Is Samsung too LATE?!? - Galaxy S21 FE
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2022-05-05
·
2,117 words · ~10 min read
0:00
- Do you want me to (beep) on this phone? What is gonna get us the most clicks?
0:03
I wanna do whatever gets us the most clicks. (Jono laughing) (sultry music)
0:08
This isn't the real box. - [Jono] Yeah, that's all they had.
0:11
- Is this a joke? - [Jono] That's all they had! - I'm a professional video host.
0:15
- [Jono] Engineering sample! - We're about to get the Galaxy S22,
0:18
if all the rumors are right, in a short amount of time.
0:22
Here we have Samsung launching the Galaxy S21 FE,
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which stands for Fan Edition. - [Jono] Yeah, or founders edition.
0:29
- Well, it's not founders edition because you're already almost a year late.
0:33
And this is their shtick now, I guess what they do, right? They release the main phone
0:36
and then they release an FE version of the phone, which is like a little bit stripped down, but cheaper.
0:42
And is that, oh, new colors. Oh, the colors. I see them now.
0:48
Oh, that one's really good. Yeah, so the Galaxy S21, in case you were wondering, Jono,
0:52
I'll let you know it's 699 for the 128 gig version,
0:57
which is $100 more expensive than the Pixel 6.
1:03
This thing starts at 599 and this thing starts at 699,
1:07
and so that's why we're gonna be kind of looking and comparing them a little bit.
1:11
- [Man] It's recycling. - I do not feel respected in this moment right now.
1:19
This is not the true unboxing experience I was anticipating
1:22
when you asked me if I wanted to host this video. And I come on here, bubble wrap?
1:27
On the plus side, I think this is actually what comes in the real box, basically.
1:31
You might have some like documentation and stuff. So it comes with a USB-C to C cable
1:36
and a whatever, SIM ejector thing.
1:39
And no power plug, no wall plug.
1:43
And here comes the S21 FE 5G,
1:48
oh me oh my. Olive is the color. Is that what that is?
1:52
- [Jono] Yeah. - I am not usually someone to actually care at all
1:56
about the aesthetics of a phone, but I like this color. It's plastic, but it's got this sort of like,
2:01
like there's a bit of like a shadow too. Like it looks like the logo on the back is sort of raised
2:06
a little bit above through like using some clear acetate or something.
2:11
I don't know. I don't know materials, but it looks cool.
2:14
We have the power button and a volume rocker I'm assuming.
2:17
On the bottom, we got a USB-C type C port
2:21
and one speaker grill. Disappointing a little bit, but it's the FE edition.
2:25
It looks kind of like an iPhone with the metal ring on the outside and the bands.
2:31
Okay, so we got the hole punch situation going on. Okay, so 6.4" display,
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120-hertz refresh rate, which I believe is the same as the Pixel 6
2:44
in terms of the size anyway. This Pixel 6 has a 90-hertz display.
2:49
OLED versus AMOLED. It's kind of interesting, the more budget friendly options that aren't the,
2:55
these companies are now putting out are like this is the more budget friendly one,
2:58
it's got 120-hertz display. That was on the flagships a few years back. Nice job.
3:04
It's also got a Snapdragon 888, so it's got that flagship power,
3:08
at least until the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1s start showing up.
3:12
Six gigs of RAM by default, which is okay in these days.
3:18
128 gigs of storage at the 599, at the 699 price point
3:22
and then it goes up to 769 if you go for the 256 gig option.
3:27
On the back, we got three cameras. One's a 12 megapixel primary,
3:32
then there's a 12 megapixel ultra wide and an eight megapixel telephoto.
3:36
Apparently this thing can go 30 times combined digital and real zoom.
3:41
30 times is okay, you don't need more than that. On the front camera, you got a 32 megapixel.
3:47
It's got an IP68 water dust resistance rating. It does have 5G, which I guess is just the default now.
3:53
And that's about it for the regular specs.
3:56
For me, the immediate comparison is going to be, as I said, with the Pixel 6.
4:00
I'm generally a fan of the Pixel line. The Pixel 6 is a little bit bigger,
4:05
but they're supposed to have the same size screen, 6.4".
4:08
Google's whole like selling point is that it's a Google phone, right?
4:12
They have their Pixel exclusive features. It gets Android updates first.
4:16
You know, they got their Tensor chip on here now, they're custom made with the good AI stuff.
4:22
You know that good AI stuff. They got Magic Eraser on the Pixel 6.
4:26
They got the Face Unblur. But the thing is that Samsung
4:31
is not just another Android manufacturer.
4:34
They have their own One UI custom variant of Android.
4:38
I mean like when you go to their settings, it almost seems like a completely different operating system
4:44
compared to the Pixel operating system. They both have advantages over the other,
4:49
but this one's $100 cheaper. Thankfully, Samsung knew that launching the S21 FE
4:56
a month before the S22 is going to be, is kind of sketchy,
5:00
maybe they're not gonna sell as much, so Amazon was giving you a $100 gift card if you,
5:04
I think they're done with that now. To be fair, Jono-
5:07
- [Jono] You can go on Samsung's website and get a Samsung $100 credit.
5:12
- Oh, what? - [Jono] Yeah. - Let's take a look at the camera, why don't we? Because that's probably one of the most important things.
5:17
There you are. Oh, beautiful.
5:20
Oh, that was pretty good. You're looking pretty nice, Jono.
5:24
- Thanks, man. - You're looking crisp, bro. Okay, that was just like a regular rear photo,
5:30
but which, oh, okay. So I got the ultra wide. Whoa.
5:34
- [Jono] You can't call me fat. - 0.5 times, one times, three times.
5:41
This is the eight millimeter telephoto. Wow, the stabilization. Stabilization is really good.
5:46
Now I'm on the 30 times zoom.
5:49
Stop moving. Stop. There he is. (laughs)
5:55
I have located the Object Eraser feature,
5:58
which was the star of the show of my Google Pixel 6 Pro ShortCircuit unboxing.
6:04
And I wanna try it out. Object Eraser, it's got an N there 'cause it's new.
6:09
Okay, so just like on Pixel, we can just tap or draw around anything you wanna erase.
6:15
Get rid of that chair. Get rid of that chair, get out of here. Erase.
6:21
That is pretty good. Dang, Google, watch out.
6:25
What about this shelf? I wants the whole shelf. Get rid of it.
6:29
Hmm, it's pretty ugly.
6:34
We can bring up, oh, that was pretty good. We can bring up the comparison from the Pixel 6 Pro video
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and put it next to each other. But this is a battle of the content and ware fills on phones.
6:45
I'm pretty impressed, but it's a Snapdragon 888. Because part of the reason Google said
6:50
that their phone could do this fancy new AI stuff with the Magic Eraser is what they called it
6:55
and the Face Unblur and stuff is because they were like harnessing the power of their new custom made Google Tensor chip,
7:01
which is based on a Samsung processor.
7:05
From what we hear. But here we have Samsung using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888
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to achieve very similar results. I mean, it's a little different.
7:14
Put them up side by side, I don't remember what it looks like, but that's pretty good.
7:20
Did this just get scratched? Oh, is that? Wait, is this a screen protector?
7:23
- Yeah, that's a screen protector. - Oh. Oh man, you don't want that to happen to your phone.
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So I guess you should get protective things from dbrand.
7:33
- [Jono] Our sponsor. - Our sponsor, but not if you're buying the S21 FE
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because dbrand's not supporting it because they think that this phone is dumb,
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which is fair enough. (laughs) But if you have other types of phones,
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dbrand has some good skins, I guess, do they even care about me saying that?
7:50
- No, just don't buy- - They got cases, they got screen protectors, they got skins.
7:54
Go to dbrand and get your stuff or don't. It seems like they don't really care.
7:59
- [Jono] The leather is pretty sweet though. - The dbrand leather? dbrand has leather apparently, I'm being told.
8:04
dbrand, get a thing on your phone made from a dead animal.
8:08
So now our Pixel 6 is charged. Thank you so much, Jono.
8:13
And I'm gonna check out the camera. Oh man, I feel like I'm really softened more on the Pixel
8:18
instead of the, and less on the Samsung for some reason. I expected it to be the opposite.
8:23
Okay, so this is an interesting benefit. If you're into selfies more,
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if you're doing TikToks and looking at your face a lot,
8:30
'cause you're a narcissistic piece of,
8:33
you might want the S21 FE. It's got a 32-megapixel selfie camera.
8:38
And I'm guessing this is something like 8 megapixels, maybe 12?
8:42
It's a lot blurrier and that's super obvious.
8:46
Let's take one of these. Oh, we got a little bit less visual noise on the S21
8:51
than the Pixel 6 in the dark areas of the photo.
8:54
Although it does seem like things are a little bit more,
8:57
the brightness is up on the S21, but we got a little bit more color saturation
9:01
on the Pixel 6. I mean, they're both great cameras and great photos.
9:07
And at the end of the day, we're really nitpicking here. But I don't know.
9:11
The point being that there's not a clear winner. It's not like I can look at one of these and be like,
9:15
"Haha, this thing's a piece of crap. No one should get it." And same thing for this one.
9:19
I think there are pros and cons. If you're into the Google ecosystem, if you're in into the Pixels, the Pixel 6 might have some,
9:25
especially with the Tensor stuff. I don't know, are they gonna add more AI stuff?
9:29
AI is a cool buzz word and that's not to be discounted.
9:33
Whereas on the Samsung side, I mean, if you're kind of tired of Google slowly adding the features
9:40
that other Android manufacturers have put in their phones already for years,
9:44
then you might wanna go with a Samsung because, or with another manufacturer
9:47
because they have their own features like the Object Eraser, which we took a look at.
9:51
4,500 milliamp-hour battery is a little bit bigger than the regular one in the S21.
9:56
The Pixel 6 has like a 4,600 milliamp-hour battery. But you know, it's around the same.
10:00
It depends on how the software is gonna do. I think the moral of this story
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really that I wanna tell though is that the landscape of budget slash value flagship phones
10:12
is pretty good right now. I mean, we were in a dark spot there
10:15
where literally every phone that people wanted to buy was like going for near $1,000.
10:20
And now Google came back to the light with the Pixel 6,
10:23
they priced it at 599. And then if you wanted something fancy,
10:28
you'd go for the Pixel 6 Pro, which is like 999, 899?
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Whatever, it's more expensive. And Samsung has seen the light once again.
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They're doing another fan addition of the phone, so it's cool.
10:40
You know, you don't have to buy a $1,200 phone if you don't want to.
10:44
All right, one last thing we gotta look at is the speakers.
10:47
(bright music)
10:56
- [Jono] I like that better.
11:01
- I don't know, one doesn't sound particularly worse than the other to me, they just sound like a little different.
11:06
This one has a little, there's a little bit of mids missing from this maybe.
11:09
And like, you kind of hear it. This is a bit more fleshed out. Either way, they're fine. (laughs)
11:15
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11:19
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