Samsung Galaxy S24 FE vs Galaxy S21

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S24 FE (with Exynos 2400e) that was released on September 26, 2024, against the Samsung Galaxy S21, which is powered by Exynos 2100 and came out 3 years and 9 months before. 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 S24 FE
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • 83% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1977K versus 1081K)
  • Shows 29% longer battery life (23:02 vs 17:54 hours)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 60% higher peak brightness (1372 against 855 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Has a 0.5 inch larger screen size
  • Comes with 700 mAh larger battery capacity: 4700 vs 4000 mAh
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 15
  • The phone is 3 years and 9 months newer
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Weighs 44 grams less
  • Better grip in hands – the body is 6.1 mm narrower

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy S21 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
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 88% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy S21 to Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, performance, and camera.
Be aware: the newer phone is weaker in connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.7 inches 6.2 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2400 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 20:9
PPI 385 ppi 421 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (60-120 Hz) Yes (48-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1300 nits 800 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1900 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Plus Gorilla Glass Victus
Screen-to-body ratio 88% 85.9%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 100% 99.5%
PWM 120 Hz 240 Hz
Response time 2 ms 5 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S24 FE
6.7″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 17.1 in2
Galaxy S21
6.2″ (20:9 ratio) = 14.4 in2
~18% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1372 nits
855 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 162 mm (6.38 inches) 151.7 mm (5.97 inches)
Width 77.3 mm (3.04 inches) 71.2 mm (2.8 inches)
Thickness 8 mm (0.31 inches) 7.9 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 213 g (7.51 oz) 169 g (5.96 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Plastic
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Yellow White, Gray, Pink, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability Good (3.11/5) -
Drop resistance Excellent (A) · 270 drops -
Screen-to-body ratio
88%
85.9%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Samsung Galaxy S21
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2400e Samsung Exynos 2100
Max clock 3110 MHz 2900 MHz
CPU cores 10 (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.95 GHz: Cortex-A520
- 3 cores at 2.6 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 2 cores at 2.9 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 1 core at 3.11 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung Samsung
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Yes
GPU
Graphics Xclipse 940 Mali-G78 MP14
GPU shading units 768 448
GPU clock 1095 MHz 854 MHz
FLOPS ~3406.8 GFLOPS ~765.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE and Samsung Galaxy S21
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2045
1484
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
6397
3767
Compute Score (GPU)
16611
6754
Compute Score (GPU) 16611 6754
Single-core score 2045 1484
Multi-core score 6397 3767
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1977269
1081778
CPU 675682 418023
GPU 670589 191872
Memory 229976 170606
UX 401022 301277
Total score 1977269 1081778
Samples [55 tests] [17 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
1769
Stability 70% 72%
Graphics test 13 FPS 2 FPS
Graphics score 1769 328
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test 29 FPS -
Section 1 35 FPS -
Section 2 28 FPS -
Section 3 24 FPS -
Graphics score 7699 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 64%
Graphics test - 10 FPS
Graphics score - 1800
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
16227
13533
Web score 15997 13238
Video editing 8031 7092
Photo editing 33878 29658
Data manipulation 12347 10433
Writing score 19836 15614

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-12 -> bo177575AnTuTu 122370118
📘 2026-10-12 (Abs)AnTuTu 112053895
📘 2026-09-21 (Vishnu)AnTuTu 122276561
📘 2026-09-08 -> lUjekShCPU Throttle81%
📘 2026-09-08 -> lUjekShAnTuTu 122134029
Samsung Galaxy S21
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-14 (Vadim250905)AnTuTu 121268986
📘 2026-09-30 (Luckyy)AnTuTu 121281558
📘 2026-07-10 (TechNova0627)Geekbench 6 CPU1446 / 3772
📘 2026-07-10 (TechNova0627)AnTuTu 111115971
📘 2026-07-05 (Luckyy)AnTuTu 111086158

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 4200 MHz 2750 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 15)
ROM One UI 8.0 One UI 7.0
OS size 23.5 GB 28.1 GB
OS updates 4 years 2 years
Security updates 7 years 4 years

Battery

Capacity 4700 mAh 4000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 25 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging No No
Fast charging Yes (56% in 30 min) Yes (55% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:10 hr 1:13 hr
Battery cycles 2000 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:20 hr 06:01 hr
Watching video 13:33 hr 11:06 hr
Gaming 05:11 hr 04:21 hr
Standby 129 hr 95 hr
General battery life
23:02 hr
17:54 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 4000 x 3000
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 1.1x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 123° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 64 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 24 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 Sony IMX555
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.8 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 8 MP 64 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.0
Focal length 75 mm 28 mm
Sensor OmniVision OV08A10 Samsung Bright S5KGW2
Sensor size 1/4.4" (≈ 0.23 inch) 1/1.72" (≈ 0.58 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 0.8 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 Samsung S5K3L6 Sony IMX563
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
136
Video quality
Generic main camera score
133
Bokeh 60 70
Preview 69 61
Zoom 126 114
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S24 FE from DxOMark Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 10 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 3648 x 2736 3872 x 2592
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3J1 Sony IMX374
Sensor size 1/2.65" (≈ 0.38 inch) 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.22 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus No Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (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 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- USB-Host mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 24
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
91.9 dB
87 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced September 2024 January 2021
Release date October 2024 February 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $649 $800
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S25 FE - Samsung Galaxy S22
SAR (head) 0.86 W/kg 0.46 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.29 W/kg 1.51 W/kg
Sensors - Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included -
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S24 FE:
    - The 128 GB variant features UFS 3.1 memory, other models have UFS 4.0.
*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 S24 FE is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
23 (65.7%)
12 (34.3%)
Total votes: 35

User opinions

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