When Samsung launched the Galaxy S21 FE a month ago, many were skeptical about the company’s decision to launch the phone as the timing was so close to launching the Galaxy S22, but at this time of writing where Samsung’s new flagships are now made official, I can safely tell you that the Galaxy S21 FE isn’t going to be killed by the Galaxy S22 and it’s a phone that you shouldn’t simply dismiss.
First of all, the Galaxy S21 FE starts at RM2,899 with an 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant, which differs a lot from the Galaxy S22’s base storage model that retails at RM3,499 even if you consider the early bird RM200 discount. Also, the Galaxy S21 FE has several advantages over the S22 such as a larger 6.4-inch Dynamic AMOLED display that refreshes at 120Hz and larger 4500mAh battery that supports the same 25W fast charging, which are hardware that matches the Galaxy S22+ that costs way more.
Granted, you can argue that the Galaxy S21 FE has a plastic build instead of the stronger armor aluminum structure, which is certainly inferior if you judge it without holding the device, but once you do, you are going to love that lightweight aesthetic the phone offers, while I’m not suggesting that its polycarbonate will make anyone fall in love, the phone feels very robust and if you are someone who frequently cracks your phone’s glass back, you will be thankful that won’t happen on the Galaxy S21 FE.
Powered by the Exynos 2100 system-on-chip, the Galaxy S21 FE is still a relatively snappy device that will let you multitask and game like champ, though most of us are pretty disappointed that Samsung didn’t continue the trend of offering a Snapdragon chip like it did on the last FE device, but to be frank the Exynos 2100 chip was a really capable chipset that offers good battery life back on my Galaxy S21 Ultra, despite not topping the highest score in benchmarks.
In terms of software, Samsung has preloaded the device with Android 12 and OneUI 4.0, which is rather commendable considering most phones released in 2022 still come with Android 11.
During my time with the Galaxy S21 FE, there were no overheating and performance throttle issues which is partially thanks to the polycarbonate build, but rather I encountered a weird software lag happen after I’ve used the device for several days, which can be easily resolved by just restarting the device, which Samsung should be able to fix over a software update.
In terms of cameras, Samsung has taken a safe bet and reused the main 12MP f/1.8 sensor from the Galaxy S20 FE, supported by an 8MP telephoto lens and 12MP ultrawide lens, which is a reasonably good camera system by all means and can take decent photos that you can be proud of with good color saturation and contrast, unless you are particular about details and low light, which the S21 FE’s 12MP does slightly underperform due to the small image sensor and lack of pixel-binning, it will work extremely well for shooting TikTok videos and Instagram photos.
I have no issues with the Galaxy S21 FE’s battery life during my two week review period, with a screen-on-time of three hours with mostly social media browsing and some lightweight gaming, I will usually end up with 30% on the bar when I end my day, and that’s more than enough time for me to get to a wall socket to charge up the phone, I only wished that the phone has faster charging speeds and not limited to the 25W PPS charging protocol.
Ultimately, the Galaxy S21 FE is a good smartphone that will serve you well for years to come with a current Samsung flagship design, capable performance and reasonably good cameras, while the value proposition isn’t as great as Samsung did back on the Galaxy S20 FE 5G, one thing we must understand is the reason why its predecessor did so well because back then, the Galaxy S20 had a series of issues that was so bad such as severe overheating and battery drain issues that it needed an FE to ultimately save the day, not to mention that the regular S20 and S20+ sold in Malaysia back then lacked 5G connectivity and came with the infamous Exynos 990 chipset.
The Galaxy S21 FE would have of course been a more successful device if it was released earlier, but there’s nothing much to lose if you had pick it up instead of the regular Galaxy S22 and S22+, so fret not, your money is spent well.