Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G review: Appealing phone for a price

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is the newly-added member to the company's flagship lineup. Building on the success of the Fan Edition models, Samsung has brought yet another flagship-grade smartphone - succeeding the extremely popular Galaxy S20 FE. It comes as no surprise that Samsung would continue the FE series as a follow-up, and it's here, right on time.

Samsung launched the Galaxy S21 FE in two configurations, with 128GB and 256GB storage options, priced at Rs 54,999 and Rs 58,999, respectively. The pricing of the phone is where people's concerns lie, especially when the competition in the market is so aggressive. So, is the Galaxy S21 FE's price justified? Let's find out.

As we noted in our first impressions, the offers a premium flagship experience, smooth end-user experience topped with brand value and long-term software support. Let's dive deeper into the smartphone's core aspects to see if it makes the cut for you.

Design and display

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G draws inspiration from the Galaxy S21, especially on the camera setup, which now gets a contour-cut module. Shifting away from the glass sandwich design, the S21 FE has a plastic back and the camera module is plastic, too, which is unlike the metal base on the flagship models. The black hue appears matte, and we are guessing it is by design given the colour is called Graphite. However, a deeper black would have appeared nice on the back panel. There are three other colours to choose from, which appear more premium. The advantage of the plastic back is that it is durable and less prone to damage if dropped.

After using the smartphone for a while, we noticed it is lighter than most phones in its range, making it handy and less tiresome. After all, it weighs 177 grams and at 7.9mm, it gets really easy to use with a single hand. Speaking of shedding extra weight, Samsung has gone with minimal packaging for the S21 FE, much like its flagship series. The biggest change you'll notice is the missing charger in the box.

As for the display, we had no complaints. It's a bright and vibrant 6.4-inch AMOLED FHD+ panel on the S21 FE, which additionally bags 120Hz refresh rate. The Corning Gorilla Glass Victus seem to be doing its job well at keeping minor scratches at bay. The panel curves around the edges ever so slightly, you'll barely notice, but it gives an edge-to-edge feel. Consuming multimedia, browsing the Internet and social media, or simply going through your chats is as seamless as it can be on the vivid display. Samsung has expertise in this field and is not hesitant to show it off.

Overall, the Galaxy S21 FE is easy on hands and the display is beautiful for almost any use case. If you're going to slap a back case on the phone, we wouldn't worry much about the dull finish in the black model.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE packs a triple rear camera setup, combining a 12MP main sensor with f/1.8 aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor and an 8MP telephoto lens with 3X optical zoom. Samsung isn't going overboard with the megapixels, but you'll notice the phone is more than capable to handle your camera needs. It's not a huge step-up from what we saw in the S20 FE as results produced are nearly identical.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE manages to produce good results in broad daylight. The images are vibrant, rich and detailed with balanced saturation. The main camera's auto focus worked pretty well in getting the subject in focus. The portrait shots are equally good, with solid depth effect you can expect from a flagship phone. Switching to ultra-wide downgraded some level of quality, especially in the details. But the wide mode was well used in giving dramatic effect to photos, as you'll see in our camera samples below.

Low-light photography remains a touchy subject. The night mode did in fact perform well, given certain situations, but the level of retaining natural colours was amiss. The night mode did, however, brighten the image and did some noise correction to make the result acceptable. What we really liked is that Night mode is supported on the ultra-wide sensor too, which turned out to be more useful than we imagined.

The Galaxy S21 FE has the same zooming capabilities as its predecessor and the results are also too similar. On the front is a 32MP selfie camera, which manages to capture good details and natural colours in daylight setting, but the quality suffers in dim-lit areas. The portrait mode on the front camera is accurate. You can also change the background effect on the portraits, which we found pretty cool as some filters were natural and some looked bad. But you can always stick with the good ones to give your images a unique spin.

Check out some camera samples below:

Performance and UI

This is where things get really exciting. The Galaxy S21 FE comes with flagship Exynos 2100 chipset, which is the same one powering the S21 series. The chipset is a known performer and does an excellent job running things in the Galaxy S21 FE. Besides performance, the chipset unlocks some premium features like wireless Dex mode to share content to a larger screen and use it like a PC. The supported 5G bands will make sure you are future-proof with this phone, although it seems like a long road down till India gets 5G network.

As expected, the phone has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 and NFC for Samsung Pay. While many OEMs are still on Android 11, Samsung has upgraded the Galaxy S21 FE to Android 12-based OneUI 4.0. The software is far from stock Android, but works pretty well and gives a familiar user experience. The gestures and navigations worked pretty well.

We tested the phone on various fronts and it seem to know its way around most. Multimedia consumption was great, thanks to HDR 10 playback. High graphics gaming exceeded our expectations, especially with the smooth refresh rate and unwavering frame rates. The way Samsung packaged this device, lightweight and performance-heavy, we found it quite appealing in our gaming and movie marathons. The stereos worked perfectly well indoors, be it for gaming or multimedia, but we recommend using compatible earphones when stepping out.

Despite the plastic back, the S21 FE support wireless charging and it is also IP68 rated for dust and water resistance. We didn't quite rely on the former, but the latter did come in handy on many occasions.

If we have to assess the Galaxy S21 FE by its performance, it is easily worth recommending.

Battery

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G is powered by a 4,500mAh battery, which is same as its predecessor. For most users, this phone will easily get you through the day, with mixed use of calls, social media, photos and gaming. With increased gaming or multimedia streaming, you'll notice the battery bars drop sooner. If you're planning to catch up on your TV shows while on the road, it might be smart to carry a power bank.

But if we get down to charging speeds, there are a lot faster charging phones out there. Since the S21 FE doesn't come with a power adaptor, you will have to use what you got or buy a new one. In any case, even the fastest 65W adaptor won't translate to faster charging as it would take a little over an hour to fully power up the phone.

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G has many things going its way. Like the design is definitely better in terms of durability and usability. It's got an IP68 rating and wireless charging support. The display is simply fantastic for all use cases and the performance of the phone is at par with most flagships.

The areas it could have been better is battery, limited storage, and the lack of a charging brick. But above all, it is the pricing of the S21 FE that makes it truly compelling as it is priced so close to the Galaxy S21 and higher if we take competition into consideration. Samsung is running a discount of Rs 5,000 at the moment with HDFC Bank cards. But if you look at Amazon.in, the price difference between 128GB version of Galaxy S21 and S21 FE is merely Rs 1,000. If you're really looking into value-buying, consider the Galaxy S20 FE, which is going for Rs 39,990. With a generous price cut on the Galaxy S21 FE 5G, it would be more appealing.