Galaxy S21 FE officially joins Samsung's midrange lineup

After a year of will-they-or-no-them speculation, Samsung has finally announced the Galaxy S21 FE. Like the Galaxy S20 FE 2020 (FE stands for Fan Edition), it features most of the flagship-level specs of the Galaxy S21, including the Snapdragon 888 chipset and 120Hz display, for a lower price: $699 for the base 128GB model. With the S21's almost mid-range price tag and attractive mid-range options on the Galaxy A52 5G, this is another addition to Samsung's already crowded place.

The Galaxy S21 FE offers a 6.4-inch screen, slightly larger than the S21's 6.2-inch panel. Beyond that size difference, the S21 FE has a lot in common with the S21. The display is a 1080p OLED panel with 120Hz like the S21. Even the design language is consistent, with the camera protrusion blending into the phone's side rails.

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The FE includes a flagship 5nm chipset (Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 in the US, Samsung's Exynos elsewhere) and a 12-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with optical stabilization, the same as the S21. That's even better on battery capacity, with a 4,500mAh cell compared to the S21's 4,000mAh (though its slightly larger screen likely makes for battery performance). 25W fast wired charging, 15W wireless charging, IP68 weather resistance rating, and both 5G variants (sub6-GHz and fast mmWave) all carry over from the S21.

So, what do you get by paying more for the S21? More RAM — 8GB in the base configuration versus the 6GB S21 FE — and a higher resolution telephoto camera. Other than the aforementioned screen and battery size differences, that's about it. The Galaxy S21 FE will retail for $699 with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage or $769 for 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. It ships with Samsung's Android 12-based One UI 4.0 installed.

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I've had the S21 FE in my hands for a few days now, and to me, it feels like a device that's driving the ever-cluttering line between flagships and mid-range phones. The back is made of composite plastic with a matte finish, which feels midrange to me, but the screen is big and bright with all the buttery smoothness of the 120Hz refresh rate — flagship territory for sure. Overall performance also feels worthy of an underdog, except for a slight lag in the live preview of the camera's portrait mode. Oh, and there's no charger in the box, which is also a mainstay now.

Samsung introduced the S20 FE last year as a cheaper, full-featured alternative to the S20. Also priced at $699, there's a bigger gap between it and the $999 base S20 model, which makes it a deal. Things are a little different this time around, with the price of the S21 dropping to $799. There's also the Galaxy A52 5G, one of Samsung's high-end budget phones for $499. And let's not forget that Samsung is lowering the admission price for its foldable device — with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 priced at $999, that's also part of the conversation.

It's more than a little confusing, but it's not a new strategy for Samsung. As Dieter notes in his overview of the S20 lineup, Samsung is taking this “phone at every price point” approach because it can. It's also really good at mixing and matching features for different price points, and the solid support policy that supports most devices makes its budget and mid-range phones hard to beat. With the S21 FE, Samsung is taking another cut to the market that is happy to slice it thinner and thinner.

Keywords: samsung s21 fe, s21 fe, samsung, samsung's midrange