A week with Samsung's S21 series phones: How do they compare with the S20 FE?

It's been roughly two weeks since the launch of the Galaxy S21 series smartphones in Singapore. So how does Samsung's latest flagship series hold up?

To find out, I borrowed a few review sets from Samsung and took them on a test drive for a couple of days each.

I'll mainly be comparing the S21 series with the S20 Fan Edition (FE) which was launched in October last year after the Samsung S20 series and was apparently created based on Samsung fans' feedback.

Looks: New camera housing, fresh colours

Starting off with the rear, as that's where most of the distinctions are — the S21 series opts for a rear camera layout similar to its predecessors. The main difference is the S21 series' "Contour Cut" camera housing, a departure from the raised glass bump housing the camera lenses on the S20 and S20 FE.

The raised edge on the S21 Ultra is more pronounced as it houses all of the heavy-hitting hardware whereas the S21's camera housing is more subtle and less of a protrusion.

The S21 gets the most exciting colour variations with Phantom Violet, Phantom Pink, Phantom White and Phantom Gray, whereas the S21 Ultra comes in just Phantom Silver and Phantom Black.

The S21 rises above in terms of design with its strikingly eye-catching Phantom Pink and Violet colours, both of which get a complementary rose-gold camera housing and wrapping along the edges of the phone — an elegant two-tone colour option.

Cameras: A closer look at (some of) the specs

The full list of the S21's and S21 Ultra's camera specs feature a gamut of way-too-technical hardware and software information. If the specifics of dual-pixel, phase detection autofocus and nona-binning technology are what you're looking for, you can head over to Samsung's website.

For the specs that are a little more understandable to the average smartphone user, check out the table below. Just remember, there's a lot more tech added on to the S21 series that's been left out of this simple summary.

All in all, my experience with the S21 series cameras is:

• S20: Its wide and ultra-wide modes are okay. 30x telephotos are an option but don't expect sharp images even with Samsung's Artificial Intelligence (AI) image improvement
• S21: The 30x zoom on this is better than the S20. Zoom lock image stabilisation tech helps with high-magnification zoom, making this a versatile mobile photography option.
• S21 Ultra: This has all the S21 has and more, including a 108 MP camera, to give you shoot-first-frame-later capability.

With all that processing software and AI under the hood, the S21 Ultra tends to heat up with prolonged usage of the cameras and might exhibit a bit of lag in between the pushing of the shutter button and the capturing of the image.

The phone's camera performance did improve significantly after a software update which Samsung launched soon after the phones were loaned out for reviews, but the heating up is still very much noticeable.

Feel: More comfortable one-handed usage with the S21

The S21 series' volume rocker and lock buttons are on the right side of the phone, similar to the positioning on the S20 FE. Button pressing while using the S21 one-handed is fine, but can be a bit of a reach on the Ultra variant, owing to its height.

The volume rockers are a tight fit and don't wiggle about but the lock button has just a bit too much wiggle room, making it a bit shakey — something you'll notice whenever you're pushing it to lock the phone.

The SIM tray, which was located on the top in previous generations, has been moved to the bottom, on the opposite side of the speakers. Noticeably, the S21 series does not support external micro SD storage, so you'll have to make do with the 256GB storage that comes with the phone (or 512GB, in the case of the S21 Ultra).

In day-to-day usage, the top-heavy layout of the S21 Ultra presents a bit of a learning curve, particularly for one-handed usage. At nearly $2,000 a pop, you won't want to drop it, even if it does have Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The S21 on the other hand, makes for a more comfortable one-hand use experience — it's similar to the S20 FE but a bit shorter.

The S21 sees a return of the ultrasonic fingerprint reader, which was used in the S20 series (the S20 FE has an optical fingerprint reader). The ultrasonic reader works faster than the optical one for faster, easier fingerprint unlocking. The placement of the reader on the S21 series is also slightly higher than on the S20 FE, for a more comfortable reading with the thumb.

Display and battery: A trade-off

With a dynamic AMOLED 2X display for brighter, better-coloured pictures, the S21 and S21 Ultra tout a better viewing experience than their predecessors. The S21's resolution is capped at FHD+ while the S21 Ultra can go up to QHD+, though you will be prompted with a warning about a faster battery drain rate when choosing QHD+ in the settings.

Even with QHD+ and adaptive refresh rate (which supposedly gives you better battery life by reducing the refresh rate when you don't need it), I can get through three quarters of the day with heavy usage before the battery drops to 15 per cent. That's when you'll get a warning prompt in the way of an annoying persistent notification. Of course, there is the option of downgrading your resolution to FHD+ if you won't be able to charge your phone for a longer period.

The S21 can easily last the whole day of usage without QHD+ but the S20 FE is the champ when it comes to battery, leaving a good 20 to 30 per cent even with a whole day's usage . The battery capacities for the S20 FE, S21, and S21 Ultra are 4,500 mAh, 4,000 mAh and 5,000 mAh respectively.

Performance

The S20 FE has the Snapdragon 865 processor, which is a bit of a sore point for some Samsung fanboys — previous Samsung flagships in Asia, as well as the current S21 line, get the less swanky Exynos chips. With the newer Exynos 2100, though, the S21 series can still hold its own in terms of CPU performance.

Both S20 FE (256GB) and S21 have 8GB of RAM to make multitasking easier, faster, and smoother, while the S21 Ultra has the option of 12GB of RAM for the 256GB variant, and 16GB of RAM for the 512GB version. Put simply, more RAM = good.

Multitasking and split screen view on the S21 Ultra (we got the 256GB set for the review) was no problem, as expected, and you won't experience any lag with day-to-day usage. However, whether the phone's speed will age well remains to be seen.

As a stress test, we put on mobile game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on maxed out settings while recording the screen and the player's reactions from the front camera. Jumping about the virtual battlefield while quick swiping around the vast landscape view didn't cause the game's frame rate to drop throughout the entire round, but the phone was heating up quite a bit.

Multitasking and split screen on the S21 and S20 FE is pretty smooth as well. There isn't any lag, besides during stress testing, so day-to-day usage should be solid, no matter the phone.

The S20 Ultra also introduces support for S Pen compatibility, but I haven't had the chance to test it out. It's an option if you have one lying around, or if you buy one. There is no stowaway slot for the S Pen on the Ultra, so a matching case with a holder is a likely add-on should you want the S pen utility.

Overall

The latest addition to the flagship comes with its fair share of new features and upgrades, but not to the point where I'm itching to upgrade my device.

While the competitive price point — instead of a higher price than its predecessor — is refreshing, it'll still cost a pretty penny.

Based on feedback from my peers around the office, the general consensus is that the S21 is the most palatable in terms of price vs offerings. But for the Samsung enthusiasts, there's always the options of the S21+ and S21 Ultra if you're willing to splurge. 

jayjaylin@asiaone.com