[Review] Samsung Galaxy S21 FE features, camera and performance – Wired PR Lifestyle Story

11 months after the release of Samsung’s S21 line, the Fan Edition version has finally arrived. With a slightly lower price, it has Samsung Galaxy S21 FE it offers the features and specifications that are most popular with fans from the iconic family.

Samsung’s latest move was in the FE version of its flagship phones S20 FE. He picked up the blow with a cheaper price, which was quite popular among the fans.

I received the S21 FE in white, and I have to say that it feels good to use a phone with a gorilla glass screen again, then 3 months using Z Flip3 with a relatively flexible screen.

But like the Z Flip3, the S21 FE is slippery to hold. Those familiar with Samsung’s versions may feel that the S21 FE’s matte back finish and colors are reminiscent of the design. A72.

If you look closely, its camera case takes more inspiration from the S21 range than the metal finish that pours into the chassis of the phone with a plastic bump.

But apparently not everything

I’ve been using Samsung phones since 2018, and one thing I’m sure is that their screens never fail. The S21 FE’s 6.4-inch FHD + Dynamic AMOLED 2X display is bright, vivid, and generally attractive.

Its 120 Hz refresh rate was really smooth to really watch, be it videos, games or general social media scrolling.

Equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery, the phone easily lasted a day when I had moderate use, even though the screen’s smoothness setting was at its default 120 Hz. You can switch to the 60Hz setting to save more power, but I don’t have to.

However, it may take up to 2 hours to charge your phone.

This is because the S21 FE supports 15W wireless charging and 25W wired fast charging because it requires a compatible power brick that is not included in the box. It only comes with a USB-C cable.

Using a 40W charger, I could get S21 FE from 30% to 100% in an hour. So to really enjoy this advantage, you would need to get some extra money out of a higher voltage loading brick.

Your usual good cameras

With the same main rear camera as the standard S21 model, with a 12 MP wide and ultra wide camera, the S21 FE worked as expected.

When set up for the first time, the 32 MP selfie camera will ask you to choose between “natural” and “bright” color tones. I’m sure most people who don’t like Samsung’s post-filtering features can rate this.

The S21 FE’s cameras take bright and saturated photos, as we expect from Samsung. The details of these are also clear if you are not looking for something that is on the market for 10x or more.

Pretty good performance

Despite the lower price, the S21 FE includes the same high-end Snapdragon 888 processor and 8GB of 256GB of internal RAM storage as the S21 series.

When I use it repeatedly in social applications, light arcade games, text messaging, and so on. I found the performance of the S21 FE to be quite good, as it is able to quickly open and jump between applications.

Playing for an hour warmed up the phone, but not on the same level as I felt with the Z Flip3.

The only place I’ve noticed a bit of a lag is to unlock your phone with an optical fingerprint sensor. The delay is small, but physical fingerprint scanners like the one I’m used to in Flip3 still can’t be surpassed in this area.

One small feature I found to be nice was the One UI 4.0 based on the phone on Android 12, which allows for more customization. For example, if you set a picture as wallpaper, your device suggests an additional color palette to apply to its buttons and icons.

Needless to say? Kind of. But pleasing to my eyes? 100%.

Judgment

The S21 FE does not disappoint and has everything you need from a good and reliable phone. However, somehow … it’s still not good enough.

I can’t say the S21 FE is a “lower” price steal if you’re looking for a cheaper flagship. Priced at RM3,099 for the 256GB model and RM2,899 for 128GB, the S21 FE is RM3-RM300 cheaper than the RM100-RM300 RM3.199 (while on sale).

In addition, with the release of Samsung’s flagship S22, the S21 models could also be offered at more discounted prices.

For now, although I have minor complaints with the S21 FE, I can’t recommend it to anyone because of its price.

I’ll spend a lot more time with this phone to do another review soon, and if my views change by then, I’m sure I’ll share why.

• You can learn more about the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE here.
• Read more VP Judgments here.

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