The Galaxy S21 FE competes with the Chinese economic flagships with chip upgrades and slight changes from the past. Check out the Galaxy S21 FE with trends.
Following the success and popularity of the Galaxy S20 FE, Samsung has now launched its new flagship economic model called the Galaxy S21 FE and the same strategy as before. FE or Fan Edition models with more powerful hardware and lower prices target users who are looking for more economical options than the powerful S series flagships. The Galaxy S21 UFA experiences two improvements in display and hardware.
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The Galaxy S21 UFA is no different in terms of camera from its predecessor, and this may be disappointing for users who were counting down the minutes to the release of the phone. Samsung says that thanks to the improved hardware, the final performance of the camera will be better than the S20, especially in the dark. Next to the camera, the battery capacity does not change. Check out the Galaxy S21 FE by checking out Samsung’s flagship economic performance in the real world.
Design and build quality of Galaxy S21 FE
In terms of design, the Galaxy S21 FE inherits the DNA of all its S-Series families, which it displays, especially in the camera module. The new FE measures 7.9 x 74.5 x 155.7 mm and weighs 177 grams, slightly smaller and lighter than the previous generation; Because it now has a smaller screen. Instead of the previous generation 6.5-inch display, the Koreans used the 6.4-inch display in the S21 FE, which with very narrow margins, has 85.3% of the front view of the device.
The back panel of Samsung’s economic flagship is made of plastic and is expected to sit less on the fingerprint, fingerprint and fingerprint design, despite its matte design and fingerprint-resistant layer; Of course, our experience working with the black model shows the opposite, and the back panel of the Galaxy S21 FE shows a trace of hand grease to a large extent.
The good news is that the S21 FE frame is made of brushed aluminum. Thanks to these design elements, the Galaxy S21 FE is easy to slip and you can hold it relatively safely without a protective frame. All in all, as we expected, Samsung has not sacrificed the quality of construction and design language in keeping the costs lower in the S21 FE, and we are on the side of a well-built and relatively beautiful phone.
The Galaxy S21 FE triple camera modules are mounted vertically in the left corner of the back panel; But the LED flash is outside the protrusion of the camera and next to it. Although the small thickness of the camera protrusion, when working with the phone on surfaces, slightly causes the phone to slip; But this is not so annoying; Especially now that most smartphones are in a similar situation.
The Galaxy S21 FE is available in four colors: graphite black, white, lilac and olive, and what adds to the beauty of its design is that the camera module and aluminum frame are the same color as the body. The volume and power buttons are located to the left of the frame; At the bottom edge of the frame are the speaker, USB Type-C port, call microphone, and SIM card slot, which houses two nano SIM cards, and as expected, there is no dedicated slot for microSD memory. As in the case of phones with metal frames, antenna lines can also be seen on parts of the frame.
The Galaxy S21 FE, like its predecessor, is IP68 certified to be water and dust resistant and can withstand up to 30 minutes in 1.5 meters of water. The phone’s fingerprint sensor is also located below the display and offers relatively fast performance; However, the location of the sensor is slightly lower than where we are used to.
Galaxy S21 FE display and speaker
The Koreans have upgraded the Galaxy S21 FE display from Super AMOLED to Dynamic AMOLED 2X, the new generation of Samsung AMOLED panels, and have improved some important parameters such as color, HDR and brightness. Samsung says Dynamic AMOLED displays offer higher color accuracy in sRGB and DCI-P3 spaces and minimize the blue color emitted to cause less damage to the eyes.
The screen measures 6.4 inches and displays a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels with a 20: 9 aspect ratio and a pixel density of 411 pixels per inch. The display of the Galaxy S21 FE is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass Victus. In addition to the 60Hz refresh rate, the Galaxy S21 FE display also supports 120Hz, which of course is not adjustable, and you have to choose between 120 or 60Hz. With support for the HDR10 + standard, the Galaxy S21 FE can display HDR content in excellent quality.
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The Galaxy S21 FE display can achieve a maximum brightness of around 580 nits in manual adjustment conditions. If the brightness settings are set to automatic, the maximum brightness will reach 1117.5 nits, which is quite suitable and sufficient to see the contents of the screen in bright light; Of course, as you can see in the table below, the Galaxy S20 FE in both Manual and automatic lighting mode works a little better, which seems a bit odd given the advancement of S21 FE display technology.
| Performance of Galaxy S21 FE display against competitors | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Product Parameters | Minimum brightness | Maximum manual brightness | Maximum automatic brightness | Native contrast ratio | Average color error | |||
| White | Black | White | Black | White | Default mode | The most accurate mode | ||
| Galaxy S21 FE | 2.3 | ۰ | 581.5 | ۰ | 1117.5 | ∞ | 3.8 (Vivid) | 2.3 (Natural) |
| Galaxy S20 FE | 2.2 | ۰ | 608 | ۰ | 1270 | ∞ | 4.6 (Vivid) | 2.2 (Natural) |
| Xiaomi 11T Pro | 2.3 | ۰ | 637 | ۰ | 805 | ∞ | (4) 3) Vivid | (1.1) Standard |
| May 11 | 1.5 | ۰ | 563 | ۰ | 830 | ∞ | 3.6 (Auto) | 1 (Original Color) |
| Galaxy Note 20 | 2. 65 | ۰ | 702 | ۰ | 1261 | ∞ | 4.9 | 3.2 (Natural) |
| Galaxy S21 | 2.1 | ۰ | 675 | ۰ | 1151 | ∞ | 5 (Vivid) | 3.3 (Natural) |
| IPhone 12 | ۲ | ۰ | 765 | ۰ | 763 | ∞ | 1.3 (sRGB space) | 1.3 (sRGB space) |
| Pixel 6 pro | ۲/1 | ۰ | 602 | ۰ | 1137 | ∞ | 2.4 (Adaptive) | 1.3 (Natural) |
| IPhone 13 | 2/05 | ۰ | 999 | ۰ | 1379 (HDR) | ∞ | 1.5 (sRGB space) | 1.5 (sRGB space) |
| Galaxy S21 Ultra | 1.9 | ۰ | 626 | ۰ | – | ∞ | 4.6 (Vivid) | 2.9 (Natural) |
All the results obtained from trends experiments are in the same laboratory conditions.
For the S21 FE, like most Samsung phones, two color profiles are defined; Vivid profile as default and Natural mode. If you select the Vivid color profile, in addition to giving you a wider DCI P3 color space, you will be able to change the White Balance value to your liking by changing the red, green and blue color levels. The color error in the Vivid profile is considered acceptable and the colors are displayed with good accuracy. By selecting the Natural mode, the colors become more accurate; But you lose the DCI P3 color space and have to settle for sRGB space.
The Galaxy S21 FE, like all S21 series phones, uses two speakers to play audio. The main speaker is located at the bottom of the frame and the second speaker is located under the screen and near the selfie camera. Although both speakers are well balanced, if you look closely you will notice that the lower speaker has a little more power and spreads the beats more percussively. In terms of sound quality, the Galaxy S21 FE speakers perform well and provide the singer’s voice with good clarity when playing music, and also produce high frequencies well.
Software and user experience of Galaxy S21 FE
Samsung is launching the Galaxy S21 FE from the beginning with a new version of the proprietary One UI 4 user interface on Android 12; Therefore, we must consider it the first Galaxy phone to reach users with Android 12. If you’ve read the One UI 4 review at trends, you’re probably aware that Samsung’s user interface has seen some interesting improvements in design, security, and other features. One of the changes that have made the Samsung user interface more attractive is the change of the color palette of the device based on the wallpaper selected by the user.
With new privacy features, there is more control over apps that have access to the camera, microphone and location of the phone, and the user can be informed at any time from the list of apps that use different accesses. Protect Battery feature is another feature of One UI 4, which activates it, the battery is charged only up to 85% to maintain better battery life in the long run. Elsewhere, we’re on the same page as Samsung’s regular user interface, and with the exception of Samsung and Google apps, there are no additional third-party apps.
Performance, gaming experience and battery life of the Galaxy S21 FE
Samsung sells its new economic flagship in two versions; One version uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chip and the other uses the Exynos 2100 chip, the second version of which is sold in our country. The Exynos 2100 chip is produced with Samsung 5-nanometer lithography and uses eight processing cores in the CPU section. One 2.9 GHz Cortex-X1 core, three 2.80 GHz Cortex-A78 cores, and two 2.2 GHz Cortex-A55 cores perform CPU processing tasks.
Graphics processing The Exynos 2100 chip is powered by the Mali-G78 MP14 GPU, which is 40% faster than the Mali-G77 MP11 used in the Samsung Exynos 990 S20 Series. Using a 5G modem, the Samsung chip allows connection to fifth-generation networks in the frequency band below 6 GHz and a millimeter wavelength with a maximum download speed of 7.35 Gbps and a maximum upload speed of 3.67 Gbps.
Galaxy S21 FE in three configurations 128 | 6, 128 | 8 and 256 | Available in 8GB with UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 RAM. As you can see in the table, the storage speed of the Galaxy S21 FE is faster than its predecessor and it performs close to its Chinese rival, the Xiaomi 11T Pro.
| Galaxy S21 FE memory performance against competitors | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Models ٫ Performance | Sequential reading rate (MB / s) | Sequential writing rate (MB / s) | Random reading rate (MB / s) | Random writing rate (MB / s) |
| Galaxy S21 FE | 1843. 27 | 1282.2 | 319. 11 | 284. 65 |
| Galaxy S20 FE | 1572.95 | 674. 77 | 199. 44 | 236. 32 |
| Xiaomi 11T Pro | 1902. 75 | 770. 29 | ۲۳۰ | 209 |
| May 11 | 1514. 61 | 589. 81 | 183. 31 | 201. 13 |
| Galaxy Note 20 | 17065. 55 | 771.3 | 209. 13 | 239.49 |
| Galaxy S21 | 1906. 68 | ۱۳۳۱ ٫ ۰۲ | 309. 33 | 290.29 |
| IPhone 12 | 818 | 495 | – | – |
| Pixel 6 pro | 1544. 11 | 243. 3 | 133.88 | 190. 61 |
| Galaxy S21 Ultra | 1892. 68 | 1305. 47 | 313.06 | 286. 46 |
In the overall performance test, the Galaxy S21 FE lags far behind its flagship Galaxy S21 family at 120Hz with very little difference, but improves performance by 16% over its predecessor. In terms of CPU power in multi-core processing, the results of the GeekBench 5 test show that the S20 FE performs about 15% better than the new model, and if we take the Galaxy S21 as a benchmark, the difference is around 40%.
| Performance of Galaxy S21 FE against competitors | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name and performance of the benchmark / product | PCMark | Speedometer 2.0 | GeekBench 5 | GFXBench | |||||
| Overall performance | browser | GPU | CPU | Game simulator (frame rate) | |||||
| Volcano / Metal | Single Core Multi Core | Aztec Ruins Onscreen / 1440p | Car Chase Onscreen / 1080p | ||||||
| OpenGL | Volcano | Metal | OpenGL | Metal | |||||
| Galaxy S21 FE (120Hz) | 14030 | 43.48 | 5718 | 961 2391 | 42 22 | 43 26 | – | 55 61 | – |
| Galaxy S21 FE (60Hz) | 12144 | 37.8 | – | – | 43 – | 43 – | – | 55 – | – |
| Galaxy S20 FE (120Hz) | 12044 | 62.4 | – | 924 2751 | 31 22 | 18 20 | – | 40 47 | – |
| Xiaomi 11T Pro (120Hz) | 13336 | 74.52 | 4554 | 815 3499 | 42 27 | 45 30 | – | 59 64 | – |
| Xiaomi Mi 11i (120Hz) | 12944 | 112 | 4322 | 1135 3694 | 40 27 | 44 30 | – | 57 67 | – |
| Galaxy S21 (Adaptive) | 14191 | 89.8 | 5596 | 1070 3343 | 37 29 | – | 51 62 | – | |
| IPhone 12 | – | 193.3 | 9233 | 1613 3997 | – | – | 49.9 32.1 | – | 52.3 70.9 |
| Galaxy Note 20 | – | – | – | 903 2736 | – | 20 20 | – | 42 50 | – |
| Pixel 6 Pro (120 Hz) | 1196 | 106 | 7223 | 969 2614 | – – | 23 23 | – | 34 56 | – |
| IPhone 13 | – | 243 | 10785 | 1739 4606 | – | – | 51.8 41.2 | – | 59.9 102.3 |
| Galaxy S21 Ultra (Adaptive) | 1304 | 83.6 | – | 1090 3504 | 42 28 | 36 28 | – | 49 60 |
Comparing the Galaxy S21 FE with its direct competitor Xiaomi 11T Pro is not without merit; Whereas the Chinese representation in overall performance is only 4% weaker than the S21 FE; But it can compensate for this weakness in CPU multitasking with about 46% and in web browsing with 71% better performance. In game simulation benchmarks, there is not much difference between the two competitors, and the Snapdragon 888 offers the same performance as the Exynos 2100.
We measured the performance stability of the Galaxy S21 FE with a 20-step 3DMark benchmark test. Samsung, the economic flagship, finished the first four rounds of the test with a higher score than powerful competitors such as the Galaxy S21 Ultra, Pixel 6 Pro and Xiaomi 11 T Pro; But in the next two rounds of the test, with the increase of body temperature, there was a significant decrease in performance; But at the cost of increasing temperature, the Galaxy S21 FE was able to show good stability in the continuation of the test and finish the test on a fixed score. The Galaxy S21 FE is not much superior to the Xiaomi 11T Pro and offers the same stability in terms of heavy and long processing.
Despite the significant warm-up of the phone in the performance stability test, we expected the same thing to happen when playing games. Galaxy S21 FE can play PUBG New State game with Ultra HD settings and frame rate of 55 to 60 frames per second and provide a psychological experience of this popular game.
| Xiaomi 11T Pro performance in running mobile games | ||
|---|---|---|
| Mobile game title | Graphic settings of the game | Frame rate |
| PUBG New State | Ultra HD | 55 to 60 frames per second |
| Genshin Impact | Highest Graphics | 44 frames per second |
On the other side of the field, the Galaxy S21 FE performs slightly differently in the Genshin Impact heavy-duty game, and despite achieving an average rate of 44 frames per second, spoils the gaming experience to a large extent with persistent and numerous logs. On this account, the Exynos 2100 does not perform well in heavy gaming.
The Galaxy S21 FE does not see a change in battery capacity compared to the previous generation and uses the same 4500 mAh battery that also supports 25 watt wired charging and 15 watt wireless fast charging; Of course, Samsung does not offer the charger in the box and with the phone. Samsung says the 25-watt fast charger charges 50 percent of the Galaxy S21 FE’s battery capacity in 30 minutes.
In terms of charging speed, the Xiaomi phone like the 11T Pro should be considered the undisputed winner of the competition; Where a 120-watt charger can charge its 5,000 mAh battery from zero to 100 in less than 20 minutes; The Galaxy S21 FE, on the other hand, takes about 75 minutes with a 25-watt charger.
On a single charge, the Galaxy S21 FE was able to play trends standard HD video for 16 and 36 minutes. To test the Samsung phone’s battery charge in everyday use, we used the PCMark battery test and measured the charge for both the 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates. The Galaxy S21 FE battery will charge for 60 hours and 26 minutes at 60 Hz and at 8 hours and 58 minutes at 120 Hz . In everyday applications such as web browsing, photo and video editing, and social networking, there is not much difference between charging at two screen refresh rates; But if you are in a situation where the same amount of charge is important to you, we recommend using the 60Hz refresh rate.
Galaxy S21 FE camera
The Koreans have launched the Galaxy S21 FE with the same combination of the previous generation camera. The new FE triple camera module includes a 12-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultraviolet camera and an 8-megapixel telephoto camera, which, despite being a more powerful chip than the S20 FE, is expected to capture better photos than the previous generation.
Despite the same sensor specifications, the two versions of the Snapdragon and Exynos Galaxy S21 FE are equipped with different sensors; While the main camera in the Snapdragon version comes with Sony IMX555 sensor, the main camera in the Exynos model uses the Samsung S5K2LD sensor . The sensor pixels are of ISOCELL 2.0 type and their dimensions reach 1.8 micrometers. A lens with an aperture of f / 1.8 and a focal length of 26 mm is located in front of the main camera sensor; Optical image stabilization (OIS) will also help you when shooting with the main camera.
On the other hand, the sensor brand used in the UltraVide camera of the Exynos and Snapdragon Galaxy S21 FE models has no specific rules and regulations, and either model can be equipped with a Sony IMX258 sensor or a Hi1336 sensor. However, there is no difference in the specifications of the two sensors, and both use 1.12 micrometer pixels and a lens with f / 2.2, which can provide a viewing angle of 123 degrees for capturing images. The telephoto camera also uses a lens with an aperture of f / 2.4 and the dimensions of the sensor pixels are one micrometer, enabling a triple optical zoom when shooting.
Ability to shoot 4K video at 30 and 60 frames per second, Full HD video at 30, 60 and 240 frames per second, HD video recording at 960 frames per second, and HDR10 + camcorder. Will give you.
Dynamic range of Galaxy S21 FE photos
The Galaxy S21 FE automatically activates HDR when shooting scenes with high dynamic range; Of course, you can disable Auto HDR in the settings menu. Based on our shooting experience with the Galaxy S21 FE, HDR activation works well; With both an ultraviolet camera and a main camera, dark and light areas are captured very well in photos; Of course, some of the dark spots in the main camera image are darker than ideal, and the details of some of the textures are not well known. This is less common in ultraviolet camera photos.
Details and color of Galaxy S21 FE photos
If you shoot with the Galaxy S21 FE in good lighting conditions, you can capture the color of the subjects with good accuracy. Overall, the Ultraviolet Camera seems to capture colors more saturated and with higher contrast than the main camera. On the other hand, the details are better in the main camera photos and the textures are not softened; On the other hand, in the main camera photos, the details of the darker points are also better defined.
Zoom in with the Galaxy S21 FE
If you enable triple zoom shooting, the Galaxy S21 FE will use a telephoto camera to capture photos. To better evaluate the quality of the telephoto camera photos, we used a comparison with the flat-screen cropping of the main camera. The quality of the textures and lighting in the telephoto camera photo is much better than the zoom conditions in the main camera, and the details are recorded with very good quality (note the gray view of the building in the middle of the image).
Galaxy S21 FE camera performance in the dark
The photos taken at night in the Galaxy S21 FE Photo Mode are not very good. Depending on the ambient light conditions, the Galaxy S21 FE decides whether to zoom in 3 times with the telephoto camera or to crop the main camera image. While the ultraviolet camera image quality is not good at all in Photo mode, the main camera photos are in better condition and capture details, textures and lights with better quality.
Fortunately, Night Mode can be used with all three Galaxy S21 FE cameras, this mode will give you relatively better photos. Noise is much lower in Night mode photos, and although there is a halo around bright spots; But not to the extent that it affects the details of the surrounding areas.
Portrait and selfie photos of Galaxy S21 FE
The Galaxy S21 FE relies on a camera with a 32-megapixel sensor for taking selfies. A lens with an aperture of f / 2.2 and a focal length of 26 mm, along with the sensor, completes the set of selfie camera. The selfie camera can shoot at 4K resolution at 30 and 60 frames per second. We evaluated the performance of the selfie camera in low light conditions and under strong light as appropriate.
If you want to use the selfie portrait mode, you can select different filters to separate the main subject from the background. Fortunately, the background blur filters work well and separate the subject well from the environment and other objects.
Summarize and compare with competitors
Samsung Galaxy S21 series should be considered as one of the most popular flagships; Maybe that’s why Samsung is trying with the Galaxy S21 FE not to leave users who have less money to buy a phone, but would like to have a smartphone from the S21 family. Thanks to the flagship chip, Samsung’s economic flagship can give users a good experience in various applications, including daily tasks and games, but if it can be overcome by overheating the phone during different applications.
Although the Galaxy S21 FE surpasses its predecessor in many ways, especially in terms of performance, it does not offer much performance advantage over its direct competitor, the Xiaomi 11T Pro; Especially since the Chinese economic flagship surpasses the Korean Galaxy by a good margin in multi-core CPU processing and web browsing.
Samsung phones always have a lot to say about the camera, and the S21 FE is no exception. In most scenarios you can count on the quality of the S21 FE photos, and especially if you are taking a selfie, the 32-megapixel selfie camera will not disappoint. The 4,500mAh battery of the Galaxy S21 FE can be used for about 8 to 10 hours on a daily basis, which is not great; But depending on your usage, you can recharge for one and a half to two days on a single charge.
It seems that we have to repeat our conclusion about the Galaxy S20 FE; If the performance and performance of heavy games is more important to you than dinner, you should go to Xiaomi’s economic flagships; But if you want a more efficient camera and a more enjoyable user experience, we suggest you go for a Samsung smartphone.