Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G vs Apple iPhone 14

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Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G vs Apple iPhone 14

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 ) that was released on January 4, 2022, against the Apple iPhone 14, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 1221 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 3279 mAh
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14
  • 2.1x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1344K versus 625K)
  • Shows 41% longer battery life (37:21 vs 26:34 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 15% higher pixel density (460 vs 401 PPI)
  • 90% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2226 and 1174 points
  • The phone is 8-months newer
  • Ready for eSIM technology

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.4 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 401 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 420 nits 800 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits 1200 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 89.6% 86%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 97% 99.5%
PWM 247 Hz 60 Hz
Response time 6 ms 12 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
842 nits

Design and build

Height 155.7 mm (6.13 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) 7.8 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 177 g (6.24 oz) 172 g (6.07 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Gray, Green, Purple White, Black, Blue, Red, Purple, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Apple A15 Bionic
Max clock 2840 MHz 3230 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 680 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 3 cores at 2.42 GHz: Kryo 680 Gold (Cortex-A78)
- 1 core at 2.84 GHz: Kryo 680 Prime (Cortex-X1)
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard
- 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche
L3 cache 4 MB -
Lithography process 5 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Adreno 660 Apple A15 GPU
GPU shading units 1024 640
GPU clock 792 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~1622 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
1344636
CPU 140597 318930
GPU 209723 432848
Memory 134992 205372
UX 139479 379808
Total score 625671 1344636
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 39.1 °C 42.4 °C
Stability 69% 82%
Graphics test 34 FPS 56 FPS
Graphics score 5703 9385
PCMark 3.0
Web score 10889 -
Video editing 7079 -
Photo editing 28541 -
Data manipulation 10075 -
Writing score 14461 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6, 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 2750 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256 GB 128, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 16 (Can be upgraded to iOS 17)
ROM One UI 5.0 -
OS size 17.5 GB 12 GB

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 3279 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (51% in 30 min) Yes (60% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:15 hr 1:31 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:42 hr 13:45 hr
Watching video 13:05 hr 15:45 hr
Gaming 05:29 hr 05:15 hr
Standby 91 hr 122 hr
General battery life
37:21 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 3 (12 MP + 8 MP + 12 MP) 2 (12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.8 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.76", Sony IMX555 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.5
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.9 micron
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 8 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 76 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/4.5", Hynix Hi847 (CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
-
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.0", Sony IMX258 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 14 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 32 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 6464 x 4864 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 0.8 microns -
Sensor type Exmor-RS CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.74" 1/3.6"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * No Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 19 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
88.9 dB
80.9 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2022 September 2022
Release date January 2022 September 2022
SAR (head) 0.95 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.48 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included Not included
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 14 is definitely a better buy.

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