The Galaxy S21 FE has a display refresh rate problem that needs fixing

We called the Galaxy S21 FE a super phone in our review, and after more than a month of using it as my primary phone, I continue to believe that it's an excellent device even though it came to market too late to really matter. But there's one persistent issue with this phone that has been driving me nuts, and others too going by Samsung's forums.

Every now and then, the Galaxy S21 FE's entire UI slows down to a crawl. It's not stutter or lag, to be precise, but rather, the screen's refresh rate seems to drop way below 60Hz, which causes everything to animate extremely slow.

The Galaxy S21 FE doesn't have a variable refresh rate display (which means it either works at 60Hz or 120Hz) so it seems like a software issue that can be fixed via updates, but at the time of this writing that hasn't happened.

In fact, it should be quite easy, as all you need to do to fix the low refresh rate is to turn the screen off and back on again. Of course, that's assuming there's not something wrong with the hardware that drives the display. If that's the case, then device replacements will probably be the only way Samsung can fix the problem for anyone affected.

My Galaxy S21 FE is a loaner unit (powered by the Exynos 2100) from Samsung, and if this issue is driving me nuts, I'd wager anyone who bought the phone feels a lot more frustrated, so here's hoping Samsung can do something about it soon.

Have you noticed something similar on your Galaxy S21 FE, or perhaps another of Samsung's phones that features a high refresh rate screen? Let me know down in the comments!

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

Phone Galaxy S21 FE