Samsung Galaxy S21 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android Mobile Phone Phantom Violet 128GB, (UK Version)

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The Galaxy S21 phones were the first devices to use either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 (US) or Samsung’s own Exynos 2100 (just about everywhere else). Those were the latest generation of top-end chipsets when the S21 range launched, though they've since been superseded. The other thing to note here is that the Galaxy S21 doesn’t come with a charger in the box. Samsung has followed in Apple’s footsteps by not bundling a charger with its new phones as it seeks to cut down on e-waste. Or if you want a newer model there's now the Samsung Galaxy S22 line - but those phones will cost you more. Glasstic is the company’s own name for the material, which as the name suggests is somewhere between plastic and glass. It doesn’t feel as premium as a glass rear, but the matte finish also means it doesn’t feel like cheap plastic either.

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It’s a similar story with the Galaxy S21’s ultrawide camera. Take a look at the centre of the frame and the detail capture isn’t bad at all but as soon as your eyes drift towards the edge you begin to spot the telltale signs of a softening as well as the odd bit of chromatic aberration. The software available on this phone works well, and you've got access to a whole host of extra Samsung services on top of the normal Android apps you expect from a modern smartphone. As mentioned, Samsung has done this to help keep the price of the new phone down, and unless you’ve used a phone with a QHD resolution we don’t believe you’ll be able to easily tell the difference– we found that all the videos we watched on the S21 looked suitably high-quality on the Full HD+ panel. The Samsung S21 was officially unveiled on January 14, 2021 which was the earliest in a year we've seen the company introduce its new smartphone technology. The chipset – we’ve tested the Exynos 2100 version of the phone – is also powerful, delivering some fantastic results in real-world use as well as in benchmarking software.One negative for some is the switch to a completely flat screen on the Galaxy S21. Samsung has used screens that curve attractively into the body at the left and right edges for a number of generations now, but this has been dropped for the Galaxy S21. It’s also worth noting that all of Samsung’s S21 phones are 5G-compatible, so you won’t be able to buy a 4G-only variant. Instead, Samsung had made its 5G-compatible smartphones more competitively priced, so you’ll be getting a future-proofed option even if you don’t intend to use next-gen connectivity in the near future. Benchmarking doesn't show everything, but we've found everyday tasks on the phone have been faster than previously with the handset more than capable at handling gaming, multi-tasking and having multiple apps open in split-screen view too. Battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S21 is solid, although it’s not a game-changing improvement over the S20, as the company may have led some to believe with its new Exynos 2100 chipset.

SIM Free Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G 128GB Phone - Graphite

Recharging the S21 is easy, using the company’s 25W fast-charging tech via the phone’s USB-C port. It’s also compatible with Qi wireless charging, and we found that worked well during our testing. The Samsung Galaxy S21 release date was Friday, January 29, 2021 for most of the world, including the US, UK and Australia. That means you can readily buy the smartphone now from a variety of retailers, carriers and networks in all three of those countries. One thing missing is compatibility with Samsung’s 45W chargers that worked with the S20 series. Samsung told TechRadar that it’s made optimizations to the 25W charging capabilities of its new phones, so 45W charging wasn’t that significant a benefit.

Not the best of the best, but Samsung's S21 is fantastically put together

As expected, the Galaxy S21’s trio of cameras perform exceptionally, no matter what lighting conditions you’re snapping in. Images captured using the main camera in well-lit environments are astonishing, with impressive dynamic range, oodles of detail and rich, bold colours that look as if they’re going to leap straight off the screen. In the S21 both chips are paired with 8GB of RAM – if you want more than that on an S21 series device, you’ll want to opt for the Galaxy S21 Ultra, which comes with either 12GB or 16GB.

Samsung Galaxy S21 review: 2021 is off to a great start Samsung Galaxy S21 review: 2021 is off to a great start

Samsung has opted for a lower-spec screen than the one on the S20, with a Full HD+ 6.2-inch display, but it offers a 120Hz refresh rate for super-smooth scrolling and graphics, plusfantastic colors, and strong brightness levels – and we didn’t notice the lower resolution in most of our testing. Could all this raw power negatively affect battery life? So far, I haven’t noticed any issues. In our video rundown test, which plays a looped video at a standard screen brightness of 170cd/m2 with flight mode engaged, the Samsung Galaxy S21 lasted 18hrs 56mins before requiring a top-up. The Galaxy S21 camera hardware hasn’t changed from the previous year’s phone, as Samsung’s big sensor upgrade happened between the Galaxy S10 and S20 generation. With the S21 it’s all about the software, and Samsung finding a way to slim down the camera module. As for the Galaxy S21’s telephoto capabilities, the results here are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, I was impressed with the pictures taken on or below 10x zoom, with zero evidence of shaky hands and very little visual noise. On the other hand, pictures captured at 20x and 30x zoom proved pretty much useless. Reverse wireless charging is also supported, so you can use your phone’s power to top up devices such as Qi-compatible wireless headphones, but we found that to be slow, and it’s a feature you’d likely only want to use in emergencies.

It’s cheaper than last year, but is the Galaxy S21 worth the upgrade?

All in all, the Samsung Galaxy S21 feels like a premium device, although it’s unlikely to feel as top-end as the Samsung Galaxy S20 if you own that handset, or the Galaxy S21 Ultra. Has Samsung made the right decision here? Largely, we think, yes. It won’t be popular with everyone, but crucially it’s allowed Samsung to cut the price of its Galaxy S21 series, and it won’t be hugely detrimental to most people’s everyday experience with the phone. The company is instead just offering internal storage, and again this seems to be a cost-saving measure from Samsung, but it’s likely to disappoint anyone who wants the most affordable handset but needs a lot of storage. If you already own a Samsung Galaxy S20, or if you can find that handset for a significant discount, you won’t want to opt for the Galaxy S21 – while the newer phone gains in some areas it loses in others, and overall there’s not much between the two phones – certainly not enough to justify paying a couple of hundred dollars or pounds more.

Samsung Galaxy S21+ 5G Smartphone SIM Free Android Mobile

That’s only a marginal 2.5% increase on last year’s model but it is significantly better than the iPhone 12, which the Samsung Galaxy S21 outlasted by roughly two hours under identical conditions. Samsung Galaxy S21 review: Cameras It’s even better news in the gaming department. In the demanding GFXBench GL Car Chase benchmark, the Galaxy S21’s integrated Mali-G78 GPU effectively doubled the frame rate in the on-screen test, reaching a blisteringly fast 54fps average. In Geekbench 5, the Samsung Galaxy S21 returned a multi-core score of 3367. That's notably better than the Galaxy S20 (the one featuring the Exynos 990 chipset) that returned a score of 2699. We’ve yet to test the Samsung Galaxy S21 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset inside, but the Galaxy S21 Ultra performed well with this chipset inside so we’d expect similar results from the S21.It’s unlikely to be something you’ll notice unless you’re used to those curved edges, but it’s worth noting if you’re someone who particularly likes that design feature – and as is the case with other dropped features, Samsung has retained the curved-edge screen for the premium S21 Ultra. There’s a 6.2-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display on this handset, which we’ll dive into more in the display section below. This phone is the smallest member of the Galaxy S21 family, and while it may not be as trim as the iPhone 13 mini, those with smaller hands shouldn’t have too much trouble using it. Eagle-eyed readers might have spotted that the Galaxy S21’s camera hardware is pretty much identical to the phone that came before it, not that this is necessarily a bad thing. We’ve only had the chance to test the Exynos 2100 version of the S21, and it seems like a major improvement over previous generations of Samsung’s chipset. In the past, the Exynos variant tended to lag behind the Qualcomm-powered phones in some areas but here the gap seems to have narrowed. You’ve got four color choices at launch: Phantom Gray, Phantom White, Phantom Pink, and Phantom Violet (the shade you see pictured throughout this review) – we think Violet is the standout color here.