That doesn’t really matter here as Samsung has packed a slightly larger 4,500 mAh battery (versus 4,000 mAh on the S21) and it comfortably lasts all day — sometimes enough to last until the next morning, depending on usage. This is arguably the only area where the S21 FE clearly outperforms its predecessor. The S21 lasted me a day, but just enough.
Camera Talk
The measure of a good camera is when I don’t hesitate to take pictures with it. That can happen a lot when you test multiple phones like me, with varying degrees of camera quality. I am happy to say that I have taken a lot of photos since I started testing the S21 FE. And I love them!
The triple camera system retains the same 12-megapixel main sensor and 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor as on the original Galaxy S21. The results from these photos are sharp, colorful, and generally well-exposed, although not as contrasting as I would like. Even at night with Samsung’s dedicated Night mode, you can usually expect a blur-free, reasonably detailed image.
Where things differentiate is the telephoto zoom camera. You still get 3x optical zoom, but the sensor drops from 64 megapixels to 8. It can take some pretty decent photos during the day, but at night I almost always prefer the S21’s 64 MP zoom camera. It produces more detailed photos with better colors. It’s the opposite story with the selfie camera: The S21 FE has a 32-megapixel sensor, a difference compared to the 10-megapixel selfie camera on the S21. My selfies on the FE had more contrast, better skin tones, and better details.
Awkward time
Honestly, there’s not much to dislike here. The only glitch I’ve had is with Samsung’s Gallery app, which activates the blue light filter and makes the screen appear yellow, even when I have the filter turned off. The S21 FE, on the other hand, runs everything well, has a nice display, a versatile camera, and a reliable battery. Oh, and Samsung guarantees three Android OS upgrades and four years of security updates, which is one of the industry’s best updates for Android phones.
But it is worth $700? I’d say $599 Google Pixel 6 is a better value with more useful software features and a more powerful camera system. Sure, it lacks the 3x optical zoom camera, but Google’s image processing is so good that it delivers a better digitally zoomed photo (especially at night) than the S21 FE.
If the upcoming S22 costs $800 like its predecessor, you might be missing out on some valid upgrades for Near the same price. Fan or not, you should wait for the sale.
