Galaxy S21 FE hands-on: Last yr’s flagship with out the frills | Engadget

At CES 2022 in the present day, Samsung has lastly unveiled the Galaxy S21 FE (or “Fan Edition”) telephone. This is principally a tweaked model of last year’s S21 that the corporate is selling for $700 beginning January eleventh. That’s $100 lower than the common S21, and for the value this yr’s mannequin affords the identical 5nm processors, similar 120Hz refresh charge (in a barely larger display) and an identical triple digital camera system. The S21 FE has a bigger battery, although, and comes with Android 12. We’ll have a full evaluate coming quickly, however based mostly on our temporary hands-on with a take a look at unit, the S21 FE seems to be a well-rounded system.

At first look, the S21 FE isn’t as eye-catching as final yr’s flagship. While it incorporates a comparable bump on the highest left nook for its digital camera module, its housing doesn’t have a shiny end like the unique S21. I choose the earlier type — this one’s form of bland. But the S21 FE feels sturdy and its matte end helps it resist fingerprints, too

The S21 FE can be obtainable in a distinct set of colours than the unique: This time, you get to select from lavender, olive, silver or black (which is the colour of my pattern unit).

At 177 grams (or 6.2 ounces), the S21 FE is barely heavier than the S21, which is cheap given the newer mannequin’s larger 6.4-inch display. The show nonetheless runs at Full HD+, and appears vibrant and sharp. But don’t count on S Pen help right here such as you’d get on the S21+ and Ultra. Like the S21, the Fan Edition doesn’t help Samsung’s stylus.

Aside from dimension, the most important distinction between the S21 FE and the unique mannequin lie of their rear cameras. While each variations have an identical 12-megapixel most important digital camera with a f/1.8 aperture, the FE’s ultra-wide lens has a barely wider area of view of 123 levels. Also, the FE’s telephoto digital camera makes use of an 8-megapixel sensor whereas the S21’s is 64 megapixels, although they each supply 30x Space Zoom.

During my hands-on interval with the S21 FE, I haven’t actually put its cameras via rigorous testing and up to now I haven’t observed any main points with image high quality. Images got here out colourful and clear. Oddly, the FE’s entrance digital camera is 32 megapixels sharp whereas the unique’s is simply 10 megapixels. The selfies I’ve shot with it up to now had been certainly tack sharp and particular person strands of my broken hair had been painfully clear.

These tweaks are much like how the S20 FE diverse from the S20. Samsung mentioned it offered 10 million items of the S20 FE in simply over a yr for the reason that telephone’s launch in This autumn 2020, making that mannequin one of many best-selling Galaxy smartphones over the previous yr.

Since that is only a temporary hands-on and never our full evaluate, I can not but inform how the S21 FE will stack as much as different telephones on this value vary. But already it faces stiff competitors from the Pixel 6, which affords wonderful cameras and software program on the similar value, though it has a polarizing design.

Though the mix of options for the comparatively lower cost may make the S21 FE an interesting telephone to many Samsung followers, the corporate picked a clumsy time to launch this system. With next-gen flagships presumably on the horizon, Galaxy buyers is likely to be inclined to attend and see what the corporate may carry at that launch. Even in case you’re dying to purchase a brand new Galaxy S sequence handset already although, at the very least wait until we will take a look at the S21 FE out extra comprehensively earlier than spending your cash.

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