Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Review: Full-Featured Yet Affordable
by
Dave Altavilla
—
Tuesday, January 18, 2022, 12:13 PM EDT
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Performance Benchmarks, Battery Life And Review Conclusion
For a quick note on audio output from the Galaxy S21 FE's bottom and earpiece stereo speakers, we'd offer that there's not too much to get excited over acoustically. Though lately we've been hearing a trend of better audio output from on-board phone speaker systems, it's obviously a tertiary feature for most folks, since earbuds offer a far better solution. While the Galaxy S21 FE's speakers deliver decent volume for speaker phone calls and the like, music and other media is met with thin to non-existent low end bass response and slightly shrill high-end output as well.
Galaxy S21 FE Audio, 5G Data And Call Reception
Voice call coverage and audio quality on the other hand was solid, and as usual with Snapdragon 888 devices, Qualcomm's integrated Snapdragon X60 5G modem performed admirably in terms coverage and data speeds as well.
Galaxy S21 FE 5G Data Speeds On T-Mobile's Sub-6 Network
T-Mobile's Sub-6 5G network is all we had available to test here locally at the time of publication but as you can see, with 150Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds, we're now approaching home broadband level bandwidth over longer distances. Kudos, let's keep pushing that 5G roll-out.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Benchmarks: UL PCMark For Android Work 3.0
PCMark for Android is an excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks on any handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the each mobile platform in a very controlled way...
No surprises here really, the Galaxy S21 FE slots in near the top with other Snapdragon 888-powered devices and a notch or two ahead of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro in this lighter duty mixed used test suite.
Galaxy S21 FE Geekbench Scores
Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics calculation scenarios. We tested all of the smartphones featured here with Geekbench's single and multi-core workloads.
With Geekbench 5, we see notably softer single and multi-threaded scores from the Galaxy S21 FE, well behind the other members of the Galaxy S21 family and more in line with Pixel 6 series performance. This may be an early indication that the thermal solution on board the GS21 FE isn't quite as robust as the standard models in the family which are based on the same Snapdragon 888 mobile platform SoC.
Galaxy S21 FE AnTuTu Benchmark
AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or User Experience), along with a total score...
AnTuTu 8, on the other hand, ranks the Galaxy S21 FE right back at the top of the pack again and ahead of the other Samsung Galaxy S21 phones. This may be indicative of an Android 12 advantage as the other GS21 scores here were captured on Android 11. Unfortunately, since had to send these previous gen phones back to Samsung, we didn't have an opportunity to retest them.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Gaming And Graphics Benchmarks
Next we're going to see how the Galaxy S21 FE compares to other devices in GFXBench, which has been one of the standard mobile graphics/gaming performance benchmarks for years. To ensure that display refresh rate and resolution aren't limiting factors, we're comparing off-screen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads...
In this lighter duty graphics and gaming benchmark, the Galaxy S21 FE once again drops down toward the middle of the pack and behind most other Snapdragon 888-powered phones.
3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. We're running this test in off-screen mode once again to remove display resolution differences from the equation. This lets us compare cross-platform results more reliably...
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Benchmark
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Unlimited also shows the Galaxy S21 FE 5G well behind other Snapdragon 888 flagships and more on par with previous generation Snapdragon 865 powered devices, actually.
3DMark Wild Life is the latest cross-platform graphics test from UL. UL explains that WildLife is primarily tasked with measuring GPU performance across platforms, and two distinct tests are available. The standard WildLife test is designed to give feedback on how a game performs over a short period of time. With mobile games, people typically play in brief spurts when they find some free time; be it on the bus, on the subway, or a quick battle royale session on your lunch break. The 3DMark WildLife Stress Test, on the other hand, shows how a device performs over a longer stretch of time, and takes note of performance degradation that can crop up due to increased heat levels and throttling (which we'll get to a bit later).
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Benchmark
3DMark Wild Life is a much more strenuous graphics and gaming benchmark that employs the more modern Vulkan API on Android or Metal on iOS devices. Here, the Galaxy S21 FE is back in the hunt but still slightly behind many of its Samsung siblings, and well behind the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. It's also possible that our 6GB of RAM configuration of the Galaxy S21 FE, versus mostly all 8GB RAM equipped devices here, is sapping a touch of performance from our particular test model. It would be interesting to see how the 8GB of RAM / 256GB storage config of the GS21 FE performs in these tests as well, which is something we could return to at a later date.
We should also note, in the Wild Life Stress test for gaming performance over extended duration, that the Galaxy S21 FE throttled pretty hard, losing as much as 40% of its performance at the 6 minute mark. We've seen similar throttling from the likes of the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro but perhaps not as dramatic as the GS 21 FE.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE Battery Life Always-On Test Results
Our battery life testing is more real-world in terms of its setup, because we calibrate display brightness on all devices to 200 Lux with our meters, and the test then locks that display brightness in for the duration. In these tests, Bluetooth connectivity and Location services are disabled, though Wi-Fi and mobile data are left enabled as part of a traditional use case workload.
At the 120Hz setting on its display, the Galaxy S21 FE lasted a little over 8 hours of continuous always-on use in the mixed workloads of web browsing, video consumption and photo editing that are employed in the PCMark 3 for Android Battery test. In more real-world on-off mixed daily usage, our Galaxy S21 FE unit lasted an entire day and then some. In addition, dropping the phone into its 60Hz mode netted us significantly better battery life, with nearly 11 hours of continuous uptime in this test.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G Review Conclusion And Key Take-Aways
In the end, there's a lot to consider and unpack (no pun intended) with the new Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. Obviously the device is coming along at a time when Samsung's next generation Galaxy handsets are set to arrive in the not-so distant future. You can expect those devices, however, to likely not share the same aggressive $699 price point at launch. So, frankly, we're not of the same mindset as some in the press that are throwing caution flags to wait for Samsung's next gen. Our humble opinion (and that's why you're here) is that we should weigh the new Galaxy S21 FE on its own merits and at its respective price point versus the competition currently. And it's in that regard that the Galaxy S21 FE 5G still brings at lot of value.
As we've noted a few times in this evaluation, the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE checks a bunch of feature boxes for its price tag, whether you consider its IP68 water and dust resistance, wireless Qi charging, both Sub-6 and mmWave 5G support, or its quad-camera setup that produces great shots, including its 32MP selfie camera. In fact, though we praised the Pixel 6 for its value prop, we have to offer similar praise to Samsung for delivering a worthy competitor that has historically been more likely to go on sale in the days after launch as well. Add to that the GS21 FE's generally excellent execution of Samsung's tried and true flagship phone platform, save perhaps for its middling battery life, and things add up a bit more in Samsung's favor as well. We're still struggling with the Pixel 6's super finicky fingerprint sensor here (even post January update) but we had no such issues with the Galaxy S21 FE, which in our testing experience ran virtually bug-free.
Though we're not huge fans of some of Samsung's software setup with One UI, Fan Edition aficionados can still tweak the Android 12-based OS here to their heart's content, and at least the fingerprint sensor will actually let you into the device with easy one-handed access. You do get a bit more RAM with the Pixel 6 at 8GB, but there are other trade-offs as well, like the lack of the Galaxy S21 FE's dedicated telephoto camera and its superior 120Hz display that's also a bit punchier than the Pixel 6. Though there's still that $100 price delta, comparisons between these two value-minded Android flagships begin to feel like more of a toss-up when you start adding up the Xs and Os.
Weighing the pros and cons of competitive offerings is something you'll have to sort out based on your personal preference and needs. However, at the end of the day, the Galaxy S21 FE makes a solid case for a full featured Android phone at a reasonable price point, with great camera chops, a beautiful display and solid all-around performance.
Solid Design And Build Quality
Gorgeous High Refresh Rate Display
Feature-Packed
Great Camera Performance
32MP Selfie Cam
Solid General Performance
A Notch Behind Most Snapdragon 888 Handsets Performance-Wise
