Elly Awesome reviews Samsung Galaxy S21 FE: Display, camera and battery

This new Samsung phone has been designed with Samsung obsessives in mind – with all of the brand’s most popular features rolled into one.

REVIEW

Samsung has launched an updated ‘Fan Edition’ (FE) phone – the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. The phone boasts some fan-favourite features seen in Samsung’s premium phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S21, all for under $1000. Let’s find out if it’s worth the purchase.

Display and specs

The latest FE comes with a 6.4” FHD AMOLED display, with a 120Hz refresh rate, the Snapdragon 888 processor and the latest OS, Android 12.

The screen is completely flat, no obscure curves, just thin bezels on the edges, a hole punch selfie camera up top and a fingerprint reader underneath the screen on the bottom of the display.

The screen of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is completely flat. Picture: Elly Awesome

It features the signature S21 design, though instead of glass or metal it has a matte, smooth plastic back – but I actually prefer this for durability sake.

It comes in colour options of Olive, Lavender, White or Graphite and overall the device is slim and lightweight, though a little bit slippery, but otherwise comfortable to hold and carry around.

Cameras

The phone is well-equipped with cameras. The front selfie camera is a solid 32-megapixel and the back features three different cameras – a 12-megapixel ultra-wide, 12-megapixel wide-angle and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens. This is an excellent combination of camera options that offers up high-quality snaps on both front and back, perfect for all types of mobile users.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE comes with a good selection of camera. Picture: Elly Awesome

The phone also includes a feature that I love called ‘dual recording’ which allows you to record from the front and back camera simultaneously. Great for vlogging or capturing family memories.

Battery life

Built-in is a solid 4500 mAh battery which is surprisingly bigger than Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S21 (at 4000 mAh) and even rivals many other brand’s similarly priced phone battery capacities.

This doesn’t always mean the battery life is better though. But through my testing I found the battery was able to keep up with a solid day of use which included some short phone calls, plenty of emails, social media, watching videos and playing some games.

The phone also has 25W fast charging if you need a little more than the touted ‘all day battery life’.

Should you buy it?

All round, this phone is excellent for the price, coming in at $999 for the baseline model with 128GB of built-in storage.

Though if your budget isn’t holding you back it might make more sense to pick up the more premium Samsung Galaxy S21 for an extra couple of hundred dollars – or better yet, hold out until Samsung launches its next flagship phone (which is rumoured to happen in the coming months).

However, if you’re only in the market for something at a mid-tier price point and looking for a new phone now, I’d suggest buying this on Samsung’s website and taking advantage of its free Galaxy Buds2 offer (expiring on January 30) as the Buds2 themselves are valued at around $200.

Elly Awesome is an Aussie tech and lifestyle vlogger | @ellyawwesome | YouTube