Hands On: Samsung Galaxy S21 FE First Look

Samsung just love breaking away from the normal schedule. CES is where TVs and fun gadgets are announced, Mobile World Congress is where Phones are announced. A few years ago they started announcing phones before MWC and this year, they’ve announced a new phone at CES! I’ve spent the morning with the phone and can give you some first impressions.

I was invited to the Home of the Las Vegas Raiders – Allegiance Stadium a new stunning venue just adjacent to the famous Las Vegas Strip. Inside, while workers cleaned the football field, we had our first look at the four colours of the new Samsung Galaxy S21 FE.

As Daniel pointed out in our announcement article, the S21 FE starts at $999 and comes in four colours.

Those colours are great. The Lavender is a typical purple, though a touch washed out – lighter if you like. The Olive is a more army green” to me, but again, washed out a bit to make it a nice subtle “Olive” and of course there’s White and Black (or Graphite as Samsung are calling it).

All four colours look fascinating, they are not a gloss finish, nor are they a traditional matte – it’s more of a soft finish to the backing which really does give a nice effect and make these colours work.

The 177g weight is super light in the hand, and while it’s a 6.4 inch screen, it doesn’t feel like a “big” phone.

Around the front the screen is not quite edge to edge, but the bezel and rounded edge is barely noticeable in the hand.

Your Front camera is a hole punch within the screen and the finger print reader too is under the screen.

Importantly, the cameras are top notch. Not quite S21 but damn good. Batting way above the $999 price tag.

Honestly, I would find it hard to part with more than $999 for an Android phone, or any phone frankly when you realise what this offers.

Samsung has tweaked the software aimed at content creators with a Vlog style mode which records video from front and back cameras, and just overall done some stuff to make the operating system more usable and personalised.