The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is a budget alternative to cheaper phones, but the S22 could realign the price tiers.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE has a problem – its price. Despite this budget alternative to the Galaxy S21 launching for a lower price than its 11-month-old sibling did, due to the devaluation of tech over time, the older and more powerful handset is now the cheaper one. As a result, after debuting at CES 2022, tech journalists’ responses to the Galaxy S21 FE have been lukewarm; in our review, we said « at its launch price, it’s hard to recommend. » And our sister site Tom’s Guide said, « Samsung should have just canned this one and saved all the fanfare for the Galaxy S22. » It’s easy, then, to discount this afterthought of a smartphone, but there’s actually a way Samsung could save it – and it all comes down to the Galaxy S22, which we’re expecting to launch soon. We were rather impressed by the Samsung Galaxy S21’s price when it launched, as its $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 cost was representative of a larger price decrease for the family – the S20 mobiles cost quite a bit more.
