Samsung’s S21 series last year was a bit of a conflicting line of phones for us. The S21 Ultra was solid, easily proving the point of the “Ultra” line and easily being one of the best (if not overall the actual best) flagship phones of last year. However the basic S21 felt so held back we considered a well-specced A52 a better buy, with the S21+ being sort of in the middle and only a truly better buy if you were jumping from the S19 or older. The reason we’re giving this context is because somehow in the midst of all that, Samsung decided it should take the basic S21, shave an extra feature or two, and release it about a month before the S22 comes out as the S21 FE. And if you’re as confused as we are, good because we don’t get this phone either.

Now to be honest, we probably lied about that last part, we do sort-of get what this phone is about. For the past two years Samsung has been analysed more and more by tech media for the fact that the company arguably has too many phones it releases. There’s a reason for this of course, Samsung basically wants a phone at every possible price point, less than $100 to $1000 and pretty much everything in between in $50 increments. It’s the same kind of thinking that led to the S20 FE, this phone’s predecessor, but when that phone came out it was at least a breath of fresh air in some ways. The regular S20 series had been a bit of a letdown, and while the Note 20 Ultra was great the regular Note 20 had a lot of issues as well. Because of that the S20 FE was essentially the most reasonable Samsung phone to get outside of the A series mainly because of its price to performance ratio. However in a year where for better or worse the S21 line reduced prices and features to appeal to more people, the S21 FE seems a little unnecessary and not well thought-out. In fact, considering that the regular S21 released selling  for $800, the $700 price of the FE seems borderline ridiculous.

Samsung themselves seemed to have similar ideas, because multiple rumors from last year suggested the gave up on the phone likely for the same reasons. Yet this year they’ve decided they should still go on with it. Perhaps the reason is because Samsung had already begun manufacturing enough of these to completely write them off but it still seems like an ill-conceived move. This is especially in light of the fact that not only are regular S21s being discounted to an even lower price than $700, but Samsung themselves are likely to release the S22 series in less than a month. And while some tech fans may definitely recognize the value of the S21 FE, it’s likely regular consumers would look at a 800 dollar S22 vs this phone and think “I can just go for the newer one”. Now of course Samsung will likely discount the S21 FE soon , but that again feeds into the whole narrative that this phone is basically a write off. At best it might serve to be sold to S21  customers who can’t get the regular S21 , something that is possible on online stores especially in these times where chip and component shortages are rampant, meaning phones, pcs and other gadgets people buy can be in short supply.

In the end however, this phone is quite…confusing to say the least. The truth is, if you can get an S21 , buy that instead, and if you want the best Samsung has to offer, just get the S22 instead. Reports suggest that they won’t be as disappointing as their predecessors, arguably being quite amazing in concept too, so basically worth the wait. If you somehow feel that the S21 FE may be what you need however, wait for a price drop. With it’s current trajectory, that seems like it will happen soon.

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