Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra vs Galaxy S20 FE: Does reality trump ambition?

Opinion post by

Robert Triggs

In the last six months, Samsung has launched extra flagship smartphones to swimsuit a wider vary of consumers than ever earlier than. For the extra budget-conscious client, there’s the Galaxy S20 FE that launched to vital acclaim in late September 2020. This extra value-oriented pricing technique seeped into Samsung’s 2021 flagship launch too. The usual Galaxy S21 mannequin prices $200 lower than 2020’s Galaxy S20. Samsung has made a few of its newest merchandise fairly inexpensive, lastly tackling the attract of cheaper flagship telephones from Chinese language manufacturers.

Then there’s the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely. A colossal $1,199 technological behemoth that includes the very newest and best that Samsung has to supply — with an eye-watering worth to match. Even right here although, Samsung has diminished the worth of its S21 Extremely right down to the identical worth as final 12 months’s S20 Plus.

Learn extra: Samsung Galaxy S21 buyer’s guide — everything you need to know

We don’t know whether or not Samsung’s flip to decrease pricing is a well-timed response to the financial fallout of COVID-19 or a extra concerted effort to rejuvenate falling flagship gross sales. In accordance with Statista, Samsung’s common quarterly market share crept down from 21.8% in 2017 to twenty.6% in 2020. That very same timeframe has seen Oppo and Xiaomi develop into more and more highly effective market forces. To not point out Samsung’s ongoing rivalry with Apple. There’s by no means been a extra urgent time for Samsung to make its costs extra enticing.

Samsung is within the midst of weighing up its need to push the technological envelope with the fact that worth for cash is driving the majority of gross sales development within the cell business. Because of this, it’s ended up with two completely different telephones for 2 very completely different customers. However will actuality actually trump ambition in 2021?

Our verdicts:

Two telephones for 2 very completely different clients

Having spent some respectable hands-on time with the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S21 Extremely, in addition to the S21 Plus model, there’s actually not an entire lot to select from between these telephones for day-to-day use. Sending messages, searching the online, checking e mail, and snapping a fast image all work and really feel the identical, whether or not you spend $699 or $1,199.

Importantly, the S20 FE provides the identical integration with Samsung’s SmartThings and Dex assist (if you happen to’ve purchased into Samsung’s wider ecosystem), wi-fi charging, an IP68 score, and 5G networking assist. This matches its dearer siblings. It’s already operating Android 11 too. Put merely, the S20 Fan Version may be very a lot a fully-fledged Galaxy S expertise, solely cheaper. There’s a purpose it received our Editor’s Choice award for 2020 smartphone of the 12 months.

The trade-off with decrease costs throughout the board is that not a lot changed between the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S21. Actually, the newer fashions truly noticed a number of downgrades with the intention to assist carry down the worth, such because the omission of a microSD card slot and, on the vanilla mannequin, a plastic rear construct. The Galaxy S21 Extremely is the one selection if you happen to’re after one thing from Samsung that feels actually new. That is yet one more signal of Samsung’s shift in technique. The core Galaxy S {hardware} providing is now nice sufficient to hit pause on. Not less than for one era.

Not loads has modified from the S20 to S21, apart from the S21 Extremely mannequin.

Bleeding-edge efficiency, time-of-flight cameras, and fancy curved shows are good luxuries, however they’re precisely the best kind of corners that may be minimize with out customers noticing an excessive amount of. Whereas the “common client” would possibly probably not exist (all of us have our personal wants and needs from a telephone in any case), even essentially the most eagle-eyed of us battle to make out a 5fps increase to our video games or the delicate pixel-sized variations in digital camera high quality with next-gen {hardware}. Flagships {hardware} is already wonderful for many use instances, so worth and aesthetic design have change into extra necessary. It’s no coincidence that colorway alternatives are more and more numerous in recent times.

With the Galaxy S20 FE, Samsung distilled the quintessential Galaxy S expertise down to only $699. A powerful feat and one which makes it more and more troublesome to justify $500 extra the S21 Extremely’s diminishingly improved options. 80% of the expertise for nearly half the worth is a price proposition that speaks to most client’s widespread sense.

Learn extra: Galaxy S21 prices make this Samsung’s most inclusive line-up in years

Worth versus ambition, which comes out on prime?

This isn’t to say that the Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely isn’t an important smartphone. It definitely has its followers, myself included, and there’s a small however wholesome market of ultra-enthusiast telephone consumers on the market. Notably choosy photographers, S Pen fanatics, app energy customers, and essentially the most demanding players positively have one thing to achieve from the Galaxy S21 Extremely.

However the final couple of years have seen ultra-premium telephones, not simply from Samsung, take a backseat as technological showcases that the majority will have a look at from afar. They’re not a era’s must-have buy, and whereas they typically symbolize a heavy proportion of gross sales at launch from fanatics, the extra inexpensive choices have tended to be the actual gross sales drivers.

So ought to Samsung abandon telephones just like the Galaxy S21 Extremely in favor of an solely inexpensive strategy? Positively not, in my view.

Technological innovation is crucial in the case of tech firm reputations. In spite of everything, pundits love to match the newest and best options from rival firms, reminiscent of a camera shootout versus Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max. All of us wish to see what’s doable with a high-end finances. However cutting-edge handsets additionally plot the roadmap for extra inexpensive fashions additional down the road. Beforehand costly wi-fi charging and 5G elements are rather more inexpensive at this time, and the identical will finally be true for periscope cameras and the like. Premium-tier innovation is what drives the business.

Worth may be extra interesting, however Samsung wants premium-tier innovation for its next-gen handsets.

Samsung’s present technique is a becoming one, notably given the instances we’re residing in. As long as it stays financially viable, I positively wish to see Samsung proceed to distill its newest know-how right down to the core necessities with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Fan Version mannequin. Decrease costs are nice, clearly. Though the already extra inexpensive nature of the Galaxy S21 sequence might even see an S21 FE battle to face out in comparison with final 12 months.

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That stated, the scenario might want to change once more come 2022. Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup would require a touch of high-end innovation to maintain customers . A single era the place not loads adjustments is ok however two can be a worrying signal of stagnation on the firm. Happily, a balanced however evolving portfolio spanning an economical FE to bleeding-edge Extremely ought to preserve most customers pleased.

The truth of a value-oriented market might come up trumps in opposition to technological ambition in 2021, however I count on customers will yearn for a return to extra aggressive innovation subsequent 12 months.