Living with the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE
Today’s top-end phones can be quite expensive, so Samsung recently introduced a version of its Galaxy S21 FE (Fan Edition) with a few fewer features than the regular Galaxy S21 at what now qualifies as the mid-range price of $699. After a couple of weeks of using it, I’ve found for most applications, it will do the job quite well.
The S21 FE has the same basic design as the full S21, with rounded corners and three cameras in a vertical arrangement in a cut design on the back. Measuring 6.14 by 2.93 by 0.31 inches (HWD), it's a bit bigger than the standard Galaxy S21 (5.97 by 2.80 by 0.31 inches), not surprising since the FE has a 6.4-in display, which puts it in the middle in size between the regular S21, which has a 6.2-inch display, and the S21+ with a 6.7-inch display. Weighing 6.24 ounces, it feels good in the hand. It is available in white, graphite, olive, and lavender.
The 21 FE has a 2,340-by-1,080 AMOLED display that normally runs at 120Hz, which provides more smooth scrolling, though you can enable 60 Hz mode for better battery life. I missed the adaptive display feature that lets some phones switch speeds depending on the application. The display has a small cutout for the front camera in what Samsung calls its "Infinity-O" display, and an under-screen fingerprint reader, which worked just fine.
The processor is the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 used in the North American versions of the Galaxy S21 (some other geographic regions get versions based on Samsung’s Exynos chip). This has one "Prime Core" (essentially an ARM Cortex-X1 clocked at up to 2.84 GHz), three performance cores (based on the A78 and clocked at up to 2.42 GHz), and four efficiency cores (based on the A55 architecture and clocked at up to 1.8
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