I never really understood Samsung’s Fan Edition branding. To me, fans are the people who get in line first, who are the first to read all the relevant news and rumours, and most importantly, who are the first to check out the latest products from their favorite gadget manufacturers. So at Samsung announced that $700 Galaxy S21 Fan Edition Almost a full year after the original S21 came out, it felt long overdue. What we see here is less a phone for die-hard enthusiasts and more a remix with some of them S21 best features for a lower price. Unfortunately, none of that solves the S21 FE’s problem of essentially feeling dated on day one.
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Look, the S21 FE could technically be a new phone, but let’s not pretend we’ve never seen it. It’s essentially the same shape and design as previous S21s, just with a slightly different size. With a 6.4-inch screen, the S21 FE lands squarely between the 6.2-inch S21 and the 6.7-inch S21+. Still, thanks to some streamlined design changes, the S21 FE feels a little lighter than its siblings at around 180 grams.
benefits
- Cheaper than a standard S21
- Strong battery life
- High definition selfie cam
- Bright 120Hz screen
disadvantage
- A bit outdated
- Lower resolution zoom camera than the S21
- No microSD slot or headphone jack
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On the back, the S21 FE still features Samsung’s Contour Cut design, but instead of having a camera hump with a metal cover, the back of the phone is made from a single piece of matte plastic. (Samsung calls it glass table because it’s plastic that feels like glass.) And instead of a two-tone color scheme, the S21 FE is monotone throughout, with color choices of blue, lavender, bronze, white, red, and graphite (see above ).
Elsewhere, the S21 FE shares essentially the same design as its ancestors, with a centrally located selfie camera up front, a power button and volume rocker on the right, and a USB-C port on the bottom for data and charging. Below is a speaker grille that works with the phone’s earpiece to provide stereo audio that sounds good, if a little weak in bass for my liking.
display
Samsung makes the best phone displays in the business, and while the S21 FE’s screen isn’t quite as big or as high-resolution as the S21 Ultras, there is not much to complain about. You get a strong brightness of over 700 nits, a 120Hz refresh rate and a screen resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 – just like the S21+.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
At the front, the display of the S21 FE is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. It also houses a handy fingerprint sensor under its screen. And while the S21 FE’s in-screen optical fingerprint sensor isn’t as sophisticated as the ultrasonic sensors Samsung used in the original S21 models, in my experience it’s fast and reliable.
Android 12
While Samsung (and carriers) proceed with the rollout Android 12 the S21 FE comes with older S21 devices A user interface 4.0 (based on Android 12) preinstalled. Visually, this doesn’t affect the overall interface and layout of the S21 FE much, although the additional personalization options make it easier to customize your home and lock screens. And since Samsung’s version of Android has long supported features like scrolling screenshots, the most notable upgrade in One UI 4.0 is the new privacy dashboard. In addition to new notifications alerting you when apps are accessing the phone’s microphones or cameras, the privacy dashboard provides a simple and accessible way to manage things like permissions, data and tracking settings, and more. At a time when digital privacy remains a constant concern, more control over your data is definitely a good thing.
cameras
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The S21 FE’s cameras are another area where Samsung’s spec shuffle really comes into its own. The phone has a familiar wide, ultra-wide and telephoto camera setup on the rear, but with a lower-resolution 8-megapixel sensor compared to the 64-megapixel sensor you get on its predecessors. You still get 3x optical zoom, but from a camera that produces images that just aren’t quite as sharp or as detailed as a standard S21.
The wide and ultra-wide cameras take great photos, although the S21 FE still falls short of the Pixel 6. For example, in a shot of some toys captured outside, the Pixel 6 preserved highlights on a toy’s face, while keeping the toy in the shadow doesn’t look too underexposed. In contrast, the S21 FE blew out the sunlit face and eyes without offering much extra sharpness or detail. Google’s Night Sight has also consistently outperformed Samsung’s Night mode when shooting in low light, although the S21 FE was often not far behind. However, the S21 FE’s cameras aren’t bad; They just aren’t as good as the Pixel 6. And let’s not forget that the Pixel 6 only has two rear cameras, which lack any sort of dedicated telephoto option like you get from Samsung.
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE camera examples | 7 photos
Gallery: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE camera samples | 7 photos
On the other hand, Samsung has actually upped the resolution of the S21 FE’s front camera to 32MP (up from 10MP on the S21), which is nice if you like a lot of selfies or social media videos. But at the same time, I don’t really think that one upgrade is enough to change the overall feel of the device, making it feel more like a nice bonus than a notable improvement.
power
At this point, the Snapdragon 888 chip in the S21 FE is a pretty familiar sight. It offers fast performance and supports features like 4K video recording across all of the phone’s cameras (at 60fps on the main wide-angle and front selfie cameras, and 30fps for the rest). However, since the base S21 FE only has 6GB of RAM as opposed to 8GB on a regular S21, I noticed that the FE sometimes felt slower, even when processing photos in night mode.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Admittedly, it’s a pretty minor difference and you might not even notice it unless you’re using the two phones side-by-side. But for people who do a lot of memory-intensive tasks like gaming or video editing, the FE’s lower base RAM is probably the biggest reason to pay $70 to upgrade to the 8GB model or just settle for a standard one. S21 or S21+ to decide.
battery life
Another advantage of the S21 FE’s larger body is that it offers additional space for a larger battery. So instead of a 4,000mAh cell like the S21, the S21 FE has a 4,500mAh power pack for a noticeable improvement in longevity. In our battery test, the S21 FE lasted 16 hours and 55 minutes, just over an hour and a half longer than the S21’s time of 15:17. And in the real world, the S21 FE’s battery life often feels even more amazing, as I’ve often ended the day with more than 40 percent battery in the tank.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
It’s also worth noting that, like the standard model, the S21 FE doesn’t come with a power adapter. So if you want to take advantage of the phone’s 25-watt wired charging, you’ll likely have to shell out a separate charging brick. It sure is annoying, but like Apple, Google, and others, Samsung says that not including a power adapter with your phones should help reduce e-waste.
Wrap up
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
As the supply of standard S21 models gradually dries up, the S21 FE doesn’t really compete with the originals. It’s a replacement that’s sadly long overdue. It’s still a solid phone, but the standard Pixel 6 shoots better photos, has a more attractive design, and if you get the unlocked model direct from Google, it’s $100 less too. The Pixel 6 is simply a better buy unless you’re really into mmWave 5G (which the unlocked Pixel 6 doesn’t support) or have access to a telephoto camera.
Hell, the S21 FE is so late that Samsung is already planning it is launching its next major flagship in the coming weeks. Even if you’re a big fan of Samsung’s latest FE phone, you should at least wait and see what the S22 has to offer before buying what’s essentially a year-old phone. Also, the arrival of a brand new Galaxy S phone often means that there are soon to be discounts for older devices.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Oh, and if Samsung is going to keep this whole fan edition thing going, I’d really like to see a device that does more justice to the branding. Instead of a repackaged year-old phone, why not create a premium remixed version with a microSD card slot and headphone jack? Not only would this be a welcome alternative to many of today’s flagships with minimal ports, but it’s also a considerate nod to fans of old-school Galaxy phones who may have felt cheated when Samsung removed those features from the S20 in 2019. That’s the kind of customer appreciation I can really support.
key specifications
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