After a year of the S21 launch, Samsung has, at last, announced the Galaxy S21 FE. Like the 2020 Galaxy S20 FE (the FE stands for Fan Edition), this device features most of the flagship-level specs of the Galaxy S21, including a Snapdragon 888 chipset (Exynos 2100 SoC in India) and 120Hz display, at a lower price: $699 (Rs. 54,999 in India) for the 128GB base model. With the S21’s nearly midrange price tag and a compelling upper-midrange option in the Galaxy A52 5G, it’s yet another addition to an already crowded spot in Samsung’s lineup.
The Galaxy S21 FE offers a 6.4-inch display, slightly larger than the S21’s 6.2-inch panel. Outside of that size difference, the S21 FE has a whole lot in common with the S21. Its screen is a 1080p OLED panel with 120Hz like the S21’s. Even the design language is consistent, with the camera bump blending into the phone’s side rails.
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The FE includes a flagship-worthy 5nm chipset (Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the US, Samsung’s own Exynos elsewhere) and a 12-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with optical stabilization, same as the S21. It even does one better on battery capacity, with a 4,500mAh cell compared to the S21’s 4,000mAh (though its slightly bigger screen likely evens out battery performance). Fast 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, an IP68 weather-resistance rating, and both flavors of 5G (sub6-GHz and speedy mmWave) are all carried over from the S21.
So what does paying more for the S21 get you? More RAM — 8GB in the base configuration versus the S21 FE’s 6GB — and a higher-res telephoto camera. Aside from the previously noted screen and battery size differences, that’s about it. The Galaxy S21 FE will sell for $699 (Rs. 54,999) with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or $769 (Rs. 58,999) for 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It ships with Samsung’s Android 12-based One UI 4.0 installed.