There's nothing wrong with this device. Literally nothing. But it would have been a far bigger deal if it had launched when it was supposed to. Samsung's likely to turn this one into a decent budget buy in short order but there's no seriously compelling reason to pick one up now when you can grab a better version of it for not very much more money.
-
Design
-
Performance
-
Battery
-
Camera
-
Price
2021 was a rough year. We get it. Heck, we all lived it. But Samsung had a very specific problem last year — its Galaxy S21 FE handset was delayed. And then it wasn’t. And then it was again. The upshot was that this handset was only announced in January 2022, and only launched internationally on 11 January.
That was… a bit late. And not ‘a bit late’ like missing a meeting by a few minutes. It’s more like ‘Why did you even bother turning up’ late. Which is a pity. The Galaxy S21 FE is a great smartphone. Make no mistake about that. But buying the 128GB version of this phone (the only size available in SA) will set you back R15,000. The 256GB version of the full-sized Galaxy S21 — a phone that’s better in basically every way — cost R17,000.
And that’s from Samsung directly. We’re not even accounting for various retailers offering Samsung’s last-gen flagships at bargain prices — which does happen from time to time. The result is a brilliant phone with almost no fault to speak of that we’d really, really struggle to recommend.
Getting some bodywork done
Samsung’s newest Fan Edition handset looks, mostly, just like the rest of the Galaxy S21 lineup. The major difference is around the back. The premium backplate is replaced with plastic. Premium plastic, to be sure, but it’s still plastic. Still, you won’t have cause for complaint when it comes to aesthetics. The metal camera bump has been replaced with a gently sloping, colour-coded hump concealing the three rear camera sensors.
Otherwise, it looks just like the S21. There’s the same solid frame circumnavigating the outside. The ports and speaker vents are all in Samsung’s design language and the screen will convince you you’re holding a Galaxy S if (somehow) nothing else is doing the job. And if even that doesn’t work, the box might bring you to your senses.
That’s because, in common with the big-boy Samsung phones from 2021, the Galaxy S21 FE eschews the charge block. There’s a super-slim box containing just the phone, a charging cable, and a SIM tool. Everything else is on you to supply. For “environmental reasons”. Sure.
Part of the family
Samsung does supply a decent crop of internals. We’ve already touched on these a little, but there’s more to see. The Exynos 2100 that powered Samsung’s 2021 headliners is inside, along with 6GB of RAM. There’s a version of the phone that features 8GB of RAM, but you can’t buy it (officially) in SA. Even with that trimming back of the S21’s 12GB RAM, Android 12 and One UI 4 are nippy and responsive enough that you’ll have no complaints when it comes to performance.
The 6.4in Dynamic AMOLED display Samsung has favoured of late is no slouch either. It’s bright and crisp, responsive when it needs to be, and includes a 120Hz refresh rate. It is, unfortunately, not adaptive. Users may toggle between plain old 60Hz and 120Hz, but the Galaxy S21 FE isn’t about to do it for you. You haven’t given Samsung enough money for that. There is a 240Hz touch sample rate as a consolation prize — so you can get your game on in fine style if nothing else.
Samsung’s other high notes are mostly baked in as well. There’s an IP68 rating to go with the phone, it supports up to 25W fast-charging (if you have the charge block for it), and the 4,500mAh battery will get you to the end of the day at the very least. As we mentioned right up top, there’s really nothing wrong with this phone.
The third eye
This extends to the cameras which, admittedly, do trim back a little from the Galaxy S21. The Galaxy S21 FE sports three compact little sensors on the back. The two 12MP sensors — the wide and ultrawide — from the S21 make the jump onto this phone. But the 64MP telephoto lens is swapped out for a mere 8MP telephoto in the Fan Edition handset.
The 8MP f/2.4 sensor is technically a little more capable. It offers 3x optical zoom, compared to the 64 MP f/2.0 sensor’s 3x hybrid zoom, but Samsung’s software absolutely loves to have more pixels to play with. It’s a net loss at the end of the day, but your social media feed isn’t about to complain.
Snaps are idiosyncratically Samsung. Colours pop, while images are crisp in decent conditions. They’re also not terrible in less stellar surroundings unless you start mucking around with the 30x zoom feature that’s included in this phone for some reason. It’s fine if you want people to look like they were badly moulded out of clay and then photographed with a Huawei smartphone with the Beauty setting cranked all the way up, we guess?
More than enough, but too late
The only real problem with this phone is that it turned up late to the party. That’s it. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is. If it had rocked up in September 2021, when the Galaxy S21 and friends were still pricier than they are right now, it would have been an absolute beast for not all that much money. But a few months is a long time in Smartphone Land.
The full-sized S21, currently, offers South African buyers an extra 128GB of storage, a more capable camera arrangement, and a more premium build for R2,000 on top of the price of the Galaxy S21 FE. If your budget is absolutely capped out at R15,000, then buying the S21 FE is understandable. But if you can stretch it, even a little, it makes more sense to just buy the Galaxy S21 5G instead.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Verdict
Which brings us right back to ‘Why did you even bother turning up?’ Samsung’s phone made much more sense turning up in September 2021. In early 2021, at this price point, it’s a much harder sell. The S22 range is on the way. The S21 lineup will probably take a further price knock when it lands. The Galaxy S21 FE hasn’t been on the market for long enough for a decent price drop to turn up.
And yet, there’s nothing actually wrong with it. It’s just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Last year, we would have been all over this phone. In 2022, though, it’s a far better idea to a) buy a full-sized S21 or b) wait until there’s a price drop on the S21 FE. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you do anything else.
