In my last blog, I established that the Galaxy S21 would be a great choice.
But seeing as it’s a cheaper option than the S20, I thought I’d go back and compare it to the S20 FE.
Although neither the Galaxy S20 or S20 FE are options for me personally, I still want to know how the S20 Fan Edition compares to the newer S21.
Both are intended to be cheaper than the Galaxy S20. If there are any compromises on the S21, are they better or worse than the S20 FE, and is the S21 worth the extra money?
Exynos chip again…
The last generation of Exynos chips have been widely criticised as being one of Samsung’s worst. Here in the UK, the Exynos 990 chipset is found in both the Galaxy S20, and also the 4G model of the Galaxy S20 FE.
But the Galaxy S20 FE 5G was the only model in the UK that actually offered a Qualcomm chipset: the SM8250 Snapdragon 865 (7 nm+). The last Qualcomm-powered phone I owned was my HTC Desire Eye, and compared to my Exynos Galaxy S7, my Desire Eye still lives.
I wonder if that speaks to the longevity of Qualcomm’s chips, or was it just a coincidence that my Galaxy S7 only lasted 2 and a bit years, or was HTC’s midrange phone just an overall better quality device than Samsung’s Galaxy S7? I guess I’ll never really know the answer to that one.
But herein lies a dilemma: the newer Galaxy S21 comes with the new Exynos 2100, which is said to be faster and more power efficient than the totally inefficient Exynos 990.
That said, if I went for the 5G model of the Galaxy S20 FE – even though, as I’ve said before, I can’t yet receive a 5G signal in my area, nor will I be able to do for probably another 2-3 years – I’d benefit from the better Snapdragon chipset.
So… is the Galaxy S21 worth it, or do I opt for the much cheaper S20 FE 5G?
Screen size & resolution
The S20 FE is the same size as my Galaxy S9 Plus. I’d initially thought it’s 6.5″ screen meant it would be a much bigger device, but after measuring my S9 Plus, I’ve realised that although it has a 6.2″ screen, the body is nearer to 6.5″. Since I’m already using a 6.5″ device, there’s not going to be much difference with the S20 FE, apart from having a slightly larger but lower resolution screen.
The S20 FE has a Super AMOLED, whereas the S21 ships with a Dynamic AMOLED 2x screen. Both, however, support a 120Hz refresh rate at 1080p.
Both have a maximum screen resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels, although the S21 just edges ahead with a higher pixel density – 421 PPI to the S20 FE’s 407 PPI. That’s not much of a difference, in contrast to the higher maximum resolution and pixel density of my S9 Plus – 2960 x 1440p, with 529 Pixels Per Inch.
Storage & RAM
The S20 FE 5G (in the UK) only comes with 128GB internal storage but it does have a Micro SD card slot. Whereas, the S21 has the option of either 128GB or 256GB, but no expandable storage at all.
Both phones come with 8GB RAM, although there’s a chance the S20 FE 5G might come as a 6GB RAM model. The Galaxy S20 matches the S21 with 128GB internal storage and 8GB Ram, but like with the S20 FE it also had a Micro SD card slot.
Cameras
On the camera front, the S21 has the same telephoto camera as the S20 – meaning that it has only 1.1x optical zoom and 3x hybrid zoom. It’s a 64MP lens, which means that although the standard & ultrawide cameras output images at 12 megapixels, the telephoto camera uses quad pixel binning to make up for the loss of optical zoom. Basically, it crops into the image without losing resolution – that’s why it’s 64MP.
However, the 1.1x zoom is important to note: the standard ‘wide’ lens on the S21 is set at a Focal Length of 26mm. The supposedly ‘telephoto’ lens is only set at 29mm, meaning that digital zoom is the only way to make up for the loss of optical zoom. For reference, my S9 Plus’s 2x optical lens has a Focal Length of 52mm.
The S20 FE, on the other hand, ships with an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom – with a Focal Length set at 76mm. GSM Arena states that it actually outputs 12MP photos, so it’s upscaling them as well.
What this means, is that the images coming from the S20 FE’s telephoto camera should look much better than those from the S21’s 29mm 1.1x telephoto shooter – because instead of digitally cropping a higher resolution photo, it’s optically-zooming instead.
It’s why a photo taken on a DSLR with a 80mm lens will always look better and more detailed than a photo taken on either phone at 30x zoom.
A 30x zoom shot on the S21 translates to 780mm Focal Length. Because the S20 FE’s telephoto camera has a larger focal length than the S21’s – 76mm to the S21’s mere 29mm – it means there’s less digital cropping going on.
As a result, the zoomed images from a S20 FE should be better quality than those from the S21. A 30x zoom photo on the S20 FE translates to 3x optical zoom & 27x digital zoom. Whereas, on the S21, it would still be only 1.1x optical zoom but 28.9x digital zoom – even though the lens has a higher megapixel count to offset the loss of optical zoom.
On a DSLR, if you were to attach a 2x teleconverter to the back of a 400mm lens – effectively making it a 800mm lens – the results would be much more detailed than either phone’s efforts. Even if that DSLR had an APS-C crop sensor.
Video quality
Video quality should be better on the S21, as with the Galaxy S20. The maximum recording resolution is 8K at 24fps, but it uses the 64MP shooter to achieve this – as was the case on the Galaxy S20.
This is where the higher MP of the S21’s telephoto lens has an advantage over the S20 FE. The Fan Edition S20 is limited to 4K 60fps. While that’s still a great resolution, it’s not reported to be as good quality as video recording quality from the Galaxy S20, its bigger sibling.
While 8K isn’t really something that interests me, video quality on phones is limited by hardware. I’ve always felt that although it says 1080p 30fps, the quality of the video coming from my S9 Plus is not as good as the 1080p 30fps videos that come from my Canon EOS 750D DSLR.
Videos from my S9 Plus look over-sharpened and over-processed, which I feel degrades the quality by some margin. I always use a higher resolution on mobile to offset the hardware losses, and I think in this regard, an 8K 24fps video on the S21 would be of a higher quality than a 4K 30fps video coming from my S9 Plus – not least because it’s a newer phone with better camera sensors & software algorithms.
FM Radio
A plus point of the Galaxy S20 FE 5G is that it apparently has an FM Radio. The last phone I had with this feature was my HTC Desire Eye, and whilst it’s not something I used that much, it was useful.
On the train to college, my 4G data signal would often drop off, meaning listening to DAB or Internet radio was impossible. Having an FM Radio to hand was something I found to be useful, when music or pre-downloaded videos weren’t enough to keep me entertained on the journey to college.
Again, the last phone to have such a useful feature was my HTC Desire Eye – a mid-range smartphone.
Is it just me, or is there another theme developing here?
Why is it that flagships are the phones that grab the headlines, but mid-range phones are the ones with all the features?
Maybe, my ideal phone isn’t a flagship after all, but a mid-range phone. Hmm, now there’s a thought…
Fingerprint sensor
The S21 has a larger under-display fingerprint sensor than the one found on the S20 and S20 FE. It’s said to be more reliable and less prone to failing to read fingerprints, but for me personally, it’s a consideration rather than a crucial reason to consider the S21 over the other 2 devices.
Whilst a fairly reliable fingerprint reader would be a plus point, an unreliable one wouldn’t be the end of the world, considering there is also the face unlock feature. But, it’s something for me to keep in mind, now that the sensors have been moved underneath the displays on the S20, S20 FE and S21.
This wouldn’t be a problem on the Xperia 5 II as its power button on the side doubles as its fingerprint sensor, and on the Pixel 4a and Pixel 5, it’s on the rear of the phone.
S20 FE Ghost Touch issues
When watching video reviews on YouTube, I read some comments talking about the ghost touch issues on the S20 FE 5G.
I wanted to ignore those comments, thinking them to be overzealous fans of other devices – an occasional problem when Apple fans clash with Samsung fans, who in turn clash with Google Pixel fans.
Why can’t everyone just live in harmony and use what they want to use without being abusive to others? Beats me…
But, I gave time of day to all the reports about the screen gap issues on the Pixel 5, so if I was being completely neutral and unbiased, shouldn’t I also research these purported ghost touches?
As I started to read, it became obvious to me that it was a hardware fault. It seems as though Samsung has tried to fix it with software updates, but these may never solve the issue.
The issue itself arises when the phone incorrectly acknowledges multiple touches of the screen. It’s apparently most common during gaming, but scrolling through multiple threads on Reddit, I’ve found that some users have reported their phones are almost impossible to use.
If the screen gap issue on the Pixel 5 is a potential threat to its water resistance, surely the ghost touch issue on the S20 FE is a threat to the usability of the phone?
Here’s why it matters to me: what if I’m doing something really important, like sending money to a friend, and the Ghost Touch issue arises there and then? Potentially, it’s a huge problem, and an accident waiting to happen.
Crucially, this problem only seems to exist on the S20 FE 5G, and doesn’t seem to be evident on the 4G version of the S20 FE. However, the S20 FE 4G comes with the best-avoided, sluggish Exynos 990 chipset, and although both FE’s come with a bigger 4,500 mAh battery, the S20 has better specs for an Exynos 990 phone.
Even more crucially, the Galaxy S21 appears to avoid all issues with a much newer Exynos 2100 chipset. Yes, it’s still ‘Exynos,’ but hopefully with much better performance and battery life.
Only time will tell…
Conclusion
As I said before, the fact that my HTC Desire Eye came with quite a few features that my Galaxy S7 and S9 Plus haven’t had, means that maybe I should be looking more at mid-range phones?
That said, I think I’ve now discounted the Galaxy S20 FE. Although it has similar specs to the Galaxy S21, meaning it offers more bang for my buck and is therefore a better value option, that value also means it potentially suffers from unreliability.
The ghost touch issues are too big of a problem to ignore. It means the cheaper 4G S20 FE is a real option, especially with a Micro SD card slot. However, considering that it comes with the Exynos 990 chipset, will the 4,500 mAh battery be enough to overcome its deficiencies?
Whilst I would have preferred the smaller Galaxy S20, I can’t deny that the S20 FE would have been a better value option.
The former part of that statement is what’s drawing me towards the Galaxy S21. As a direct successor to the Galaxy S20, it looks perfect on paper. It ditches the 3.5mm port and Micro SD card slot, but it’s smaller than my S9 Plus and nails almost every other requirement that I have.
I wonder… is the Galaxy S21 a dark horse? Is it about to become My Next Phone?
– Chris JK.
KPH tech blog 
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