While most companies are opting for an online presence during this year’s CES, Samsung has been one of the few companies to prefer an in-person presence. And ahead of this year’s tech event, Samsung announced the Galaxy S21 FE, the latest addition to the Galaxy S21 series.
However, the smartphone itself will be available from January 11. So you have to wait to get your hands on it.
Coming with a 6.4-inch display (larger than the S21’s 6.2-inch panel), the S21 FE’s has a 1080p screen with a 410ppi pixel density. It is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888, which comes with 5G capabilities. This is only in the US, though – the S21 FE in other parts of the world are powered by Samsung’s Exynos chipset. Samsung has revealed that it has several prominent features of the Galaxy S21 – “eye-catching design, powerful performance, pro-grade camera, and seamless ecosystem connectivity.”
The device comes with a 240 Hz touch response rate and a 120 Hz refresh rate, providing the highest resolution on a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. It also weighs 177 grams.
Coming to its storage, there are three variants – you can have 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, 8GB of RAM and 256GB, and 8GB RAM with 128GB internal storage. All of them ship with Samsung’s Android 12-based One UI 4.0 installed, which includes deeper customization options and stronger privacy controls. Widgets are also redesigned and upgraded, and the S21 FE offers deep personalization options and a tailored experience for users.
The device comes in four colors – Graphite, White, Olive, and Lavender, all of which include a stylish haze finish. Samsung shared a teaser of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE smartphone on Twitter with the text “Epic is coming.” According to an unofficial unboxing video, the Galaxy S21 FE will not ship with a charger in the box and will have a 4,500 mAh battery. It also sports the fan-favorite Contour-Cut frame and features a sleek and slim 7.9mm-thick body.
The S21 FE also includes fast 25W wired charging (which means that you can charge your battery by more than 50% in just 30 minutes), 15W wireless charging, and an IP68 weather-resistance rating. Its sensors include an accelerometer, barometer, fingerprint sensor, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, hall sensor, light sensor, and proximity sensor.
Now, we come to what most of you have been waiting for. The Galaxy S21 FE 5G contains four cameras in all – a 32-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture lens and 81˚ field of view, 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor with an f/2.2 aperture lens and 123˚ field of view, an 8-megapixel telephoto camera with an f/2.4 aperture lens and 30X zoom, and a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens. It also includes a Night Mode setting, AI Face Restoration capabilities, Dual Recording, and other features.
This begs the question, what will the Galaxy S21 FE cost? The Galaxy S21 FE starts at $699 for the base model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB and $749 for the top model with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage.
So the S21 FE is basically last year’s S21, retrofitted with some upgraded tech and cheaper but sturdy build quality. Not to say that it isn’t a good phone, it is great. But with a starting price of $699 and a new S22 launch just months away, not sure how well the S21 FE will fair. Once again, its a great Samsung phone, but launched at a really wrong time.
