Samsung Galaxy S21 Review

For years, Samsung has been producing high-end Galaxy S series phones by cramming every possible feature a smartphone can have. This year has been different because Samsung has decided to take away as much as it has upgraded in the new phone. The company has done to reduce the price by $200 from the launch price of the Galaxy S20, and this approach has turned out to be a success.

The Galaxy S21 doesn’t offer much of an upgrade over the S20. It still has a 6.2-inch screen, 4000mAh battery, and three cameras on the rear. Except for the Snapdragon 888, the Galaxy S21 is not much of an upgrade over its predecessor. If you want to get a phone with desired upgraded features, you may want to go for the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

With the new AMOLED display, the Galaxy S21 is still a compelling flagship phone that comes in an appropriate size at a reasonable price.

Here are a few features to discuss in this short review of Galaxy S21.

Release date and price

You can buy a Galaxy S21 via a carrier contract or from a store. At $799, you can buy a Galaxy S21 with an internal storage of 128GB. Pay $50 more and you will get this phone with 256GB. This price is $200 less than the launch price of the Galaxy S20.

Design

The Galaxy S21 is pretty much similar to the Galaxy S20 when you look at it from the front. The 6.2-inch screen and a punch-hole camera are the same as those of the S20. It, however, doesn’t have the S20’s curved edges.

The camera arrangement on the back is much like an innovation brought by Samsung. The camera module blends into the left-hand edge of the phone.

Another most significant change in the phone design is the plastic back, which Samsung calls polycarbonate. The S20, however, uses glass.

Using plastic is one of the most significant reasons for the price reduction. Since it is premium plastic, the phone doesn’t feel cheap. The tactical finish of the phone allows you to hold it nice and tight.

You can get this phone in three colors: phantom gray, phantom pink, and phantom white.

This phone measures 6 x 2.8 x 0.31 inches and weighs 6.07 ounces. Although it is a bit smaller than the S20, it is a bit heavier.

Display

Samsung has used 1080p resolution for its screen in the S21. Although it is a downgrade, it is not much noticeable. It comes with a screen refresh rate of 120Hz.

The coverage and color accuracy of this phone is impressive but not as much as those of the iPhone 12. The practical use of the S21 is, however, fantastic.

Cameras

In terms of hardware, the S21 cameras are much the same as those on the S20. The triple-camera setup on the rear of this phone houses a 12MP wide-angle lens, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 64MP telescope lens.

What makes the camera setup on this phone better than that of the S20 is intelligent camera software. This software gets the most out of hardware and processes images quite well.

The telescope lens of this phone comes with a 3x optical zoom, which can get up to 30x if you go hybrid. This option, however, picks out some finer details.

The camera system of this phone works quite well in low light situations. The Night Mode allows you to take bright pictures in the dark.

Performance

The Galaxy S21 available in the US comes with the Snapdragon 888 chip, which is overall 25% faster compared to its predecessor. The RAM in this phone is reduced to 8GB from 12GB, which was available in the S20. However, this phone does well even with the reduced RAM. The overall graphics performance of the S21 is also up to the mark. Nonetheless, you may need to consider using the S21 Ultra if you want to have somewhat a gaming handset in this series.

Battery life

The Galaxy S21 comes with a 4000mAh battery. Given the specs of the phone, this battery size is fine. Using 120Hz screen refresh, however, can drain the battery juice quite fast.

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