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.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

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 3200 MHz
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14
  • Shows 30% longer battery life (24:17 vs 18:37 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • 34% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1526K versus 1138K)
  • 14% higher pixel density (460 vs 403 PPI)
  • 53% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2272 and 1481 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
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
6 / 128 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
168.7
(Excellent)
Value Index
86.1
(Very good)

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 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 403 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 800 nits 800 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits 1200 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus -
Screen-to-body ratio 86.7% 87.1%
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
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S21 FE 5G
6.4″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
iPhone 14
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
790 nits
iPhone 14 +6%
837 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

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

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14
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 -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon 780 Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 660 5 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 768 640
GPU clock 840 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~1290.2 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
iPhone 14 +53%
2272
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
iPhone 14 +76%
5584
Compute Score (GPU)
iPhone 14 +359%
20728
Compute Score (GPU) 4514 20728
Single-core score 1481 2272
Multi-core score 3173 5584
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
iPhone 14 +34%
1526761
CPU 415282 441890
GPU 207688 399019
Memory 174461 177784
UX 341497 508068
Total score 1138928 1526761
Samples [17 tests] [9 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 71% -
Graphics test 3 FPS -
Graphics score 390 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 76%
Graphics test - 14 FPS
Section 1 - 19 FPS
Section 2 - 14 FPS
Section 3 - 10 FPS
Graphics score - 3771
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
iPhone 14 +71%
2854
Stability 68% 76%
Graphics test 9 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 1666 2854
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 13606 -
Video editing 7043 -
Photo editing 28743 -
Data manipulation 10563 -
Writing score 14216 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-08 -> AlicanTuTuAnTuTu 111198886
📘 2026-07-21 (Psycho0Dream)AnTuTu 111157836
📘 2026-07-06 (Puzatik)AnTuTu 111118460
📘 2026-05-10 -> AlicanTuTuAnTuTu 111197004
📘 2026-05-10 (Alican TuTu)AnTuTu 111197004
Apple iPhone 14
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-23 (Artyom)AnTuTu 111082494
📘 2026-07-15 (Minh Thai)AnTuTu 111526761
📘 2026-06-06 (emo067)AnTuTu 111538861
📘 2026-05-27 (Rex)Geekbench 6 CPU2382 / 5869
📘 2026-05-10 (Laxy)AnTuTu 111573257

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory clock 3200 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) iOS 16 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 8.0 -
OS size 17.5 GB 12 GB
OS updates 4 years 6 years
Security updates 5 years 6 years

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
Bypass charging No 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 06:11 hr 10:06 hr
Watching video 11:05 hr 14:55 hr
Gaming 04:48 hr 05:25 hr
Standby 100 hr 114 hr
General battery life
18:37 hr
iPhone 14 +30%
24:17 hr

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 1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.5
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Sensor Sony IMX555 Sony IMX703
Sensor size 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch) 1/1.66" (≈ 0.6 inch)
Pixel size 1.8 micron 1.9 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 8 MP -
Aperture f/2.4 -
Focal length 76 mm -
Sensor Hynix Hi847 -
Sensor size 1/4.5" (≈ 0.22 inch) -
Pixel size 1 micron -
Stabilization Optical -
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.4
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX258 Sony IMX372
Sensor size 1/3.0" (≈ 0.33 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh - 70
Preview - 85
Zoom - 90
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
Sensor Sony IMX616 Sony IMX714
Sensor size 1/2.74" (≈ 0.36 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 0.8 micron 1 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 138
Video - 153

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
DisplayPort - Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
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
Launch price (MSRP) $790 $799
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S25 FE - Apple iPhone 17
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.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
142 (79.3%)
37 (20.7%)
Total votes: 179

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