Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G vs Apple iPhone X

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Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G vs Apple iPhone X

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 X, which is powered by Apple A11 Bionic and came out 52 months before. 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
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 1784 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 2716 mAh
  • Has a 0.6 inch larger screen size
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • 48% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (625K versus 422K)
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Shows 18% longer battery life (26:34 vs 22:33 hours)
  • Delivers 31% higher peak brightness (797 against 607 nits)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone X
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 14% higher pixel density (458 vs 401 PPI)

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone X 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 5.8 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1125 x 2436 pixels
Aspect ratio 20:9 19.5:9
PPI 401 ppi 458 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 420 nits 625 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 89.6% 82.9%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 97% 99.3%
PWM 247 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 6 ms 2.2 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
797 nits
607 nits

Design and build

Height 155.7 mm (6.13 inches) 143.6 mm (5.65 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 70.9 mm (2.79 inches)
Thickness 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) 7.7 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 177 g (6.24 oz) 174 g (6.14 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP67
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Gray, Green, Purple Silver, Gray
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone X in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Apple A11 Bionic
Max clock 2840 MHz 2390 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 1.42 GHz: Mistral
- 2 cores at 2.39 GHz: Monsoon
L3 cache 4 MB -
Lithography process 5 nanometers 10 nanometers
Graphics Adreno 660 Apple A11 GPU
GPU shading units 1024 192
GPU clock 792 MHz 1066 MHz
FLOPS ~1622 GFLOPS ~409.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 140597 114085
GPU 209723 91682
Memory 134992 97456
UX 139479 117666
Total score 625671 422603
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 39.1 °C 45.7 °C
Stability 69% 63%
Graphics test 34 FPS 21 FPS
Graphics score 5703 3524
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 3 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4
Memory clock 2750 MHz -
Channels 2 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256 GB 64, 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 11.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 16.5)
ROM One UI 5.0 -
OS size 17.5 GB 5.3 GB

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 2716 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes, Qi (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (51% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:15 hr 2:00 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:42 hr 07:08 hr
Watching video 13:05 hr 09:17 hr
Gaming 05:29 hr 04:04 hr
Standby 91 hr 84 hr
General battery life
26:34 hr
22:33 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 Optical, 2x
Flash LED Quad 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 240FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 123° -
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/1.8
- Focal length: 28 mm
- Pixel size: 1.22 micron
- Sensor: 1/3", Apple iSight Duo Camera (BSI CMOS)
- 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
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 52 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4" (BSI 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)
-
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone X from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 32 megapixels 7 megapixels
Image resolution 6464 x 4864 3472 x 2063
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 32 mm
Pixel size 0.8 microns -
Sensor type Exmor-RS CMOS BSI CMOS
Sensor size 1/2.74" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 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 5 (802.11 b/g/n/ac)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
Bluetooth version 5 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou
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 No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 19 16
5G support Yes No

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2022 September 2017
Release date January 2022 November 2017
SAR (head) 0.95 W/kg 0.87 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.48 W/kg 0.97 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 -
* 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 Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G is definitely a better buy.

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