Samsung's Galaxy S21 has many features, including a dynamic refresh rate display, a top-of-the-line processor, and a top-performing camera But one of its most attractive features may be its price: at $799, it is one of the least expensive flagships Samsung has released in recent years

But it is not the least expensive That honor goes to the Galaxy S20 FE, which debuted last year for $699 the Galaxy S20 FE has the same processor and a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, so even at this low price, there isn't that much We did not make any trade-offs At launch, we hailed the Galaxy S20 FE as a very good value

Does the Galaxy S20 FE still hold that title? Or has it been overtaken by the Galaxy S21, which is more expensive but offers more advanced specs? To find out, we can find out which Samsung phone is the better buy in the Samsung Galaxy S21 vs Galaxy S20 FE showdown

The Galaxy S21's debut price of $799 is $200 less than what Samsung charged for the Galaxy S20 last year; the S20's high price, and perhaps consumer reaction to it, led Samsung to launch the Galaxy S20 FE at a much lower price Galaxy S20 FE at a lower price This model debuted in October for $699 [Now that the Galaxy S21 has shipped, the Galaxy S20 FE will likely be available for a cheaper price Of course, the Galaxy S20 FE is unlikely to be available at a lower price because of Samsung's current trade-in promotion, which offers a $700 discount on the Galaxy S21's price

The Galaxy S20 FE is the larger of the two phones at 629 x 293 x 033 inches It is slightly taller and wider than the slimmer S21; at 607 ounces, the Galaxy S21 weighs less than the 67-ounce S20 FE, but unless you replace your hands with scales, you won't notice the difference

There are some similarities between the two models Both are IP68 waterproof and can withstand submersion in 15 meters of water Both models also have plastic backs, which is a cost-saving measure by Samsung to lower the price of each handset When we reviewed both the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S20 FE, we had no problem with that trade-off, but don't expect the glass backs you get with Samsung's fancier flagships

The Galaxy S21 introduces a new contour-cut design that allows the camera array on the back to blend into the metal band on the sides This gives the S21 a distinctive look while blending the camera array into the overall design of the phone in a way that was not possible with the S20 FE

The Galaxy S20 FE has one advantage over the S21: a microSD slot that can be expanded up to 1TB of storage Samsung skipped this option on the Galaxy S21 and is stuck with the onboard storage (128GB or 256GB) that comes with the phone (The Galaxy S20 FE comes in navy, lavender, mint, red, white, and orange; the S21 is kept simple with phantom violet, phantom pink, phantom white, and phantom gray

The Galaxy S20 FE has a 65" AMOLED panel, a larger display than the Galaxy S21's 62" Both models have a resolution of 2400 x 1080 FHD+ This means that the S21's smaller screen is slightly crisper, as the S21 has 421 pixels per inch compared to the Galaxy S20 FE's 407 pixels per inch

Each model supports a 120 Hz refresh rate, which is important given the price of each model, as this is a feature usually found only on the most expensive models However, only the Galaxy S21 offers a dynamic refresh rate (When this feature is enabled, the Galaxy S20 FE is fixed at 120 Hz, which may reduce battery life

The Galaxy S21 display is slightly brighter, though only slightly; the S21's maximum brightness of 711 nits is slightly higher than the Galaxy S20 FE's 679 nits; the S20 FE screen captured more of the DCI-P3 color space (1333% vs 774%), but the S21 colors were slightly more accurate than the Galaxy S20 FE

There is no difference in the number of lenses on either model, but the optics are better on the Galaxy S21, as expected Both models use a 12MP sensor as their main lens, along with a 12MP ultra-wide shooter

Where the situation differs significantly is in the telephoto lens The Galaxy S21 uses a 64MP sensor and is capable of 3x optical zoom, which can be increased to 30x with the help of software The Galaxy S20 FE's 8MP telephoto lens is also capable of 3x optical/30x digital zoom, but the S21's shots are supposed to be a bit sharper The S21 also has a zoom lock feature that focuses on the subject and locks the shot, allowing for more blurry shots

That's not the only way the Galaxy S21's camera benefits from software improvements: an updated version of the "Single Take" feature that debuted on the Galaxy S20, "Single Take 2" allows images taken with multiple cameras at the same time, slow motion videos are now mixed together

Director's View on the Galaxy S21 allows users to shoot video using both the rear and front cameras simultaneously, as well as switch between shots taken with different lenses on the phone The Portrait Video feature adds blurring, which is common in recent portrait still photography In other words, the Galaxy S21 is a much more capable shooter than the Galaxy S20 FE and one of the best camera phones we have seen

One of the best things about the Galaxy S20 FE is that it did not skimp on processing power to achieve a lower price Like the rest of the Galaxy S20 lineup, the FE ran on the Snapdragon 865 Even with less RAM than other S20 models (6GB for the FE), Samsung's budget flagship offered performance comparable to many of the best Android phones that appeared last year

Of course, the Galaxy S21 further outperformed the Galaxy S20 FE with a new system-on-chip, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 This, along with the 8GB of RAM that Samsung included, helped the S21 record a Geekbench 5 score of 3,302 in the multi-core test This is above the Galaxy S20 FE's result of 2,928

The S21 also outperformed the S20 FE in real-world testing of transcoding 4K video to 1080p using Adobe Premiere Rush; the Galaxy S21 completed this task in 1 minute 3 seconds, shaving 21 seconds off the S20 FE's time

Both the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S20 FE are 5G-enabled phones that operate on the faster networks that carriers are currently deploying in the country; the S21 supports all 5G bands, while Samsung is using Verizon's ultra-fast mmWave-based 5G towers, it had to manufacture a separate Galaxy S20 FE UW version that can take advantage of the towers

At 4,500 mAh, the Galaxy S20 FE battery is larger than the 4,000 mAh power pack used in the Galaxy S21 However, it is not the size of the battery that is important, but how it is used In a battery test in which we surfed the web with a cellular connection until the phone ran out of power, the Galaxy S21 lasted longer than the S20 FE The Galaxy S21 lasted 9 hours and 53 minutes, compared to 8 hours and 58 minutes for the Galaxy S20 FE

Of course, there are caveats to the S21 results We obtained this time by setting the screen refresh rate to 60 Hz With the dynamic refresh rate feature enabled, the battery test time for the Galaxy S21 was reduced by over 3 hours to 6 minutes and 31 seconds Neither phone is a long-lasting device

The Galaxy S20 FE comes with only a 15W charger, which can charge a depleted phone to 35% in 30 minutes At least the S20 FE comes with a charger Samsung stopped including this accessory with the Galaxy S21 With a 25W charger, the S21 can be charged to 55% in 30 minutes

The Galaxy S21 comes with Android 11 preinstalled, as well as Samsung's One UI 3 interface built on the latest version of Android The Galaxy S20 FE was released around the same time as the release of Android 11 and was still shipped with Android 10, but the Android 11 update has been rolled out to the device

This means that there are not many software differences between these two phones, as Samsung reserved many special features for the Galaxy S21 Ultra For example, if you need S Pen support, you will need to purchase the $1,199 Ultra, as the Galaxy S21 does not include that feature

The Galaxy S20 FE, which debuted last year, was an eye-popping bargain But the arrival of the Galaxy S21, which is priced lower than past Samsung flagships, is a game changer, especially considering all the advances Samsung has included in this year's model

As good a bargain as the Galaxy S20 FE, the Galaxy S21 shows that you don't have to wait for the FE version of one of Samsung's phones to get more money