Samsung Galaxy S21 FE full review

the s21 fe is now released about a year

after the s21 and brings the design

language that appears to be a mix

between the s21 phones and the a-series

mid-rangers it has a plastic bag with a

soft matte pastel finish but at the same

time the camera bump has the same

wrap-around shape as the s21 although

instead of being part of the metal frame

here is actually an extension of the

back panel

the s21fe is thinner and lighter in the

hand than the previous fan edition which

is nice and as you'd expect from a

high-end samsung you get ip rated dust

and water resistance here too

the full hd amoled screen is a little

smaller than the s20 fes at 6.4 inches

but it does bring gorilla glass victis

protection this time around

you again get a fast 120hz refresh rate

too for smoother swiping and scrolling

it isn't adaptive to save energy but the

s21fe is able to provide a fast 240hz

touch sampling rate in gaming mode

and another improvement over the

previous model is hdr10 plus support

content looks excellent on the s21 fe

and this display can also achieve great

color accuracy based on your color

settings

the s21 fe does brightness control a bit

differently we measured the max

brightness at about 790 nits and unlike

other galaxy phones you can get it not

only in auto mode but also manually with

a slider

like the rest of the s21 series you get

a pair of stereo speakers for your audio

they're well balanced and scored a good

mark on our loudness chart quality is

good too with nice highs though the bass.

is.

Music.

underwhelming one of the freshest things

you'll find on the s21 fe at least at

the time of this video is samsung's new

one ui4 based on android 12. this is the

first phone that arrives with this

interface out of the box and overall

it's similar to what we saw in the

previous version but there are a few new

features

one of the most obvious is something

built into the new android system-wide

color palettes which can match your

quick toggles shades and even your icons

to the home screen wallpaper

you also get plenty of options for

widgets on the home screen they're a lot

more customizable now

improved control over your privacy

settings is also a feature of one ui for

there's now a dedicated privacy

dashboard in settings

there are new options in the gallery for

photo editing with the magic eraser you

can get rid of something you don't want

in the shot it's not perfect but it's

fun to play around with

and finally you can wake up and unlock

the phone using an under display

fingerprint reader which is fast and

reliable

these features are powered by either one

of two chipsets a snapdragon 888 for the

international version of the phone or an

exynos 2100 for select markets ours is

the snapdragon version and performance

is excellent as you'd expect right up

there on the charts with last year's

flagships

and even though we will see a new top

chipset pretty soon this year the s21 fe

delivers more than enough power for your

daily tasks and heavy games

the s21 fe has a

milliamp hour battery just like the

previous model but battery life isn't

quite as good here that's not to say

it's bad though it scored an endurance

rating of 92 hours in our proprietary

tests

as is trendy these days the phone

doesn't come with a charger in the box

but there is support for wireless

charging and 25 watt wired charging with

such an adapter we were able to charge

from zero to 51 percent in half an hour

another thing you won't get this time

around is expandable storage but you do

get 128 or 256 gigs on board

alright moving on to the cameras the s21

fe brings the same setup as the previous

model a 12 megapixel main cam with ois a

12 megapixel ultra wide with fixed focus

and an 8 megapixel three times telephoto

again with ois

photos from the main cam are excellent

with plenty of resolved detail high

contrast low noise and natural looking

dynamic range the colors are quite

pleasant too if a bit on the warmer side

photos from the ultra wide cam are

incredibly good for this type of camera

there's enough detail good contrast and

reasonable sharpness as well as slow

noise the dynamic range is commendable

too

even though the telephoto cam has an 8

megapixel sensor its photos come out at

12 megapixels the sharpness does take a

small hit from the upscaling but besides

that these three times zoomed shots are

quite nice with high resolve detail as

well as contrast colors and dynamic

range that match the other two cameras

this telephoto cam is different from the

one on the galaxy s21 so we compared the

two in broad daylight the fe is the

better shooter there's slightly better

sharpness and contrast and in our

opinion more likable colors but these

are only noticeable if you look from up

close

in low light photos from the main camera

are superb they're rich in detail and

contrasty with excellent color

saturation the dynamic range is wide too

although the overall exposure and look

remain quite realistic looking

turning on night mode will get you a

brighter photo with improved exposure

more detail appears in the shadows and

highlights and any noise is cleaned up

shots from the ultra wide at night have

good color saturation and exposure but

they're soft and noisy

with night mode on though the noise is

improved and you get better exposure and

dynamic range

if you zoom at night in auto mode in

most cases you'll get a digital crop

from the main camera that is soft and

lacking in detail

but turning on night mode will switch

things over to the actual telephoto lens

the results are decent with satisfactory

detail contrast and exposure you do

still see the effect of the upscale from

8 megapixels to 12 though

selfies are taken with a 32 megapixel

front facing cam that produces 8

megapixel photos by default these shots

are natural looking with low noise and

excellent colors contrast and dynamic

range

however the fixed focus sweet spot is

not ideally tuned for shooting at an

arm's length so selfie sharpness is less

than stellar

videos can be captured with the main cam

and up to 4k resolution at 60fps these

are very good with above average detail

great colors low noise and outstanding

dynamic range the only area in which it

falls short a bit is sharpness

4k videos from the ultra wide are capped

at 30 fps and the quality is not that

good they do have nice contrast likable

colors and superb dynamic range but the

videos are soft and the detail is

mediocre in contrast the videos from the

telephoto cam are quite nice they have a

lot of detail and are plenty sharp and

have colors contrast and dynamic range

that are similar to the main cameras

so that's the galaxy s21 fe you get

features worthy of a high-end samsung

phone like a waterproof build a high

refresh right amoled display stereo

speakers a flagship chipset a fluid

software experience and a great set of

cameras

all in all it's a great showing a clear

upgrade over the previous model but

there are a couple of problems

first the fan edition took its sweet

time to come out and now the hype has

turned to the new s22 models so then the

s21 fe could be a more budget-friendly

option over the new flagships except

that for now it's actually more

expensive than the regular s21 while

offering very similar features so while

the s21 fe is a great phone it's tough

to recommend until this price does go

down a bit

thanks for watching guys stay safe and

see you on the next one