Samsung Galaxy S21/S21+ review: Powerful plastic By Android Central

I think of the galaxy s21 as almost more of a direct sequel to the s20 Fe, rather than the galaxy s20. It borrows a lot of the same ideas as the fan edition, a plastic back, a flat display and all the same specs and features as the more expensive line. Of course, if you think of plastic as a dirty word, and you prefer the premium feeling of glass in your hand or if you just prefer a larger screen, there's also the s21, plus, with the added benefits of ultra-wide band, support and a larger battery. But do you really need to spend an extra 200 to get those features and if you do, why not spend the extra money and go all the way up to the s21 ultra make sure you subscribe to the channel? And let's talk about the galaxy s21 and s21 plus coming fresh off the heels of the galaxy s21 ultra, the baseline s21 is enormously relieving to use largely because it isn't enormous at 6.2 inches. Its display is still relatively large, but thanks to tight bezels, the phone stays pretty manageable one-handed and that combined with the plastic body, makes the s21 nearly 60 grams lighter than the galaxy s21 ultra. Now I know, plastic doesn't have the same premium in hand feel as glass, but it's also less fragile and the s21 feels just as sturdy as the plastic-backed Galaxy Note, 20 and s20fe, more importantly, that backing helps Samsung drive the price down with the s21 starting at 799 200 cheaper than last year's s20.

If you just don't think you can deal with a plastic phone, though the s21 plus is also 200 cheaper than its predecessor at a penny. Shy of a thousand dollars with the same frosted, matte glass back used on the s21 ultra, no matter which size you choose. The s21 and s21 plus are nearly identical in design with the same new triple camera housing on the back and a 1080p display clocked at 120 hertz around front. That is technically a downgrade coming from the quad HD panels on last year's phones. But the s20 series forced you down to 1080p anyway.

If you wanted to take advantage of the 120hz refresh rate, so I don't know that most people will notice much of a difference here. Something you will notice is the move back to flat displays. Samsung has used curved glass on every galaxy s model for years now, but I actually prefer this return to flat panels. Just like the plastic back, it doesn't look or feel quite as nice, but it's more functional and less fragile. On the note of functionality, though, the s21 and s21 plus are both missing micros expandability, just like the s21 ultra that launched alongside them and there's also no more MST support in Samsung pay.

Now, depending on where you live, this may or may not be a big deal to you. It really just comes down to how common NFC payments are in your area, but this does remove. Samsung pays big advantage over competitors like pay and Apple Pay. Of course, the s21 series also ships without a charging brick in the box, so you'll want to keep that in mind when you're planning your upgrade as far as the rest of the specs go. I really appreciate how closely Samsung matched these phones together, so you can mostly pick based on the size you want and get the same experience both run on the latest snapdragon 888 processors and start off at 128 gigabytes of internal storage, with eight gigabytes of ram, that's considerably less memory than you get with the s21 ultra, but it's still more than enough to keep things running extremely smoothly.

In the day to day, I've been really impressed with the performance on both of these phones with one UI 3.1 running on top of android 11. This is Samsung's most visually distinct software in years with plenty of newfound Gaussian blur and custom icons, but it also manages to feel a lot like stock android 11. You get categorized notifications and even the option to switch the Samsung free news feed with the Google discover feed. I'm usually somebody who prefers the pixel software experience, but honestly, Samsung's interface runs just as smoothly these days and offers a ton of customization features. Software aside, one area where Samsung usually has a leg up on Google's pixel line is battery life, but I actually found that to be less true.

This time around. The s21 has a 4 000 William hour battery inside and 4 500 on the s21 plus either is enough to get through a full day without a problem, but especially on the small model. It's just barely cutting it. For me, I admittedly use my phone quite a bit of taking photos and streaming music and videos, but the s21 generally hits battery saver mode by 9 or 10 pm for me about 14 hours after taking it off the charge, the s21 plus fares a bit better thanks to its larger cell. But if you want to make the most out of these batteries, you might want to turn 120 hertz off, which is a bit of a shame still just because these aren't two day.

Phone doesn't mean they have bad battery life by any means, and you can always top them up midday with a 25 watt charging brick. Now the cameras are identical on these phones, with the same 12 megapixel primary sensor on both the s21 and s21 plus you get great dynamic range and the same vivid, colors and often overexposed look that we've come to expect from Samsung. Honestly. These cameras aren't too different from the ones on the s20 series last year, but considering those phones took great photos too, that's hardly a negative and if you really want the best photos, you're still better off shopping for the galaxy s21 ultra. The ultra-wide cameras are mostly unchanged as well and once again, there's not much to complain about there.

I think Samsung does a perfect job with its wide angle. Shots in general keeping barrel distortion to a minimum and even colors are decently well-matched across each lens space, zoom on the s21 and s21, plus, isn't quite as extensive as what you'll find on the ultra. But 3x shots still look pretty great punching in on a 64 megapixel sensor at the max zoom range of 30x. I think you lose enough detail that photos are no longer terribly useful, but it's nice to shoot somewhere in between. I'm still pretty happy up to about 10x and having this kind of range at all, is still pretty impressive.

Last year's galaxy s20 plus became our go-to recommendation of the trio coming in at a slightly more reasonable price than the s20 ultra without carrying over its camera's focusing issues, but this year with so little to complain about on the s21 ultra. I think the s21 plus is a bit harder to justify. If you want the most affordable flagship in Samsung's lineup, you should go with the regular s21. It's priced competitively against options from Google and OnePlus, and I think it makes the right trade-offs to hit that lower price point without compromising on the overall experience. But if you want the biggest best screen and the most versatile cameras well, you should look to the s21 ultra over the plus.

It isn't that much bigger, and it offers a lot more for the same starting price as the s20 plus from last year. This might be the end of our galaxy s21 coverage, at least for now, but there are still plenty of other android devices to talk about so make sure you subscribe to the channel and maybe check out Alex's recent video on the Oppo find x3 pro. As always, thanks for watching, and we'll see you next time.

Source : Android Central