Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G review
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- Wayneyboy
- 39y
- 16 Mar 2022
I got this S21 FE (Snapdragon 888) 2 weeks ago, as an upgrade to the A42 5G midranger (Snapdragon 750). I have since gone back to the A42 5G and here's why.
Battery life is a huge issue on the S21 FE. I'm having to charge it throughout the day, and keep it topped up as it drains just on standby. A problem the A42 5G didn't have. The S21 FE is a powerful smartphone, but what's the point in all that power and the amazing cameras when there's no charge in the phone? I don't want to be carrying around a charger or power bank. I want my phone to last me the day using the battery that's in it!
The S21 FE is a downgrade from the S20 FE, which I've also owned. Sure, the chipset is newer but that only goes against it as it must be a reason for the battery draining so fast. S21 FE also has no memory card slot. I thought I could deal with that but on the 128GB base model it's just not enough for me. May be alright for some, but not for me. S20 FE has a larger screen, memory card slot and much better battery life, all pros compared to the S21 FE. Same cameras, same battery. Basically, everything is the same apart from SD card slot, screen size and battery life, yet S20 FE wins!
Anyway, I'll just continue to use A42 5G with 144 hour endurance rating. Cameras are decent, fast processor, memory card slot, big battery, big screen, etc. It's not a flagship but at least I'll have some power in it by bedtime!
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- Anonymous
- Fr3
- 15 Mar 2022
Very disappointed. 2 days old and phone would not charge. Took it back to store they said nothing wrong. 2 days later phone won't charge took it back. . Sent to JHB repair.....a month later got phone back.....today.....won't charge. Vodacom refuses to change the phone
- M
- Mithil
- Dka
- 07 Mar 2022
Exceptional smartphone... Very good battery back up, excellent cameras and performance.. Didn't find any problems yet. M using it from last month
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- rr87
- ak{
- 06 Mar 2022
battery very very bad.
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- Anonymous
- ssc
- 04 Mar 2022
Very bad battery 🔋
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- Anonymous
- ndi
- 03 Mar 2022
D, 28 Feb 2022Cause s20 fe tested has snapdragon processor. S21 fe they t... moreThey said in the video that they tested the Snapdragon 888 tho
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- D
- 0FK
- 28 Feb 2022
Kennykp, 28 Feb 2022Why is the battery endurence so short in comparation with s... moreCause s20 fe tested has snapdragon processor. S21 fe they tested has exynos.if exynos vs exynos or snapd vs snapd s21 fe will beat s20 fe.
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- Kennykp
- Jxh
- 28 Feb 2022
Why is the battery endurence so short in comparation with s20fe 92h vs 114h same battery same screen and the processor is way more battery saving then s20fe i read its about the short standby time but how is this possible?
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- Shakir
- srd
- 10 Feb 2022
Hi, 01 Feb 2022Does the s21 fe 5g have an update for zooming, like its now... moreIt will remain same 30x
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- Anonymous
- Nug
- 06 Feb 2022
My next upgrade
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- The Blitz
- Jcx
- 06 Feb 2022
Wow, this is the first samsung phone you can use the maximum brightness without rooting. Yay!
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- Marc
- rs5
- 05 Feb 2022
Slime2, 20 Jan 2022Yes, I've made my own fair share of mistakes. Mainly ... moreYou're quite right. The hassle is our generation invented this technology!! We created this monster. Social media certainly is anti-social. Take care!!
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- gsmfan1
- 6X%
- 02 Feb 2022
Kriegsherr, 24 Jan 2022yeah. I bought one and ended up selling the exynos version ... moreexynos performance improved a lot starting from exynos 2000 it's performing very well next to sd888 and doesn't have any heating issues. I guess this is a misconception, gone are the days when exynos really sucked.
- g
- gsmfan1
- 6X%
- 02 Feb 2022
Hi, 01 Feb 2022Does the s21 fe 5g have an update for zooming, like its now... morewhy do you even care about those zoom levels, you should care about the native optical zoom, in this case 3x and anything beyond that is a digital crop. If you want a longer range zoom, opt for phone with a 5x or 10x periscope cam but I wouldn't take photos beyond 10x as quality will be really bad anyway ..the only exception is taking a photo of the moon because Samsung does magic on it.
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- Hi
- mc7
- 01 Feb 2022
Does the s21 fe 5g have an update for zooming, like its now 30x zoom but i want it 50 or 60x zoom
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- jourquinm
- m7x
- 29 Jan 2022
How is this possible that the S21 FE has almost the same battery test score as the regular S21 when the FE has 3,5h more phone call time and 1h20 more in the video test ?
Is this an error ??
- Solun1
- 0yR
- 29 Jan 2022
Omer, 17 Jan 2022500 euros?? Where did you see that? Over here (Netherlands)... moreYou only have one store in the Netherlands? Are you serious? Utfg
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- Anonymous
- nDL
- 28 Jan 2022
Kaloyan, 28 Jan 2022Hey. So, we did about a dozen runs of this 3D Mark stress t... moreOh well, shame on me then. Thank you for the answer.
- Kaloyan
- 0mq
- 28 Jan 2022
Anonymous, 28 Jan 2022So I've sent GSMarena a message on this website and an... moreHey. So, we did about a dozen runs of this 3D Mark stress test for battery depletion purposes. The first one is what we used as a number in the review performance section - 63%. But when taking screenshots later (from 3D Mark History page), it seems we took the wrong screenshot - obviously it's from the last run before the battery went to 0%. So, the number 63% was indeed correct, but the screenshots were from the wrong run. Sorry about that and thank you for noticing!
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- Anonymous
- nDL
- 28 Jan 2022
So I've sent GSMarena a message on this website and an email since they posted this review, but no response. They did the stability test with the phone starting at 13%. On all Samsung phones I've used, performance drops after 15% and is terrible after 5%. Looking at the other benchmark scores as well being so low, I can only imagine these tests were done in 20 minutes by someone in a rush, which sucks a lot considering how many people use this website when making a choice, and they re getting straight up bad info. Shame on you.