I've never really understood Samsung's Fan Edition branding. To me, fans are the people who are first in line, first to read all the related news and rumors, and most importantly, the first to check out the latest products from their favorite device makers. So when Samsung announced the $700 Galaxy S21 Fan Edition almost a full year after the original S21 came out, it felt long overdue. What we're looking at here is less of a phone for die-hard enthusiasts and more of a remix featuring some of the S21's best traits for a lower price. Unfortunately, all that doesn't solve the S21 FE's problem of it feeling outdated essentially on day one.
Design
Look, the S21 FE might technically be a new phone, but let's not pretend we haven't seen it before. It's got essentially the same shape and design queues as previous S21s, just with a slightly different size. Featuring a 6.4-inch screen, the S21 FE lands squarely between the 6.2-inch S21 and the 6.7-inch S21+. That said, at around six ounces the S21 FE feels slightly lighter than its siblings thanks to some streamlined design changes.
Around back, the S21 FE still features Samsung's Contour Cut design, but instead of having a camera bump with a metal shroud, the phone's back is made from a single piece of matte plastic. (Samsung calls it glastic because it's plastic that kind of feels kind of like glass.) And instead of a two-toned color scheme, the S21 FE is monotone throughout, with a color choice of blue, lavender, bronze, white, red and graphite (shown above).
Elsewhere, the S21 FE essentially has the same design as its forebears, featuring a centrally located selfie cam in front, a power button and volume rocker on the right, and a USB-C port on bottom for data and charging. There's a speaker grille down below that works with the phone's earpiece to provide stereo audio, which sounds fine even if it's a little light on bass for my taste.
Display
Samsung makes the best phone displays in the industry, and even though the screen on the S21 FE isn't quite as big or high-res as the S21 Ultra's, there's not much to complain about. You get strong brightness that tops out at over 700 nits, a 120Hz refresh rate, and 2,400 x 1,080 screen resolution — the same as what you get on the S21+.
In front, the S21 FE’s display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. It also houses a handy fingerprint sensor beneath its screen. And while the S21 FE's optical in-screen fingerprint sensor isn't as sophisticated as the ultrasonic sensors Samsung used in the original S21 models, in my experience, it's fast and dependable.
Android 12
While Samsung (and carriers) continue rolling out Android 12 to older S21 devices, the S21 FE comes with One UI 4.0 (which is based on Android 12) pre-installed. Visually, this doesn't have a big impact on the S21 FE's overall UI and layout, though the extra personalization options do make it easier to customize your home and lock screens. And because Samsung's spin on Android has long included support for features like scrolling screenshots, the most important upgrade in One UI 4.0 is the new Privacy Dashboard. In addition to new notifications that call attention to when apps are accessing the phone's mics or cameras, the Privacy Dashboard provides a simple and easily accessible way of managing 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.
The S21 FE's cameras are another area where Samsung's spec shuffle really comes into effect. The phone has a familiar wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto camera setup on its back, but with a lower-res 8-megapixel sensor compared to the 64MP sensor you get on its predecessors. You still get a 3x optical zoom, but from a camera that produces pictures that just aren't quite as sharp or as detailed as a standard S21.
The wide and ultra-wide cameras take great photos, though the S21 FE still lags behind the Pixel 6. For example, in a shot of some toys taken outside, the Pixel 6 preserved highlights on one toy's face, while keeping the toy sitting in the shade from looking too underexposed. In contrast, the S21 FE blew out the sunlit face and eyes without providing much in the way of extra sharpness or detail. Google’s Night Sight also consistently outperformed Samsung’s Night Mode for low-light shots, even though the S21 FE often wasn’t far behind. That said, the S21 FE's cameras aren’t bad; they’re just not as good as the Pixel 6. And let’s not forget the Pixel 6 only has two rear cameras, lacking any sort of dedicated telephoto option like you get from Samsung.
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