10 reviews for Samsung Electronics Galaxy S21 FE 5G Cell Phone, Factory Unlocked Android Smartphone, 128GB, 120Hz Display, Pro Grade Camera, All Day Intelligent Battery, US Version, White

1. 

   5 out of 5

   GMP57 – January 23, 2020

   The Samsung has 20 at the 5G is the best value for the money.I upgraded from a Motorola G7 to this Samsung S20 5G unlocked. My carrier is Verizon Wireless. All I had to do was install a new SIM card and this phone works beautifully. I am able to get 5G where available and it took me awhile to become familiar with Samsung apps but now I really like using Samsung apps instead of Google apps.But I’m amazed of how hard it is to learn a different ecosystem. I almost sent the phone back because I was under the impression that I needed the Google apps that I was used to using.Thankfully I hung in there and learned something new.Samsung makes great hardware and software. Samsung is going to give competition to the to the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft.Each phone company wants you to use their apps and it took me a month or two to get used to this because at first I thought they’re forcing me to use their apps. I don’t want bloatware, but as I became familiar with Samsung apps they work flawlessly with their products.The other thing is the camera on this Samsung is outstanding and I would definitely recommend this product to anyone. Samsung has hooked me.The phone also works flawlessly with the Samsung Galaxy watches.Excellent customer service and support.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Jesse Ryan Peterson – March 24, 2020

   Had the regular s21, and it was all right. Screen broke do to my on negligence. So I seen to s21 fe on Amazon for a good price. Everything on the FE is better fingerprint scanner face recognition and it’s faster even though it’s got six gigs of RAM instead of eight. I love it!!

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Bryan – March 25, 2020

   To give some context, I’m coming from a Galaxy S7.FYI, I read some of the bad reviews. Most are widely inaccurate.Pros- Easy setup: I’m on Verizon and all I had to do was swap the sim card. I didn’t have to take the phone to store, I didn’t have to log in and change settings, etc.- The 120hz OLED screen is game changing (for me). I’m gamer and I could immediately notice how fast and responsive the panel is. Colors are vibrant and blacks are inky inky black.- Processor is light years ahead of S7. It’s also running the 20 series flagship processor.- Camera is amazing. 3x zoom and wide lens. Yesss please.- I love the colors. I got the Orange.- Samsung’s OneUI is a huge improvement. Very intuitive and very powerful. I’ve been setting up advanced Bixby routines. I honestly never thought i would use Bixby but I’m a believer now.- Larger screen and battery than the S20- Very fast and responsive finger print scanner- Dual sim cards and up to 1TB of additional storage if you buy a micro sd card. I’m looking at you APPLE. Although Samsung will be removing the sd card storage slot for S21’s for some reason.- Comes with a charger. APPLE!Cons- Face recognition is too slow for my liking. The finger print reader is more than adequate.- No 3mm headphone jack- Out of the box charger is not the best. You get a 15 watt charger even though this phone can handle 25 watts.In summary, if you can get this phone for 550 to 600 bucks… BUY IT.

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Jesus – June 27, 2020

   I upgraded from a Galaxy S8. I love the bigger screen size. I miss the physical thumbprint on my old phone, but the on-screen one on the S21FE is very responsive. After reading about all the issues people have had with the Pixel 6, I was wary. This phone exceeded my expectations. It is very responsive and the screen size is just right. For my older eyes I can read well, and will just fit in my back pocket [inside of a Spigen case].The sound is good as I place calls on speakerphone or listen podcasts while I mull around the kitchen.The battery is average, it is great that it can be charged wirelessly since having it in my jacket pocket while I cycle I get condensation and would not be able to charge it with a cable until it fully dries.I set my refresh screen to 60Mhz to save some battery and the scrolling is still smooth.To nitpick, it would be nice to have a SD card slot when I want to shoot a lot of pics or bring extra lectures (videos) to watch at my leisure.The modem has been great and I have been getting speeds of 300Gbps in Chicago (Metro by T-Mobile)I am very happy with this phone and think the icing on the cake was that it will get 4 android versions. I normally keep my phones until they give the ghost.

5. 

   5 out of 5

   Sorry, Not Sorry – July 12, 2020

   Just got this yesterday, the day it came out. I got the Navy Blue, which looks great. I got it to replace my 1st generation Pixel XL. Because the Pixel’s battery was old Google stopped supporting security updates, I decided to upgrade. I thought about a Pixel 4a, but when I saw this phone in online comparisons and its 120hz screen, huge battery, and top-of-the-line processor for $600, that seemed like too good of a deal. While the OS is gussied up a bit from what’s in the Pixel line, it’s not hard to figure out the differences and it adds a slight premium feel.The only negatives in comparison to the Pixel are the camera software isn’t as good, and the price is greater: $250 more than the 4a and $100 more than the 4a 5G. I had to look hard at my criteria to justify the extra cost, but I feel that the Pixel software doesn’t add enough to the photos and that the extra cost gave me a phone with the kinds of features that will tide me over an additional year that the Pixel phones–with their weaker processors–likely would not. If anything else, it should have decent trade-in value in a year or two.

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Stephen D Pearl – July 12, 2020

   I’ve been a OnePlus fan for years. I’ve owned a OnePlus 3, 6, and (currently) a 7t. They’ve always been solid phones at a solid price, undercutting the bigger players with nearly-flagship specs at mid-range prices.So why did I even consider the Samsung S20 FE if I’m so happy with the 7t?Well, I have to confess. I’m getting a $500 TMobile trade-in value on an old Google 3a I had laying around. $199 net for a brand new Samsung S series phone? Well that was too enticing not to consider.Then there’s this. I wanted a true wide-angle lens and better optical zoom. For as much as I love my 7t, I’ve been longing for something with a little more versatility and quality in the camera stack. (Yeah, I take a lot of pictures.) The 7t’s wide-angel lens isn’t all that wide and the telephoto is about 1.7x, not 2x or even 3x.So if I wanted a better camera setup, why not go for one of the other S series with higher res sensors and longer zooms? Because the rest of the S20 line was out of my price range. I wanted better cameras, but I’m not insane. $1300 for the S20 Ultra and it’s 4x zoom? No way. $1400 for the Note 20 Ultra with it’s 5x zoom? Nuts.$699 (with MAJOR trade-in incentives) for a Samsung S20 FE with specs to rival the OnePlus 8?Now *that* was worth a look.I’m glad I looked. This may be the first time I walk away from OnePlus and land on Samsung. The jury is still out, and this is still an early review (I’ve only had the phone for a couple of days), but so far I’m duly impressed.Now I won’t belabor pixel peeping comparisons between the various phones. Pop over to Youtube and you can find comparisons between just about every phone on the market. What I will say is simply this. For $699 the Samsung S20 FE compares extremely favorably to the OnePlus 8, not to mention the rest of the phones in the Samsung S series.So what follows is a quick rundown of the good, the bad, and the meh. I don’t think there’s really anything “ugly,” just a little “meh.”The Good…* I’ve never been a fan of the Samsung “Edge” style screen. I always turn it off. The S20 FE has a nice, flat, vibrant screen. You get Samsung screen brilliance in a no edgy gimmicks, 6.5″ form factor. Nearly bezel-less. Oh yeah, and it does 120hz, but for battery life purposes I’ve dialed mine back to 60hz. I’m not a big gamer and frankly 60hz works for me.* The performance is perfectly acceptable. I’ve seen benchmarks that indicate Samsung isn’t squeezing every ounce of power out of the Qualcomm 865, but I don’t have any complaints. I can load up everything I typically run and never encounter a slow-down. (Browser, password manager, camera, news feeds, social media, etc.)* The battery life has been good so far, and I expect it to get a little better after it breaks in and Android does it’s app tuning magic. I just finished my second day with about 30% left in the tank after a typical usage cycle; a TON of web browsing, a couple of Youtube videos, some social media, LOTS of messaging, a couple of calls.* The cameras are surprisingly solid for a phone at this price point. The 12mp wide angle sensor is poppy and vibrant with TONS of detail. It’s a bona-fide wide-angle, too, unlike my OnePlus 7t that trims a few mm off the angle. The 12mp main sensor is well matched to the wide angle, producing nearly identical exposures and saturation, with plenty of detail. Sure, everyone’s crazy about megapixels, but 12m is plenty for most applications and I’ve printed 12mp shots up to 20×30 in the past with good success. Now, the 8mp 3x optical telephoto is worth a special note. Yes, 8mp is a tad skimpy, but when you consider that other phones in the Galaxy S range (and other manufacturers) use a combination of pixel binning and AI magic to artificially create longer zooms, 8mp 3x optical is… well, it’s workable. So far the results are not only usable, but quite good. At 10x the results are still usable, though I wouldn’t use them for blow-ups. At 20x, detail is dropping off fast, far earlier than the “space” zoom on the higher end Galaxy S20 line with their higher resolution sensors. By 30x the photos are unusable for anything but… well, they’re unusable. At this price point, though, the quality is quite good and I have no complaints. I’m paying half the cost versus the other Samsungs with more advanced zoom setups, so I’m getting about what I expect at this price. Oh yeah… I don’t do selfies. YMMV ;) BTW… The camera software launches *faster* than the module on the Note 20 Ultra. No kidding. The bargain unit is faster than the flagship. Noticeably. Like a second or two faster. Go figure.* Memory Card slot. Why can’t Apple give you expandable memory? No memory expansion on the OnePlus. Why couldn’t Samsung add it to the $799 Note 20? The S20 FE has it at $699. Winning!* Oh yeah, and one bennie… I know a lot of people go bluetooth and live audio isn’t as big a deal anymore. I happen to be one of those folks who likes to listen to live audio off my phone. I carry it around with me. The OnePlus 7t has always been a bit tinny for my taste, another minor annoyance. The audio on the S20 FE is actually passably rich and full. “Passably.” This is no Bose Soundbar. It’s just not annoying. ;)The Bad* Slower charging than the OnePlus 8. Come on, Samsung. You can do better than 25w charging. How can tiny little OnePlus keep beating you to the technology punch on charging?* Plastic back. Some people don’t like this. I’m fine with it. I put my phones in Spigen slim cases anyway. But if you’re spoiled by all-glass backs, this isn’t going to win you over.* Samsung One UI. Bloatware. Irrelevant. Childish looking. Replace it with Nova Launcher, tune it to your taste, and move on. OnePlus has a clean, crisp UI and that’s the way it should be. Samsung needs to grow up and get rid of One UI.* 6gig of RAM? Come on, Samsung. OnePlus routinely puts 12gig in. Now I don’t need 12gig, and I’ve never pushed my phone to those limits, but please, it’s time to grow up and beef up the RAM, even at this price point.The Meh* 5G performance is good when you can find it, but it crushes battery life. I never run it on anything but 4G. I don’t need 5G. I’m not streaming 8k to my phone. I’m just using it for the typical stuff people use a smartphone for.* Please, for the love of the UNIVERSE, kill BIXBY! Bixby, Bixby, Bixby! KILL BIXBY! In the age of the Google Assistant and Alexa, it’s utterly, completely useless. Why tie Bixby to a button? KILL IT! UGH!* Who puts volume buttons on the right? Seriously. If you want to create a phone for righties, the volume buttons should fall under the index finger, not the thumb. The power button goes under the thumb, as it is on this phone. This is a bizarre design choice and OnePlus gets it right. Samsung, not so much.* One thing OnePlus continues to add to their phones that nobody else on the Android side has added is a volume mute slider. I can’t tell you the number of times that silly little slider has come in handy during meetings. Flip a switch. No need to open the screen. Just slide the switch. Steal the idea, Samsung. (Correction, just take inspiration from it. :) )Bottom line…This phone is a GREAT value for the price. At this price point it’s in the same league as the OnePlus 8 and in some subtle ways it’s a notch better. The only reason anyone would spend any more money than this would be to get gimmicks and pointless performance bumps. Save your money. Make it a Galaxy S20 FE or a OnePlus 8.

7. 

   5 out of 5

   Ezana Berhanu – August 13, 2020

   Just ordered my phone it came super quick at a discount from Amazon. For $635 , the phone is quick the cameras look really cool on the back but I’m not a fan of how clear they look the picture is fuzzy and is always halfway zoomed in. Coming from lg Google phone from 2017 the samsung ui and ecosystem is mediocre at best, it feels really slippery and unfufilling like every app you open is opened on accident like you just slipped into this app. Counter intuitive power off process(its not the same as to power on wtf ). Bixby sucks to say the least, a lot of wireless half baked features that are impractical. But the phone seems reliable enough, I know how to maximize battery life like first changing the wallpaper to a black and white version, limiting 5g/network(I like how you can easily enable 5g if needed, but who really needs that much power?), and of course keeping no apps running in the background, and putting the phone on do not disturb mode so it doesn’t vibrate itself to oblivion, which is weird because the phone forces a lot of notifications even after you turn them off or minimize them. I expected a little cleaner software, honestly would have preferred a brand new s9+, but I couldn’t find anything that wasn’t refurbished. I turned the 120 Hz refresh rate off and boom the battery is lasting a couple days on the regular love 4500 MA battery. I like the glasstic back, but be warned there is a slippery feel to it so go to eBay and grab a quick 10 buck case to be safe. Overall I’m happy with the device. The expandable storage is very nice and I bought another 128 gigs for 30 bucks at target so I have all the memory I need and more! Just wish I could switch to the Google version of software but keep the Samsung hardware, because those pixels are looking weak! Watching the iphone 12 commercial made me shrug and grateful I had this phone, the price, the value, and the vibe of my mint cloud samsung 20 fe is one that is pretty much unmatched! The box is the phone and charger, the speakers sound is a little above average. The fingerprint reader is solid and practical. Totally worth it.

8. 

   5 out of 5

   PaulyPauly – August 13, 2020

   I sold my s20 ultra and bought this. No issues so far everything works great. I now have extra money to buy something else.

9. 

   5 out of 5

   Jay Jay – September 6, 2020

   I had my previous phone, a Huawei Mate 9 for 3 years (ordered from Amazon), and I felt it was time for an upgrade. After researching and narrowing my decision down to the Google Pixel 5 and the Samsung S20 FE 5G, I chose the S20 FE 5G. For me, it came down to being able to expand the memory and I prefer to have that option. So far, everything works great. I love the pastel color choices! Cloud lavender looks pretty and so does the Cloud Orange, but I had to go with my favorite color, Cloud Mint.The fingerprint reader is accurate and fast. When unlocking the phone, the bright light is a little blinding, especially if unlocking the phone in the dark. Face recognition works great and it unlocks well with my eyeglasses on too.For the battery life, it seems that it doesn’t last long compared to my previous phone. With the S20 FE 5G, I noticed with my normal use (watching YouTube videos, using social media, surfing the internet, etc.), I would have to charge it after a day, but with the Mate 9, I was able to use it for almost 2 days before having to charge it.I love the quality of the rear/front camera. The rear camera focuses well and the photos appear brighter/sharper which I like. The front camera is fixed and doesn’t allow for autofocus when tapping on the screen, which I’m bummed out about. I hope this is something that will be fixed. The super steady mode is awesome!Included in the box: phone, charging adapter, charging cable, paperwork, and the sim tray eject tool. I do wish the charging cable was a bit longer and I wish it came with earphones, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll be buying a usb-c to 3.5mm headphone adapter. I do have Bluetooth earbuds, but I prefer connecting directly for better sound.When I received my package and I opened it up, it came with ZERO packaging, which I was unhappy about. You would think it would come with some protection with bubble wrap or air pillows to avoid the phone from getting tossed around in the box. Amazon, please make sure the package is secured well so the product we are paying $$$ for arrives safely.

10. 

    5 out of 5

    atomic240atomic240 – February 10, 2021

    This is a fantastic phone. I bought this phone before it became available on Amazon at Best Buy, but I thought potential buyers would be interested in these attributes of the Samsung 21 FE.Positives (in no particular order):1) Excellent camera. It takes night pictures with a quality that is almost beyond belief. Yes, the night mode takes a little while to process, but it is quite worth it. I was able to capture an image that had stars visible in the image. I’ve never had that on a cell phone. The daytime images are comparable to the iPhone 13, which are quite good. Something the reviewers fail to mention with the camera is the Field of View, which is 79 degrees, or equivalent to around 26.5 mm, full frame, which is just a tad narrower than the iPhone 13, and quite a bit narrower than the s21 ultra which is around 24 mm, and the s22 ultra which is reported at coming in at 23 mm, with a FOV of 86 degrees. This is not acceptable as this will lead to significant distortion when taking pictures of people at closer range with the main camera. It may be possible to correct through algorithms using the AI, but the subjects will always be smaller. It seems there is a trend toward having much wider lenses on the main camera which doesn’t really make sense considering there are ultra wide lenses on most of these phones. I fear this may be the last flagship grade Samsung to have a FOV as narrow as 79 degrees on the main lens with this level of quality.2) Thermal throttling. Yes, this is actually an advantage. The Snapdragon (SD) 888 was know to run hot, and the SD 8 Gen 1 is even hotter. Most people do not need that type of bleeding edge of performance. This phone actually runs quite cool. Most people don’t want their phone to turn into a frying pan in order to squeak out an extra bit of performance, and if they do, then they will get a proper gaming phone like an Asus ROG.3) Battery life. I’ve seen conflicting reviews concerning battery life. Some reviewers see more that adequate battery life, while others find it lacking. Personally, I find battery life excellent with this phone.4) Aspect ratio and associated size. This phone has an aspect ration of 19.3:9. This is excellent news for those that find that phones have gotten too long and skinny making them difficult to be placed in a pocket or a purse. Not to mention, most content is still 16:9, which is more enjoyable to use on this aspect ratio. Very few reviewers will cover this.5) Excellent signal reception as per typical Qualcomm excellence with their radios.6) Many more updates available through Android 15 and a years worth of security updates beyond that. The S20 FE will only have till Android 13 and 1 year of security updates beyond this. This is increasingly important from a security perspective.This phone is not perfect, though, as indicated below:1) Weak haptic motor. Haptic motor is not very strong on this phone.2) People mention lack of glass back. I’m not sure how relevant this is as 90% of people buying this phone will put a case on it, myself included. I don’t care about the plastic back on this phone. Looks fine to me.3) Price. This is a big one for a lot of people. Many compare it to the Pixel 6. Yeah, on paper that may work, but in the real world, the Pixel 6 is so buggy, it is difficult to use for many. In addition, the signal reception has been found to be lacking in the Pixel 6. A phone, no matter how well spec’d, is useless without a good signal. So, take the Pixel 6 out of your price comparison. That, being said, the price is still a little high, but there are many promotional offers on the phone now.4) Missing headphone jack and sd card slot. This is a disappointing thing for many, myself included, but the positive attributes outweigh this.