screen).
It was a similar story to the S20 FE (6.5-inch screen), which was a phone that won our hearts for its looks and all-round usability. Its successor, though slightly smaller, aims to portray the same gusto that made the former a great alternative to the mid-range A72 and A52s 5G.
The 6.4-inch display allows the phone to assume a more pocketable size. It should be able to fit without being bothersome, especially when sitting in confined spaces. It’s not a match for S21’s compact dimensions – but it’s nearly there.
There’s no 3.5mm audio jack. Said legacy port has vanished across the entire range of flagship phones by leading manufacturers. It can also be construed as Samsung’s way of nudging you towards purchasing one of its wireless earbuds’ options. We’ve reviewed some of its latest products such as:
Samsung Galaxy Buds Live: Great Choice For Casual Music Listeners
Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro Review: Great All-Rounder
Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Review: Compact But Packed With Features
Performance
The S21 FE is powered by the Snapdragon 888 or Exynos 2100 (depends on your region) and 8GB RAM, which is the same hardware found in the S21. As a result of this, it delivers the same blisteringly quick performance for most tasks, including the CPU intensive ones. It should be able to manage multitasking between video streaming, video recording and gaming sessions without detriment to performance.
You can play just about any gaming title and expect to receive smooth gameplay performance. This is true of titles that are quite demanding on the GPU. Expect nothing less than flagship-like performance with this S21 FE. The buttery-smooth 120Hz display amplifies the experience further, and allows for an unhindered user experience.
Its performance ceiling limit is high enough, so that regular consumers will never hit it. You can shuffle between several messaging apps, take pictures with the cameras and sample social media feeds while listening to your music – without worrying about app crashes or lagging. That’s the beauty of having flagship hardware – inadequacy is a non-issue.
Now, the phone is also sold as a 6GB RAM variant. Ignore that one and opt instead for the 8GB option. Choosing 128GB over the 256GB storage option isn’t going to introduce a performance deficit, so choosing between them depends entirely on your workload.
Cameras
The S21 FE inherits the same 12MP wide and ultra-wide camera sensors that are in the S21 and S21+, however it gets a paltry 8MP telephoto in lieu of the flagships’ 64MP unit. By and large picture quality is nearly on par for close ups and macro shots. The vibrance and sharpness that we loved with the S21+ is present with the FE.
Read our review of the S21+
Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G Review: It’s The One You Want
Samsung’s Pursuit Of Finding “Eco” Materials Is Why Your S21 Box Is Small
Pictures look crisp and retain a good level of detail. The same is true of night time photography because the cameras are able to compensate for this and deliver good post-processing touch ups. Said sensors are also quick to adapt to changing environments, which means there’s little skill needed from the user to attain great quality pictures.
Single take functionality works flawlessly here as it does on the S21+. All you have to do is hold the camera steady and allow the phone to do the work. The end result is a collection of pictures and videos that offer different perspectives on a single subject.
The editing tools allow you to make adjustments where necessary, especially if you’re planning on uploading content to TikTok or Instagram. Blurring of the background of portrait shots are just as good with the FE as it was on the S21
Videos look good as well, with a decent amount of smoothening to compensate for light shakes while moving about. The body doesn’t get noticeably hot during video recording sessions. This was a flaw of the S20 series, but I’m happy to report that the cooling solution in the FE is good at heat dissipation.
When taking pictures with the telephoto lens, the quality isn’t great, which is to be expected. An 8MP sensor will not deliver the same results as that achieved with a 64MP unit. But the only people who will take issue with this are ones who aren’t part of FE’s target demographic.
The FE isn’t an S21 or S21+, and as such the device will always come up short when resorting to an apples-to-apples comparison. With reference to my earlier comment about distillation, the FE is a product of a mix-and-match project, so it only has the parts that matter to the actual users.
Battery Life
Samsung has given this phone a 4,500mAh battery, which is slightly larger than the S21’s but a smidgen smaller than the S21+’s 4,800mAh. Overall, you should get a full day’s use out of the FE without needing to reach for the charger. At the end of the day, we were usually left with about 20% battery charge remaining, however your mileage may vary.
It’s capable of 25W wired fast charging and 15W wireless charging. We suggest that you choose the wired option if you’re in a hurry to unplug the phone and head out. Samsung’s fast charging tech can net you a good amount of usable charge with about 20 – 30 minutes charging time.
That said, wireless charging introduces a level of convenience that is difficult to ignore. It does away with the need to untangle charging cables when the phone needs to be charged. There’s also zero chance of yanking the phone off the table if your leg accidentally snags said changing cable. We’ve damaged a few phones this way.
This has made me a strong proponent of wireless chargers and is why I go out of my way to advise users to make the switch when their wallets allow for a safer and less intrusive smartphone experience.
Should I Buy One?
The S21 FE retains the best bits that make the S21 series special but doesn’t have enough of it to be considered an equal. It comes up short in several areas, making it an inferior phone.
It’s also priced at RM2,899, which means it’s hovering dangerously close to flagship territory.
At this price, it has to deal with stiff competition from the likes of Google’s Pixel 6, iPhone 13 as well as the S21, which though smaller in size, is still the superior phone. You have to decide if saving a few hundred ringgit is worth the trade-off to turn away from the S21 for the FE.
What makes matters worse is the fact that Samsung will probably be releasing the S22 on February 9th, which may cast further doubt on whether the FE can maintain its current appeal after said launch. But this sentiment will also depend on how attractive the price structure happens to be.
The S21 FE is in essence a S21 Lite. It retains some of the important bits but forgoes ones that Samsung has deemed unnecessary such as the 64MP telephoto lens. It does a lot of things really well, which makes it a very good phone for 2022. But the price tag and the impending launch of the S22 have damaged its appeal, for now.
Our suggestion is to wait for the launch of the S22 before making a firm decision. It’s possible that Samsung could lower the price of the FE (wishful thinking) to differentiate the pricing structure between it and the new flagship series.
