Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G vs Apple iPhone 14 Pro

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 Pro, which is powered by Apple A16 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
  • Comes with 1300 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 3200 mAh
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Reverse charging feature
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 29 grams less
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 14 Pro
  • Delivers 127% higher peak brightness (1790 against 790 nits)
  • Shows 31% longer battery life (24:20 vs 18:37 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • 32% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1501K versus 1138K)
  • 14% higher pixel density (460 vs 403 PPI)
  • 2x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2961 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 Pro 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
83.0
(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 1179 x 2556 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 403 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 800 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1200 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus -
Screen-to-body ratio 86.7% 86.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 97% 99.8%
PWM 247 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 6 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S21 FE 5G
6.4″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
iPhone 14 Pro
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
790 nits
1790 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 155.7 mm (6.13 inches) 147.5 mm (5.81 inches)
Width 74.5 mm (2.93 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) 7.85 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 177 g (6.24 oz) 206 g (7.27 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Rear material Plastic Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Gray, Green, Purple Black, Silver, Gold, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14 Pro
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Apple A16 Bionic
Max clock 2840 MHz 3460 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: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 4 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 4 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 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~1290.2 GFLOPS ~1789.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G and Apple iPhone 14 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
23942
Compute Score (GPU) 4514 23942
Single-core score 1481 2961
Multi-core score 3173 7133
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1501273
CPU 415282 382796
GPU 207688 467517
Memory 174461 178501
UX 341497 472459
Total score 1138928 1501273
Samples [17 tests] [7 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 71% -
Graphics test 3 FPS -
Graphics score 390 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability - 77%
Graphics test - 16 FPS
Section 1 - 20 FPS
Section 2 - 16 FPS
Section 3 - 12 FPS
Graphics score - 4289
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 68% 72%
Graphics test 9 FPS 20 FPS
Graphics score 1666 3340
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 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-15 (Tannery)AnTuTu 111335615
📘 2026-09-26 (Peltsi74)AnTuTu 111477304
📘 2026-09-21 (Атомная бомба)AnTuTu 111772840
📘 2026-08-31 (LORDroid)AnTuTu 111445126
📘 2026-08-16 (Ronaldo)AnTuTu 111626008

Memory

RAM
RAM size 6 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR5
Memory clock 3200 MHz -
Channels 4 4
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 -
OS updates 4 years 6 years
Security updates 5 years 6 years

Battery

Capacity 4500 mAh 3200 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 23 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 1:41 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 06:11 hr 09:41 hr
Watching video 11:05 hr 16:03 hr
Gaming 04:48 hr 05:38 hr
Standby 100 hr 112 hr
General battery life
18:37 hr
24:20 hr

Main camera

Matrix 12 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 4032 x 3024 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
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: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 26 mm 24 mm
Sensor Sony IMX555 Sony IMX803
Sensor size 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1.8 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 8 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.8
Focal length 76 mm 77 mm
Sensor Hynix Hi847 Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/4.5" (≈ 0.22 inch) 1/3.5" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX258 Sony IMX633
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 - 80
Preview - 91
Zoom - 139
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 14 Pro 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 -
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 - 139
Video - 154

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 20
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
89.5 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced January 2022 September 2022
Release date January 2022 September 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $790 $999
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S25 FE - Apple iPhone 17 Pro
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 Pro is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
153 (84.1%)
29 (15.9%)
Total votes: 182

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
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Avatar
S21fe user February 20, 2023 at 05:06 PM
What the hell is wrong with the S21fe video? I believe should not be higher than iphone 14 pro.
+22 Reply